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[Lunatic_Gamer]

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden said Nintendo can charge what it wants for new first-party Switch 2 games because Nintendo makes compelling games. Some people might perceive the price increase for a game like Mario Kart World ($80) as being "hefty," Layden said, but in the end, people will buy it anyway.

"If it's the only place where you can play Mario, then you get your wallet out and you buy into it... and Donkey Kong and Zelda. That first-party exclusivity kind of mitigates the sticker shock, if you will, of these price hikes, because you want that content so bad," he said (via IGN).

"In 2025 dollars, $59.99 in 1999 is equivalent to $100. Your purchasing power compared to your cost of living, it's much smaller now than it was before, but still companies have been reluctant to push that price up," he said, adding that he thinks publishers should have charged $5 more for new games each new console generation.

"You Want That Content So Bad," Former PlayStation Boss Says Of Switch 2 Exclusive Titles

"That first-party exclusivity kind of mitigates the sticker shock."

www.gamespot.com

 

[The_Mike]

The worst part is, he's right.

 

[Lokaum D+]

 

[Punished Miku]

Well they didn't for GameCube, Nintendo 64, Virtua Boy or Wii U. I guess we'll see.

 

[64gigabyteram]

 

[IntentionalPun]

I mean a percentage of people will certainly buy less games, or wait for a sale (and may lose interest), etc.

"People will still pay" is just a bit too simplified.

I am not saying it's going to be an unsuccessful strategy because they can sell a little less and make more profit, but it's still a calculated risk.

 

[SweetTooth]

Its because their fanbase cultism and .... condition

 

[fallingdove]

Watching the sheepy Nintendo fanboys these past couple weeks defend the Switch 2 at all costs prove Shawn Layden's point.

Nintendo always was the shittiest of the big 3 when it came to anti-consumer, anti-community behavior. I think what I am realizing is that I don't have time to play every console and every game that comes out. I'll happily sacrifice not playing the Switch 2 this time around.

This will be the first Nintendo console that I have ever passed on, hopefully there is a group of people like myself that at least shave off some of the success Nintendo could have had if they didn't try and force feed major price increases, aging technology and another generation of shit joycons down our throats.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

Shawn Layden: "Taco Bell can charge whatever it wants. In the end, I'm going to continue eating it."

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Duh. No one gives a shit about what Nintedo fans spend their money; they got sold a cardboard accessory for god sake.

The drama is about every other company increasing prices, too.

 

[RomanceDawn]

There is definitely a point where too much is too much. The value of Mario Kart certainly didn't save the GameCube or Wii U.

 

[Sooner]

They should charge one million dollars.

 

[Shubh_C63]

Makes sense. Wouldn't people buy GTA6 or Duke Nukem6 for 100$ ?

 

[rubik's dude]

He's right. Online outcry and what happens in real life are two totally different things.

 

[Kataploom]

Exactly, that's what bothers me about all the people bitching, they'll buy it in the end, they just need something to get mad at for the sake of it.

The market is a democracy, the only reason why Nintendo lowered 3DS was because of lower than expected sales, the only reason why others don't charge more for games is because they don't carry the same brand strength than Nintendo, even Bethesda took years for lowering Skyrim prices knowing what they had in their hands and only lowered it like a year before the remaster which raised it again.

As long as people buy it, all the bitching is just stupid noise that doesn't let us have a proper discussion about specs of the console or games themselves. If they really wanna change something they better not buy it out of FOMO, they're literally giving the message that the price is correctly set

 

[Muddy]

The Nintendo core fanbase yes. They will buy regardless.

What about the casual gamers who make up a massive majority of their user-base.

In fact every console user-base.

 

[gpn]

Its because their fanbase cultism and .... condition

 

[saintjules]

This will be the first Nintendo console that I have ever passed on

For now you mean. You'll cave in at some point. Especially when you can find a better price for it. May not be now, but down the road.

 

[nial]

I think they should enjoy the last highs of some of those Switch 1's numbers, because 67M units for Mario Kart are never, ever coming back.

 

[EN250]

Absolutely true, tho the problem is that everyone in the industry will try the same shenanigans and the rest of the customers will get dragged into this scam

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Well they didn't for GameCube, Nintendo 64, Virtua Boy or Wii U. I guess we'll see.

3 out of those 4 are home comsoles. Nintendo never had a main portable device flopping. Even when one of those home consoles you mentioned was flopping they had a successful portable console in stores.

Switch is perfect because it's the best of both worlds.

 

[Topher]

Well.....we are about to test that theory, ain't we?

 

[Mithos]

"For some" maybe, but I still don't own anything Switch related due to high prices.

