An open letter to Nintendo regarding video game prices
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 9:39am by Jack
Dear Nintendo,
Jack here again. Happy holidays and that crazy Japanese New Year thing where everyone gets as many (if not more) presents than we Yanks here in the States. Lucky bastards.
Anyway, just a quick thought from my lips to your ears in Kyoto in the wake of all this negative Nancy news about the economy, and what it might mean for video game sales in 2009.
Remember that flexible video game pricing idea (with a max of $50) you advertised the crap out of back in 2006? About game prices and whatnot? About sustainability and profits and stuff?
Stroke of frickin’ genius.
My holiday was better because of it.
Toodles,
Jack Loftus
Senior Editor
Infendo
December 30th, 2008 at 10:27 am
I gotta say that I experienced this a little first hand.
My bro-in-law was given a $50 gift card to Best Buy and was trying to find a game he wanted that wasn’t $60 for his PS3. He finally found a game on sale for $50 (GRID racing) that he bought instead of a $60 game that he wanted more (Resistance 2). He also said he’d buy more games if it weren’t for the $10 “next gen” tax. (Jack’s term, not my bro-in-law’s.)
December 30th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Am I the only one that is finding the open letters are starting to get old? Seriously, if you are going to complain, do it another way.
December 30th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
How was this a complaint about anything?
Signed,
Genuinely Curious
December 30th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Jack,
I think he must be referring to that complaint about the Japanese getting more presents than you. Stop being so damn greedy.
Seriously though, I wholeheartedly agree. Not only is it great that any Wii game I get is almost guaranteed to be 50 bucks (barring any kind of included peripheral), but as a gamer who likes to play as many great games as I can get my hands on, it’s nice to know that when I’ve finished playing what’s in my library, there will be more AAA games waiting for me at an even lower price point (like Okami).
My first pleasant surprise in this situation is when I picked up RE:4. The gentleman behind the counter rang it up, and said “that will be 40 dollars” (plus tax blah blah). Not only was I getting a great game, but I was getting it for 10 bucks less than I expected. It was like I was being hugged by quality and savings at the same time, and it felt warm and nice. I know it was a port, but it was an incredible port (regarded as the penultimate version), and it was new to me at the time.
In conclusion, go buy the games mentioned above, as well as Zack & Wiki and No More Heroes, before you make baby Jesus cry.
December 30th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Considering the fact that the Wii is essentially running on Gamecube hardware and in “Standard Def” I think its only fair their games are $10 cheaper, or more. I really don’t see Nintendo doing anything altruistic here, just being rational.
December 30th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
So they should be $40, and Nintendo is ripping us all off?
Either way, your comment indicates you agree. $60 are too much. And regardless, I’m still glad I’m paying $50 for ones on the Wii.
Thanks for agreeing for once, daverage! You’re swell!
December 30th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Anytime! And 40 is still too much for me. I always wait for drops. Check out Blockbuster if you haven’t already. Its buy one get one on used $15 games. I picked up Pikmin 2, Bully, Williams Pinball, and GTA4 for 30 bux total. Not too shabby.
December 30th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I don’t think $60 is too much, depending on the game. There are some that are incredibly over hyped, over produced, etc, that just aren’t that good. Waste of money (Haze). Others are great games with great production values and writing/acting talent. I bought Mass Effect full price, and now that it’s only $20 new a year later I still feel I got my money’s worth. Either way, the money companies are spending on need to hike the price to pay for everything and still pull in revenue, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, considering older games usually cost around that mark or more (say hello, NEO GEO.) If Nintendo wants to keep their prices $10 cheaper, good for them. For the most part their games aren’t nearly as costly to produce as competitors (yes, because of the hardware), so there’s not a loss there; plus it can bring in more sales because people who don’t want to spend as much money on games will gravitate towards the cheaper price.
December 30th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
“Either way, companies need to hike the price…”
Fixed to make sense.
December 30th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I second what Jake says.
December 30th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
i’m not sold on the idea that ninny’s 50$ pricing scheme is vidicated by behavior seen in a recession, as inclusion of the linked article might suggest. but the $50 price point definately may be the sweet spot for the nontraditional crowd that nintendo gathers.
the linked article suggests that the industry may trend to the $50 price point for ps60 systems. i’m not sold on this either. the author broadly cites the recession as reason. i think this confuses two issues.
first, i believe the largest impact on wealth has already been felt through lower property values and losses on investments. this is what most people were feeling throughout the last year. yet we’ve seen fantastic sales of games in the last year. also, as people find their net worth diminished, they seem to be following historical trends of allocating monies to gaming in lui of other forms of entertainment. here we have seen that gaming has been able to maintain its $60 price point throughout most of the year, annual holiday sales disregarded. here the author’s most likely argument, i think, would NOT be that the $60 price point is unsustainable- evidence points to the contrary. rather, that the recession has decreased the elasticity of video game demand; they will simply sell more games at a lower price than they will at a higher price while still making more revenue (though their analysis really looks to profit, natch)
second, recessions affect the growth productivity of an economy (definitionally/tautologically). this hammers the expected future incomes through wages or job loss. it’s possible that this will change the demand such that $60 games really start selling less. I simply don’t expect this to be the case, though this really depends more on your view of the recession, which is not quite the topic of this forum (phew- convenient escape!). suffice it to say, i expect video games’ historical recession proofing to again allow it to survive well and even grow again next year (due to both traditional and nontraditional gamers).
also, i’d note that the wii nontrad consumers probably operate on wht different price elasticity that ps60 consumers. in the long run, ps60 games may come down in price due to this new consumer base they are tryin to capture. or maybe the hardcore games will be the ones sold at $60?
that was pretty stream of concious and misses a lot of clarifications and has some large holes, but summarizes why I’m not expecting an extended price drop beyond seasonal sales. Target’s W@W sale for instance, seems more likely due to Target overbuying for the holiday season than the game’s sales underperforming mkt wide. also, it attracts people to target as they still need to make up revenue from a weak season.
cheers
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:08 am
I don’t mind paying $50 for a good Wii game, but it’s the DS prices that are crazy – $35 for games that you can beat in 2-3 hours, no thank you. Flashcards FTW…
January 5th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I didn’t have any problem finding great deals on games. I didn’t go for the must have titles this year (Why get them now, they’ll be cheaper next year). So I ended up buying a bunch of 360 games for 10 – 20 bucks a piece, got a couple of big titles (Ninja Gaiden II, Fable II, GTA IV) but all in all I got upwards of 10 360 games for around 100 dollars.