With The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom just days away, many are readying their wallets for the big purchase, albeit with some reluctance. You might notice something strange whether buying from the Nintendo eShop or a storefront like Amazon. Tears of the Kingdom isn’t the usual Nintendo Switch price; it’s $69.99 instead of $59.99. So why is the latest Zelda title the only release getting a price hike, you ask? Because Nintendo can get away with it.
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Greedy, Greedy Nintendo
Because Nintendo knows just how excited its fanbase is for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, they’re taking advantage of the situation. The execs know that raising the price on any other game would send Switch owners into a tizzy. To avoid too much backlash and to increase their profits, Nintendo decided to increase the cost of this one game. This is the one game Nintendo knows people will pay any price to get their hands on.
Doug Bowser, CEO of Nintendo of America, said, “The price point reflects the type of experience that fans can expect when it comes to playing this particular game. This isn’t a price point that we’ll necessarily have on all our titles. It’s actually a fairly common pricing model either here or in Europe or other parts of the world, where the pricing may vary depending on the game itself.”
In short, this is a one-time price hike for now, anyway. It’s a change meant to test the waters. Nintendo wants to normalize this price point for future games, just like Sony did with its first-party exclusives with the launch of the PS5. We’ll likely see Nintendo try this again in a few years, but I expect it to be a permanent change next time.
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