Since the reveal of the Switch 2, many have commented on the price hike for games on the system. The reality is that this is likely coming from publishers.
While some have obviously pointed to inflation and shown that older Nintendo system game prices were equivalent to this price hike, the reality is that the cost of these games relative to the first Switch has increased substantially.
However, the finger-pointing at Nintendo for driving this increase is not really accurate. Especially as what drives much of a platform holder’s pricing comes from third-party publishers.
The success of any gaming platform ultimately stems from its support from third-party publishers. Many of these publishers, especially the larger ones, subsequently have a big say in pricing policy on said platforms.
As the Switch 2 is the first of the next wave of consoles, Nintendo has been tasked with starting the price increase according to what their third-party partners likely want.
The reason why publishers are doing this is very simple: the last decade has resulted in catastrophic losses for most publishers worldwide. The constant layoffs have been the biggest and clearest symptom of this situation.
However, these publishers need to start making their money back quickly, so a price hike on a new platform will, in theory, give them that cash injection they so desperately need right now.
The fact that Nintendo is taking this full-on is also another trait of publishers often hiding their decision-making from public view, such as having Nintendo announce the price hike. Still, I sense Nintendo’s hands are tied on this one.
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Unfortunately, as is often the case, gamers are being hit hard by the results of publisher management’s poor decision-making.
The sad thing, apart from the game price increases, is that they don’t help the existential threat of the institutional knowledge being lost from all these developer layoffs.
While it may stabilize the finances for publishers, the beating heart of gaming still needs to be resuscitated. Simply because without a wide array of financially healthy game developers, the future of gaming as a medium and as an industry looks very bleak.
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