The September Nintendo Direct was, generally speaking, considered one of the best presentations Nintendo has had in years. The show opened with Shigeru Miyamoto detailing all the plans for how the company would be celebrating Mario’s 450th birthday. This included a look at the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy movie, Switch 2 Edition of Mario Wonder, and the return of the two Galaxy games.
That last reveal was especially exciting for a few reasons. First is that the only way to play the first Galaxy game is to either own a copy for the Wii or to have purchased the 3D All-Stars bundle during its unnecessarily limited availability window. Galaxy 2, on the other hand, wasn’t part of that bundle and has never been available on modern consoles until now.
There was an almost tangible sigh of disappointment heard across the internet once we learned how much Nintendo would be charging for these enhanced ports on Switch and Switch 2. Honestly, I wasn’t all that surprised when I saw the news, but I am disappointed.
What is the value of a game?
If you haven’t heard, Nintendo will be charging either $70 for the Super Mario Galaxy + Mario Galaxy 2 bundle, or $40 for each individual title. The sentiment online has roughly fallen into two camps: those who accuse Nintendo of price-gouging, greed, and/or simply being out of touch and refuse to purchase them at that rate. The other camp also agrees with that sentiment, but willfully admits that they are part of the problem and will pay up despite their better judgment. I imagine there’s a third, silent camp that exists which isn’t so online that will just purchase the game, unaware of any controversy.
Whatever camp you find yourself in, you’re right.
I’ve talked about how the transition to $80 games is forcing me to be a more discerning consumer, and everything I said there applies here. Everyone needs to weigh the value of an experience with the fiscal cost, regardless of whether it is a brand-new game at full price or an indie game on sale for 75% off. There’s no “right” price for a game — we all value experiences differently and have wildly different financial realities.
So, why is Nintendo getting so much flak for this? Well, partly because a lot of us are still sore about Nintendo being the first to break the $80 barrier for games, but mainly because these are ports. We have come to expect ports to be priced more modestly, even for bundles. I can see why we expect that; these aren’t new games, right?
To play devil’s advocate a bit here, I have to push back against all the “just ports” arguments I’ve seen. None of us are game developers. We have no idea how much work goes into a port. Is it as much work as building an entirely new game? Almost certainly not, but it is work. Nintendo is paying its employees and pricing its products in order to, yes, make a profit but also reflect the value it sees that work as being worth.
If you believe Nintendo is charging more than it needs to because it can, that’s fair. Just admit that you’re basing that on vibes.
To me, Nintendo simply views its games’ value differently from the rest of the industry. Just like it is so reluctant to drop game prices outside of rare sales or bundles, this is another example of Nintendo’s philosophy that the quality of its games doesn’t degrade over time, so why should the price?
The question then becomes, as always: do you think Super Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 are worth $70 to play on Switch 2? We can kick and scream all we want that the games “should” be cheaper, but this is the reality Nintendo has been training us to expect. It isn’t “anti-consumer,” either. Making the 3D All-Stars bundle artificially scarce is, not this. I believe this is Nintendo trying to maintain its high brand value. Just look at how Nintendo fans are trained not to expect sales or discounts compared to other publishers. Once a standard has been set, whether it be for games to go on sale in 3 months, be added to a service like Game Pass, or never go down in price, that becomes the norm.
I get that it looks like I’m carrying a lot of water for Nintendo here. I don’t mean to try and convince you that this is a good business practice or that you should be happy to spend $70 on two Wii games with a few enhancements on your Switch 2. I would love it if Nintendo threw fans a bone here and there, but Nintendo is playing the market. If people weren’t buying its ports, Switch 2 Enhanced games, and peripherals at the prices they set, we would see them fall.
Personally, I’m not going to support this product. It isn’t worth it to me, plain and simple. The only question you need to ask yourself is if it is worth it to you.
Should Nintendo cool it with how it prices its classic and older games? From a consumer standpoint, of course. We should always push for the best deal possible — Nintendo isn’t our friend. But Nintendo doesn’t listen to us; it only listens to the market and how we vote with our wallets.
