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Rime comes out in May. Costs £10 more on Nintendo Switch.
- Thread starter Savantcore
- Start date
Same as with Street Fighter. Carts cost money. No way around that.
SystemUser
Member
I am setting up an explanation in my mind for why it is okay for Puyo Puyo Tetris to be more on the Switch. I came up with that I am getting console version and a portable version in one package. It still feels wrong though. I guess the Nintendo tax feels less wrong since the install base is small so they will have a harder time recouping costs. Eventually I will figure out something.
I feel like the Switch has made me regress into full fanboy mode.
Carts cost almost nothing nowadays. They're not making games cost more money. We're not in 1996 anymore.
Pancakes R Us
Member
LHah @ $10 keychain that probably cost $0.03 to make.
They are better off just saying:
"The Nintendo Switch is a new console, and the available software is a bit sparse right now. As a result, we believe we cangrab early adopters by the balls make a small profit, even at $39.99, and capitalize with a price drop when the user base increases, by this fall."
"The Nintendo Switch is a new console, and the available software is a bit sparse right now. As a result, we believe we can
It still cost 10$, so the value in the package is actually correct.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W4T5P50/?tag=neogaf0e-20
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Sure, but there's no way the situation is something like Sony charging pubs $10 per game on disc versus Nintendo charging $20 per game on card.
Bony Manifesto
Member
But isn't that circular logic? It's like saying the innate value of the Switch version is $10 more than other platforms because it retails for $10 more than other platforms.
EternalDarko
Member
And guess what has a negligible cost instead? Putting a game on a server and enabling it to be downloaded - so why is that more expensive?? Ridiculous.
SomedayTheFire
Member
That's the price of carts. Should be the same price as other consoles digitally.
They still cost more than discs though. Are publishers gonna eat that cost or pass it onto buyers? Also games in 1996 came with instuctional manuals and packaging that wasn't swiss cheese. Costs are down all around and yet the prices are jacked up because...???
I don't get it. It costs 10$ more than the PS4 version because it has goodies worth of 10$ included. Game's value is still the same between both platforms.
Dunno, how are the other multiplatform games (those with price parity) doing ?
You're all vastly overestimating the price of cartridges. It doesn't really change anything compared to disks. Maybe publishers will loose a few pennys on every sale compared to PS4/One.
Hey everyone,
I just finished reading through the last 13 pages or so of responses to this, so forgive the late response here.
First, it has been a long road getting to this point where we can announce a release date. We started the development of the Switch version as early as we could and it is a very resource intensive endeavor to make that port. We want to ensure that the experience on the Switch is the best it can be, which is the reason for the split release dates. It is not a decision we came to lightly, but it is a decision that had to be made.
On May 26th of this year, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC players will be able to get their hands on RiME and begin their adventure. Physical copies for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will be available for $29.99 in North America and at various price points around the globe.
The Nintendo Switch version will come out at a later date which we will announce when we finalize development. We began working on the Switch later into development than the other platforms. Items such as engine optimization, the complex lighting system, and ultimately the general port process all take time, and we did not want to release the Switch version before it was ready. We are doing everything we can to minimize the delay.
The price point for the Switch version is something everyone is obviously interested in as we've announced that it will be higher than other console versions. When we released our suggested retail price, we took into account many things, including development, production, and manufacturing costs. When the decision was made to do a physical release for the Switch version at $39.99 it was done so based on those factors. That is the bottom line; we are not attempting to take advantage of a freshly released console, a specific group of fan's affinity for games, a lack of games on a specific console, or any of those factors, it all comes down to the cost to get it out the door.
I completely understand why some people are upset by this, and I want you to know this was not a decision we made lightly. It was a very hot topic here, and ultimately a decision had to be made. I am reading every single post and understand where the varying thoughts and feelings come from. I am sharing the sentiment from the community with our team, so please keep sharing your feedback.
Thanks,
Tim
I just finished reading through the last 13 pages or so of responses to this, so forgive the late response here.
First, it has been a long road getting to this point where we can announce a release date. We started the development of the Switch version as early as we could and it is a very resource intensive endeavor to make that port. We want to ensure that the experience on the Switch is the best it can be, which is the reason for the split release dates. It is not a decision we came to lightly, but it is a decision that had to be made.
On May 26th of this year, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC players will be able to get their hands on RiME and begin their adventure. Physical copies for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will be available for $29.99 in North America and at various price points around the globe.
