Nintendo Switch Game Retail Cost and the limitations of download pricing

[Lalaland]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-03-10-why-nintendo-switch-games-are-ending-up-more-expensive

Interesting article speculating on why some cross platform titles (specifically those with physical releases) are winding up more expensive on Switch compared to other platforms. Long story short it's NAND flash media that's being pegged as the culprit versus plastic discs, it doesn't take a genius to know that NAND flash was always going to be more expensive but to force a £10 gap seems remarkable. Are we seeing the impact of relatively low production volumes here or Nintendo harvesting a bit too much margin on their manufacturing monopoly? I don't see this as a net negative for the platform as a whole right now to be honest as it's not competing directly with the cheaper platforms and offers a USP they can't compete with in portability but it sure doesn't help the mood music.

 

[BRiT]

Maybe its because of the flavor ingredient they add to the carts.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It's a laughably nonsensical problem. With no production costs for download titles, these are being pegged at the inflated price of the carts in order to keep the B&M stores happy. Also games on lower capacity carts might be cheaper to manufacture, in theory encouraging devs to reduce asset quality to save production costs.

At least it'll promote a download-only future as download-only games can be priced cheaper. MY worry there as a dev would be if Nintendo's security is up to snuff, or will people be able to exploit the download system to freely share games?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

The whole digital store pricing on consoles continues to disappoint. Sony will always sell a new game at the full RRP whereas even Amazon will sell you the Blu-ray disc (and deliver it on launch day - often earlier in my experience) cheaper than digital. Plenty of places are cheaper than Amazon.

It's time the economics of digital commerce benefited consumers.

 

[turkey]

It's a laughably nonsensical problem. With no production costs for download titles, these are being pegged at the inflated price of the carts in order to keep the B&M stores happy. Also games on lower capacity carts might be cheaper to manufacture, in theory encouraging devs to reduce asset quality to save production costs.

At least it'll promote a download-only future as download-only games can be priced cheaper. MY worry there as a dev would be if Nintendo's security is up to snuff, or will people be able to exploit the download system to freely share games?

history tells is it's the carts and their security that are most at risk here. R4Switch has a nice ring to it...

 

[Silent_Buddha]

The whole digital store pricing on consoles continues to disappoint. Sony will always sell a new game at the full RRP whereas even Amazon will sell you the Blu-ray disc (and deliver it on launch day - often earlier in my experience) cheaper than digital. Plenty of places are cheaper than Amazon.

It's time the economics of digital commerce benefited consumers.

Yes, the reality is a bit unfortunate. While retailers have freedom to price things as they wish, Sony cannot do so contractually. Publishers have to keep retailers happy and thus have to force price matching of digital version to MSRP of physical versions for the first few months (Steam, consoles might be longer, IDK). And console makers have to keep both the publishers happy and the retailers happy.

Do consoles not at least have an analogue to Steam's pre-order and in some cases first week digital discount (generally 10-15%) off the MSRP? Not all titles take advantage of it, but I'm seeing it quite frequently recently on titles I'm interested in. For example, Berserk The Band of the Hawk got this discount for launch before going to full MSRP. I'm guessing publishers are maybe allowing this on Steam to match physical release discounts. As well, since Steam releases don't compete for consumer spending dollars with physical releases (PC physical is almost non-existent and PC games don't really compete with console games for consumer dollars), they have a little more leeway for launch, but not for regular pricing.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Is there anything that can be done about it? If console companies need hardware stores to stock their hardware, and those stores need software to keep going, is it a stalemate? Or can the console companies just walk away from the situation and look solely to larger chains like Amazon and Walmart/Tesco to sell their consoles and let the specialist game retailers die?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Is there anything that can be done about it? If console companies need hardware stores to stock their hardware, and those stores need software to keep going, is it a stalemate? Or can the console companies just walk away from the situation and look solely to larger chains like Amazon and Walmart/Tesco to sell their consoles and let the specialist game retailers die?

I'm wondering about this myself. I wonder how much of console hardware sales are done via specialty stores (like GameStop)? And if it were to disappear would it affect overall console hardware sales, at all?

One more thing to consider. Digital currency cards are sold at retailers, so in theory physical copies aren't needed for retailers to make a profit (sell the console hardware and digital currency cards). Those cards are almost always in Amazon's top 10 of best sellers for every month.

Then again, that wouldn't work in some countries with bad internet infrastructure. Which makes me wonder. Hypothetically, if DD makes physical retail irrelevant in most first world countries at some point in the future, would developers and publishers continue to bother with physical copies for countries that represent a small fraction of overall sales? NA, EMEA, Russia and Japan represent over 95% of revenue generated for console gaming.

Regards,
SB

 

[Rangers]

I feel like high digital pricing isn't forced. It's just a way to make more money.

Given inflation and the size of todays games, $60 is an astounding bargain really. So anything that keeps that price closer to an actual $60 and not even lower, will probably be employed.

Microtransactions, DLC, are all a way to keep the ostensible day one price at only $60. When the games cost more than ever to develop and the purchasing power of $60 only goes lower and lower.

 

[Lalaland]

I have to wonder if Nintendo's larger user base of kids leaves them more beholden to the likes of toy retailers than Sony/MS, shelf space deals are brutal for those (general retailers too)