Nintendo took advantage of its Nintendo Direct event to unveil gameplay from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. But the announcement was also accompanied by a price increase which raises questions about European prices. We take stock.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sold for $69.99 in the US
Just yesterday, a few hours before the Nintendo Direct, a price of $69.99 for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appeared on the eShop. This unusual price for a Switch game was quickly removed from the store, before being confirmed a little later when the new game trailer was broadcast.
For those who don’t know, the price of $69.99 is unprecedented across the Atlantic for Nintendo, and is not modeled on the price in Europe or France. On the other hand, it is in line with the prices charged recently by Sony and Microsoft in the USA and at home.
Increases “on a case-by-case basis”
Obviously, this price increase makes people cringe. Faced with the outcry in the USA, Nintendo was questioned on the subject on many occasions, and our colleagues from
GameInformer were able to obtain a response from the firm.
Asked how to determine the selling price of her games, she said:
We determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis.
Following this response, Nintendo was also asked if price increases were a trend we should live with. The response was pretty much the same, but she says that’s not the trend for future games:
No. We determine the suggested retail price for each Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis.
Towards Switch games at 80 € in France?
At the beginning of the new generation, many publishers drew the wrath of gamers by announcing that they would sell their games for €79.99; Sony, Activision or even 2K were particularly concerned. Over the months, other players such as Ubisoft have aligned themselves with this price, and it was recently Microsoft that followed suit with Redfall, which will be released on May 2 at a price of €79.99 for the standard edition.
Following the announcements related to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, many players feared seeing future Nintendo Switch games at €80 in France. For the moment, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is displayed at a price of €69.99 on the Nintendo eShop FR, and is also displayed at the same price at Micromania.
This therefore does not change anything for us for the moment since Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the Nintendo Switch launch game in 2017, was also sold for €69.99. It should also be remembered that it is always possible to find games cheaper in physical form at the time of release, or even second-hand, but that the discount of Nintendo games is much slower than at Sony and Microsoft.
On the other hand, it is surprising to see that the price of certain Switch games aligns with that of Xbox and PS5 games in the United States, without the old continent being concerned.
