Nintendo Says $70 Switch Game Pricing Will Be Evaluated On A “Case-By-Case” Basis

Nintendo’s highly anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is joining a growing number of new games this generation that have a $70 price tag. The good news is that this doesn’t appear to be a consistent trend for first-party Nintendo games–which usually retail for $60–as the company says that it’ll be evaluating this approach on a “case-by-case” basis.

“We determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis,” Nintendo PR said to Game Informer, when questioned about the more premium pricing for the Breath of the Wild sequel.

The last couple of years have seen a number of game publishers raise prices on games, not long after the current generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles launched. 2K Games, Sony, Microsoft, and Ubisoft have all confirmed that their AAA titles will be priced at $70, with Microsoft, in particular, noting the rising cost of development, content, scale, and technical complexity being a major factor in this decision. Redfall and Starfield will cost $70 on launch, although it’s worth noting that they’ll both be available day one as Xbox Game Pass titles.

“Pricing is always something that we’re conscious of and the impact it has on our customers,” Microsoft Gaming Ceo Phil Spencer said back December 2022. “Given our economic realities right now, something had to give in terms of us continuing to run the business with the increased cost basis that we had.”

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releases on May 12, and a new trailer debuted for the game debuted during this week’s Nintendo Direct. Nintendo’s voucher program can be used to offset the price of this sequel, as for $100, you’ll be able to choose from two games off a list of qualifying titles. This includes recent games such as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Splatoon 3, and Fire Emblem Engage in addition to Tears of the Kingdom and other upcoming $60 games such as Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp and Pikmin 4.