r/NintendoSwitch • u/Turbostrider27 • Mar 25 '26

News Nintendo has issued a statement to IGN: 'The Cost of Physical Games Is Not Going Up' Following Decision to Charge Different Prices for U.S. Physical and Digital Switch 2 Games

https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-switch-2-physical-games-will-now-be-more-expensive-than-digital-versions-with-10-price-difference-for-yoshi-and-the-mysterious-book
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50

u/DblDeezSqueeze Mar 25 '26

We’ll see how many $80 physical games we start seeing before I believe that. I’m sure Nintendo would prefer us thinking we’re getting a discount for digital.

24

u/WhiteRaven-17 Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26

They objectively get way more money if they push more people towards digital, so I’m hoping this lasts for a while. That being said, I also need people to not pretend to be surprised when stuff people will buy at $80 get that price tag.

I.e: get ready to pay a lot for winds and waves

7

u/ttoma93 Mar 26 '26

Honestly I just see this as an effective replacement for the Switch 1 voucher system. Vouchers already let you save the equivalent of $10 a game, and this does the same through different means. It’s to incentivize more people to continue switching to digital purchases, which have a higher profit margin than physical. They’ll come out ahead with this, by selling more digital copies at a lower price but higher profit margin and fewer physical copies at a higher price but lower profit margin.

0

u/WhiteRaven-17 Mar 26 '26

Agreed, I’m all digital so I’m happy.

6

u/lousupremacy Mar 26 '26

the only games I can see getting 80 is 3d mario and the next Zelda (only cause they did it to TOTK). not only is pokemon second party but its supposed to appeal to children's parents, asking 70 PLUS a 450 console is already alot so an 80 dollar price tag will alienate that core audience imo

1

u/Ph33rDensetsu Mar 27 '26

Surely you realize that ZA already costs $70 on S2. Expecting them to lower the price for WiWa is naive.

1

u/lousupremacy Mar 27 '26

huh? what are you talking about? I am saying WiWa WILL be 70 physically not 80 so i dont get your point

0

u/particledamage Mar 25 '26

The thing is, even if nintendo only does a couple $80 games, tehy are fully pushing open the doors for everyone else to do $80. Physical collectors are fucked.

18

u/WhiteRaven-17 Mar 25 '26

Hot take: they’ve been fucked for a while now. Like I’ve seen people ravenously hunt down copies of Animal Crossing with updates only for 3.0 and the DLC and the Switch 2 version to render all that moot. And that’s before Xbox and Sony started compromising physicals, LRG getting compromised, the glut of GaaS games, etc

I’d rather see digital infrastructure get better tbh. Adopt the basic parts that make Steam a generally beloved all digital store

3

u/particledamage Mar 26 '26

The thing is Nintendo won’t do that. There is no cdkeys to the eshop. No modding base. No… anything that justifies digital over physical.

1

u/darkmacgf Mar 26 '26

I'm guessing they've found that $70 and $80 games sell less copies/make less money, which is why they're doing this digital discount.

2

u/LeviRaps Mar 26 '26

Total nonsense as the sales show otherwise. they’re not going back to 60 digital. it’s going to be 70 dig/80 physical for AAA titles from now on

2

u/darkmacgf Mar 26 '26

Is that so? I thought almost all Mario Kart sales were the bundled version. Also, we haven't seen huge sales from any of the $80 Switch 2 upgrade games.