Nintendo will begin charging different prices for physical and digital Switch 2 games around the world.
In a Wednesday post on its website, the company noted that this change will come into effect in May, starting with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book.
MobileSyrup has confirmed with Nintendo of Canada that the price changes will extend to Canada as well. This means that Yoshi and the Mysterious Book will cost $84.99 on the Nintendo eShop and $99.99 at retailers like EB Games Canada.
“Nintendo games offer the same experiences whether in packaged or digital format, and this change simply reflects the different costs associated with producing and distributing each format and offers players more choice in how they can buy and play Nintendo games,” wrote Nintendo on its site.
It should be noted that this only applies to Nintendo-published games like Yoshi, as third-party publishers set their own prices. Still, this move is quite notable because companies have historically charged the same for physical and digital games, even though, as Nintendo itself notes here, there are different costs associated with each format. Of course, digital sales not only mean that the company saves on manufacturing the disc/cartridge and packaging material, but it also avoids having to give a revenue cut to the the middle man retailer. And yet, companies have historically never passed on any portion of those savings to customers who shop digitally.
It’s especially interesting to see Nintendo make this move, as it has historically been frugal when it comes to consumer-friendly pricing options. For one thing, it arbitrarily started charging $100 or, in the case of Mario Kart World, even $110 for Switch 2 games last year, more than the standard $90 price tag for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC titles. The company is also notorious for rarely offering discounts on big first-party games, and when it does, they’re generally only in the $25 to $30 range at most.
Therefore, it will be interesting to see how Nintendo handles this pricing scheme beyond Yoshi and the Mysterious Book.
Image credit: Nintendo
Source: Nintendo
