Without a doubt, the biggest “discourse” since the full-on announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2 has been about the console’s price, as well as the increased price of certain software pieces. A group of people thought the price of $450 for the new console was “way too much,” even though it’s a far more powerful console than the OG Switch and has several new features. As for the game prices, many don’t like the “variable pricing system” that Nintendo hasn’t used since the SNES days. As such, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa was recently asked in an official company Q&A (translated by Nintendo Everything) about these “pricing issues” and how Nintendo was to combat them and the rising costs of making video games in the future.
“Recently, game software development has become larger in scale and longer in duration, and as a result, development costs are also rising. The game business is inherently a high-risk business, but we recognize that the risk is increasing even more as development costs rise.
Even as game software development has become larger in scale and longer in duration, our development team is trying various ideas to find ways to maintain traditional production. We believe that it is important to make the necessary investments while developing as efficiently as possible.
We also believe that it is possible to develop game software that customers will think is an interesting idea, even with a short development period. We believe that this could be one measure to address the issue of development costs and game software prices only going up, so we would like to consider this from various angles within the company.”
In other words, they’ll do their best to keep the prices low when possible while also ensuring that the games are “well worth the price.” While that won’t please everyone, that’s also not Nintendo’s job. That goes double for those who seem bent on blasting Nintendo for everything that they do, just because it’s “not what they want” or it’s “not how they’d do it.”
Of the three main console makers right now, Nintendo is easily the one that does right by its fanbase more often than not. Just look at the OG Switch software lineup, and you’ll see exactly what we mean. They cranked out consistently great titles while Sony and Xbox were struggling to get a slew of exclusive games launched every year.
Shuntaro Furukawa knows that having the Switch 2 be the best it can be is the company’s highest priority. But doing that costs money, so they’ll do their best…while also recouping their costs.
