Industry experts react to the Switch 2 reveal, including the $450 price point and $80 for Mario Kart World.
Mat Piscatella of Circana said this is an unprecedented and “chaotic” situation as it relates to tariffs and their impact on video games, so anyone claiming to know how things will shake out may be speaking out of turn.
“All anyone can do at this point is speculate. We are certainly in uncharted waters here, and no one really knows what will happen next,” he told GameSpot. “Obviously, the announced tariffs are having an immediate impact on the financial markets. And given the haphazard nature of how the tariffs are being calculated and applied, uncertainty is really the only certain thing at the moment.”
Piscatella said there is “absolutely the chance” that the new tariffs or any additional future tariffs might amount to changes for US consumer products, and not just for Nintendo but for all players.
I hope they are because there’s no damn way I’m spending $70+ on a video game, and since Nintendo never drops its game prices, I might as well just wait.
Why not? Are games worth less now to you than they were a few years ago?
Game prices don’t adjust for inflation every month/quarter/year like other products do, they tend to set a price and stick at it for an entire generation. Only in the last few years have we seen a few companies start breaking this tradition and start increasing prices mid-gen.
As it is, gaming prices are still waaaaaaaaay cheaper than they should be given inflation over the last 30 years, especially when you take budgets into account where games used to cost $50k to make but now cost $300mill.
It’s not the same amount of money to an individual when it’s a bigger percentage of their money. Wages haven’t come close to matching inflation, so inflation has just lead to most people having to spend more on essentials and therefore having less.
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I hope they are because there’s no damn way I’m spending $70+ on a video game, and since Nintendo never drops its game prices, I might as well just wait.
No one is saying the current prices are due to tarrifs, there is however speculation that tarrifs may increase the price further.
So, $80 game may be $90-100 with tariffs.
If everything I’ve seen is true, then this explains the higher prices for physical over digital.
And that should make me feel better about spending $80?
Nope, just that the worst is yet to come.
Haha, thanks for stepping in!
Why not? Are games worth less now to you than they were a few years ago?
Game prices don’t adjust for inflation every month/quarter/year like other products do, they tend to set a price and stick at it for an entire generation. Only in the last few years have we seen a few companies start breaking this tradition and start increasing prices mid-gen.
As it is, gaming prices are still waaaaaaaaay cheaper than they should be given inflation over the last 30 years, especially when you take budgets into account where games used to cost $50k to make but now cost $300mill.
Yes, 100 bucks for mario kart that is basically same game as last mario kart is ridiculous.
It’s not the same amount of money to an individual when it’s a bigger percentage of their money. Wages haven’t come close to matching inflation, so inflation has just lead to most people having to spend more on essentials and therefore having less.