When Nintendo released Earthbound on the Wii U Virtual Console last week, it did so at a much higher price point of $9.99. It costs several dollars more than the average game on the service, suggesting that Nintendo knew the game would sell like hotcakes and thus raised its prices accordingly.
It's almost cynical to suggest it, but it goes without saying that Nintendo knew that players would purchase the game regardless of the step up in cost.
The game's hiked up price raised a few questions, to which Nintendo responded to Destructoid with the following statement: “As for EarthBound, Nintendo sets prices in the Nintendo eShop and Virtual Console on a game-by-game basis. Different games will be offered at different prices.”
No kidding. It's a weak reply that amounts to little more than a "Yeah, we priced it this way because we could," with little in the way of proper justification for the price.
Way to cave into greed, Nintendo. You should be better than this.