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Nintendo President Vows Cheap Games
Chris Morris, over at CNN's Game Over column, had a chance to talk to Nintendo President Iwata last week about that company's goals for their next generation console. The message Morris came away with: $60 games are not in Nintendo's plans. From the article: "If we can come up with an addictive, but simple title - such as Tetris 15 years ago - my attention should be focused on containing costs ... So, I would make it available through the Virtual Console. I think the opportunity for ourselves will be much larger than software that costs $50-$60. ... Of course, there are a number of people waiting for a 'masterpiece' title. For those games, we'll utilized traditional distribution channels."
How is this any different than the XBOX 360? Games like Grand Theft Auto and Madden will still cost an arm and a leg, while lower budget games will be downloadable through the system. Again, how is this any different?
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For the most part, Nintendo has always strives to make game affordable. They were the first to offer "Best Of" games, those popular titles that sold over a million or more copies that they started to discount from their original price, usually in the $30 CDN range. But I ask, if you know your next Legend of Zelda is going to sell millions, why launch it with a $60 price tag?
Its not like Nintendo has to guess what will be a hit and what won't. A Zelda, Mario, Metroid, etc incarnation will always sell like hotcakes, so why not just offer them at a discount price to begin with.
I hope this isn't just all talk and no action, which has been very typical of Nintendo for the last 10 years. The Revolution name should be more then just a marketing gimmick. If it doesn't offer dramatically different game play, more features and lower costs then where is the Revolution except on the label. If its just another vehicle for more Pokemon and Mario and Zelda derivative titles, then I think Nintendo might be in big trouble.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
A Zelda, Mario, Metroid, etc incarnation will always sell like hotcakes, so why not just offer them at a discount price to begin with.
Because if they were to do this, they wouldn't be Maximizing profit. You sell Zelda at the 50 dollar price point initially to customers like myself, who will whip out a check the second it comes out, and you keep it there, so that little billy has time to save up to buy the game at full retail price.
The only reason you drop prices is because after a year and a half, there is plenty of new hotness out there, and chances are, you will get lost in the full retail price shuffle. So you slap a distinctive yellow stripe on top of the box, slash the price to 20 bucks, and sell to everyone that "heard it was good from somewhere" but weren't willing to fork over $54.11 just to see if he would enjoy running around as an elf with a boomerang. You don't get as much profit, but you're making more money then you would selling 0 copies at $50.00.
"Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
Geometry Wars came out in November. As I recall, Nintendo first announced the Virtual Console at E3 last year, in May. I don't know when Microsoft announced Live Arcade, but I'd wager both companies came up with the idea concurrently. Sony, on the other hand, appears to be far enough behind that I think they're just copying the idea.
Gamecube games currently take the longest to come down in price. Their best sellers cost $30 where the PS2 greatest hits only cost $20. I've also noticed that it takes many of their games a long time to come down in price compared to PS2 and XBOX. You can argue quality over quanitity I guess. They also made a killing on selling un-updated NES remakes for gameboy for 20 bucks a pop. I haven't exactly associated them with being budget oriented. I think they are just doing some smart marketing to respond to the gripes gamers are expressing about $60. Let us not forget there were SNES and Genesis games that cost $75 15 years ago. Like I've said before, Street Fighter 2 for SNES blew me away and was totally worth $75. If they can make a game today that has the same effect, I would pay that much again.
I do believe that Nintendo hasn't announced ANYTHING with regards to download pricing yet. Either you know more than the rest of us do, or you're pulling numbers out of your ass.
Goo goo g'joob.