 

[Muddy]

3 out of those 4 are home comsoles. Nintendo never had a main portable device flopping. Even when one of those home consoles you mentioned was flopping they had a successful portable console in stores.

Switch is perfect because it's the best of both worlds.

Nintendo never had a portable device costing this much which is the primary issue.

Closest was the 3DS which sold poorly initially because of the price.

Nintendo dropped the price of it six months later. It managed to sell half what the DS sold.

I wouldn't consider the 3DS a success no more than the PS3 was for Sony.

3DS price cut by almost a third as Nintendo reports loss

Mere months after its launch, Nintendo is dropping the price of its 3DS handheld console to counter disappointing sales figures. By Steve Boxer

www.theguardian.com

 

[fallingdove]

For now you mean. You'll cave in at some point. Especially when you can find a better price for it. May not be now, but down the road.

Nah. I most definitely would have a decade ago but short of a Xenogears remaster/remake exclusive, It'll be impossible to justify a 4th gen eight console and another round of baby hand-sized, stick drift-prone joycons.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Gaf reading this:

 

[MLSabre]

Shawn Layden: "Nintendo can charge whatever it wants for new first-party Switch 2 titles. In the end, people will buy them anyway."

That being said, I didn't buy a Switch and likely won't for Switch 2 as well. Been wanting to get a Switch for a while but life has a way of convincing me otherwise. Given my backlog, the shitty cost of games, and Canada(!), this may be for the best.

 

[GigaBowser]

Watching the sheepy Nintendo fanboys these past couple weeks defend the Switch 2 at all costs prove Shawn Layden's point.

Nintendo always was the shittiest of the big 3 when it came to anti-consumer, anti-community behavior. I think what I am realizing is that I don't have time to play every console and every game that comes out. I'll happily sacrifice not playing the Switch 2 this time around.

This will be the first Nintendo console that I have ever passed on, hopefully there is a group of people like myself that at least shave off some of the success Nintendo could have had if they didn't try and force feed major price increases, aging technology and another generation of shit joycons down our throats.

no woke gaas crud or glitchy games

 

[Azelover]

I wouldn't necessarily say so.

That said I think the rest of the industry is salivating at the idea of Mario Kart selling like hotcakes, so it can justify their own price hikes.

Once again Nintendo goes upfront and takes a pie in the face for everybody else..

 

[Pop]

Could be $100 and Nintendo diehards would still justify it

But would hurt the avg playerbase

 

[AJUMP23]

HE has a good understanding of the business.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Shawn Layden for president

 

[LordOcidax]

Gaf reading this:

Or

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Agree with Shawn.

IMO, Nintendo's biggest obstacle is making a system too quirky (Virtual Boy), poorly marketed (Wii U), or a high price that Ninty gamers bail at (Switch 2???). Their handhelds and consoles have always been value priced vs MS and Sony. And would go toe to toe with Sega back in the day for lowest priced system.

Now Switch 2 is getting into PS5/SX territory. The one advantage they got is they got the hybrid system format that kills two birds with one stone.

But historically, Ninty first party games always sell a ton. Huge priced N64 cartridges included.

Get passed the sticker shock Switch 2 prices and it's easy street for Ninty. The platform has gamers who will buy high priced first party games whether it's launch or 5 years later. System and games discounts is almost a zero concern.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Or

Or

 

[QLQ]

So (great) exclusives mitigate the higher price? That's quite contradictory coming from an ex-CEO who supported and still supports Sony games going to PC. Why don't they simply make the likes of GoW, Spider-Man, Horizon, Last of Us, Tsushima, all $80, or $90, if there's no other place to play those games people will open their wallets and buy them no matter the price, right?

No Shawn, you will see there are limits.

 

[SomeNorseGuy]

I've seen this rhetoric repeated all over the place. It's probably true so we get what we deserve.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

So (great) exclusives mitigate the higher price? That's quite contradictory coming from an ex-CEO who supported and still supports Sony games going to PC. Why don't they simply make the likes of GoW, Spider-Man, Horizon, Last of Us, Tsushima, all $80, or $90, if there's no other place to play those games people will open their wallets and buy them no matter the price, right?

No Shawn, you will see there are limits.

Nintendo has the advantage that their first party games are usually highly rated, consistent in quality and familiar ground. So they can charge high prices, hardly any discount deals and try for $80. And their third party games are often dogshit or completely missing vs the competition. So they kind of monopolize most of the good games. Even the most mainstream game out there (COD) barely releases on any Nintendo system. And EA with all the sports games the past 20 years doesnt release them the same way (shitty last gen version or Madden All Stars kiddie game) or quantity as Sony/MS/PC.

