If you caught the Nintendo Switch presentation yesterday then you saw that Nintendo is releasing the console in March with two particular bundles. However, neither bundle will release with a video game title and thanks to an interview with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime and GameSpot, we now know why.
It may have come to some surprise that Nintendo will not be including a video game title into the Nintendo Switch bundles, especially after both the Wii U and Wii came with some type of software right off the bat. This led to GameSpot asking the question as to why Nintendo decided to release the console without any video game title attached.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that the company was first attracted to releasing a console within the $300 price point. Because there are plenty of components that are critical to the Nintendo Switch, there weren’t any real means to financially release a bundle with a video game title and still remain under $300.
“The first decision that we make is, where do we want to be in terms of the hardware price point that’s going to be approachable and hit the marketplace we want? And from a US price point, we wanted to be at $299. Certainly, lower is always better, but at a $349 or $399 price point, we just didn’t feel that was the right place to be. So we start there. And then it’s all about, what’s going to be included?
Obviously the inclusion of the two Joy-Con, critically important; all the right cables, the dock, critically important. We also have to do this from a financial perspective as well. Once we got to that bundle, it really needed to be at $299 without a piece of software.”
Each bundle comes with the Nintendo Switch console, dock, Joy-Cons, and various cables making it cost $299.99. While Nintendo could release another bundle for a higher price along with a included video game title, the company has plenty of software releasing throughout March and April. Because of this, Nintendo wants gamers to spend their money towards a video game title of their choosing.
“For this launch, what we found is that with the range of software that’s coming–not only available day one but through April and into the summer, and including the holiday timeframe with Super Mario Odyssey–that we wanted to enable the consumer to buy the software they want, to look to get to the most approachable price point we could get to.”