Sony and MS cant do that since their platforms compete against each other more, and if they price their first party games too high with no discounts, gamers will just skew to all the good third party games.

 

[Deerock71]

The market dictates. Not GAF. Sit and stew, and watch Nintendo set records, haters.

 

[fallingdove]

no woke gaas crud or glitchy games

GaaS crud and glitchy games aren't anti-consumer or anti-community and they have absolutely no impact on the Xbox or Playstation ecosystems.

However…

Increasing the prices of your games by more than 30%, selling glorified download codes as physical copies, abusing the DMCA to go after fan made videos/art/projects, shutting down harmless tournaments, selling poorly manufactured products and then limiting warranty to force repurchase, refusing to sell 1st party titles at a discount, draconian 3rd party publishing policies prior to the GameCube, charging for awful online multiplayer, paid party chat, emulator lawsuits followed by using those same emulators yourself, attempting to sue a supermarket with Mario in the name—and on and on and on.

Nintendo are degenerates, and their negative policies impact more than just the selection of games they offer in their platform. Hell—most of those that "deal" with this shit are the very same people Nintendo owe for decades of success.

 

[GHound]

True for thee but not for me.

 

[[Sigma]]

Are they going crazy? Yes. Will it really hurt their exclusive games? Not really. Nintendo has the base on lock. They'll spend the money.

Said this in the other thread. Nintendo is the one gaming company that has successfully trained their audience to accept whatever the asking price is for 1st party. So yes, they can charge more and yes, the audience will show up and buy.

 

[Bernardougf]

Duh. No one gives a shit about what Nintedo fans spend their money; they got sold a cardboard accessory for god sake.

The drama is about every other company increasing prices, too.

I would love to see them try to charge 90 dollars for the next badly written girl boss / androgenous lead woke infested game... the increase in price with the constant decrease in quality ... with games more expensive, people would start to "choose" more carefully and certain ignored things might not be so easily ignored any more.

 

[QLQ]

Nintendo has the advantage that their first party games are usually highly rated, consistent in quality and familiar ground. So they can charge high prices, hardly any discount deals and try for $80. And their third party games are often dogshit or completely missing vs the competition. So they kind of monopolize most of the good games. Even the most mainstream game out there (COD) barely releases on any Nintendo system. And EA with all the sports games the past 20 years doesnt release them the same way (shitty last gen version or Madden All Stars kiddie game) or quantity as Sony/MS/PC.

Sony and MS cant do that since their platforms compete against each other more, and if they price their first party games too high with no discounts, gamers will just skew to all the good third party games.

That's right on the money. But back to Nintendo testing the limits, they are crossing a line into a dangerous territory where I think they will lose a large chunk of those customers that don't know better about their games and are more loyal to their wallets. I'm talking about parents and new casuals.

 

[Rush2112]

Pigeons who eat breadcrumps are not gormet critics, Nintendo fanboys.

 

[CoreyFlawless]

Until parents like, nah. I not good enough son for me to buy a new switch to pay that much for these games. You gonna get a use ps5 and buy all these use cheap ps5 games.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Sure people will buy them, the same way their core fanbase bought their other flop consoles. Let's see how well they fare if they push their luck. I am a huge Nintendo fan, and even I have reconsidered how much and what I'll spend. I'm not paying over their announced MSRP for the console, and I'm not paying $80 for their games (especially digital). There are far too many choices for entertainment.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

There is some truth to it, but the market also has a breaking point that I think is much lower than people realize.

Whether the Switch 2 can replicate the success of the Switch with a much higher price and much higher priced games is going to be an interesting one for the history of gaming.

I don't think anyone would have predicted that the PS3 would sell significantly worse than the PS2 so early on or that the WiiU would have sold so much worse than the Wii or that the Xbox One would sell so much worse than the X360 or that the N64 would sell so much worse than the SNES and the Gamecube worse than the N64.

 

[ADiTAR]

Yep, I will buy anything, still playing the very successful WiiU.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Until parents like, nah. I not good enough son for me to buy a new switch to pay that much for these games. You gonna get a use ps5 and buy all these use cheap ps5 games.

I think the Switch was perfectly priced that it made sense as a birthday/christmas/elementary school/middle school graduation present. The games were cheap enough that it made sense to buy these for birthday and Christmas.

The movie Train to Busan makes a joke that the dad buys his daughter a switch for her birthday, but bought her one for her birthday the year before and forgot.

If you had two or three kids, you could easily buy each one of them a switch.

If you were doing a company raffle, you could easily have a Switch as a prize, maybe even two.

I think a lot of that goes away here. If someone has to think twice about buying one on a whim, I think you lose a lot of sales as a result.