The Nintendo Switch version will come out at a later date which we will announce when we finalize development. We began working on the Switch later into development than the other platforms. Items such as engine optimization, the complex lighting system, and ultimately the general port process all take time, and we did not want to release the Switch version before it was ready. We are doing everything we can to minimize the delay.
The price point for the Switch version is something everyone is obviously interested in as we've announced that it will be higher than other console versions. When we released our suggested retail price, we took into account many things, including development, production, and manufacturing costs. When the decision was made to do a physical release for the Switch version at $39.99 it was done so based on those factors. That is the bottom line; we are not attempting to take advantage of a freshly released console, a specific group of fan's affinity for games, a lack of games on a specific console, or any of those factors, it all comes down to the cost to get it out the door.
I completely understand why some people are upset by this, and I want you to know this was not a decision we made lightly. It was a very hot topic here, and ultimately a decision had to be made. I am reading every single post and understand where the varying thoughts and feelings come from. I am sharing the sentiment from the community with our team, so please keep sharing your feedback.
Thanks,
Tim
chillybright
Banned
How does anyone defend this?
Edit:
So Switch has a higher cost to develop physically? Do you mean the cart? If so why the premium on the switch digital version?
Edit:
^ I guess that is how.
So Switch has a higher cost to develop physically? Do you mean the cart? If so why the premium on the switch digital version?
Yeah, no, sorry, that's not really an excuse. There's no reason why other publishers can release games with price parity, while you freely tax 10 more bucks to Switch players, and without even delivering the game on day and date.
By the time the Switch version will release, PS4/One version will be at least available at -20% on sale. What's the incentive in doing this ? Do you seriously think people will buy the game on Switch, or even agree to support such anti-consumer decisions ? 45€ is the price of a AAA game here. It will be the price of Zelda/Mario Kart 8/Splatoon 2 when RiME will release.
Also, there's no reason why the digital version isn't cheaper. You don't have manufacturing costs here.
Well I can understand that you might not be able to go into specifics, but I'm curious as to what secret sauce Sumo Digital has access to that you guys do not.
They got Snake Pass running on Switch in a week and it's releasing in less than three months after they got the dev kits and it's coming at the same time as the other platforms.
Thanks for coming here. But this still doesn't explain anything. Development, production, and manufacturing costs also exist for the other versions. What is more expensive for the Switch ? And if I'm reading correctly, only the physical version should be $10 more (see bolded part).
uncleniccius
Member
It sucks for Switch owners but thanks for the response.
Probably worth adding to the op.
The Hermit
Member
They are doing it because it will sell
There is a reason, and it have been explained multiple times in this thread already.
Don't be deliberately obtuse, you know that there are lots of variables in pricing of a game. And by that post, it's quite clear that they cannot specifically mention the price of the physical media for a Switch game.
Don't be so sure.
Anything that can be done by Nintendo over this? If it were a trend I could see that not turning out very well for them.
Thanks for the response but as a consumer this still feels wrong and unfair if anything else, you feel cheated when you both has to wait longer and pay more than anyone on another console and region.
The euro price is something special to say the least, makes the deal even more sour.
What is the reason ? I must have missed it. I'd gladly know why the game should cost 10 bucks more on digital than on other platforms.
ScientificPizza
Banned
Yeah but they want parity in the price of their games on one platform, otherwise just no one would buy physical
I'm not defending this, I think it sucks, but everyone saying the digital version should be cheaper than the physical is a bad argument to make because that could be applied to all games with physical and digital releases
Already doing it, bought shovel knight on release and will be getting snakepass on the 28th.
And now instead of buying it digitally on Switch because it's the same price as on the other platforms, people will simply skip both Switch versions and buy the game elsewhere/won't buy it at all.
Other publishers might eat the cost, but especially when there's a smaller publisher and print run involved that may not be viable.
Do we actually have any reputable information on the production costs of Switch retail cards? Somebody was even saying that some publishers only choose the smallest size and let the user download the rest of the game. Sounds all more like gossip.
Appreciate the response but that doesn't really change how I feel. How are other devs able to keep price parity?
The digital version will be the same price as the physical.
That's probably stuff under NDA, we only have the range of cartridge's size they can choose.
chillybright
Banned
The extra cost for switch cart must be really damn high to justify a $10 premium on both versions.
Thank you for the response, still doesn't explain why the digital Switch-version is more expensive than the other versions.
This is what irks me. Why does the digital price have to be the same as the physical price? If the issue is the cost of making carts vs. discs, then I can understand that. However, that's not the case for digital games. There should be no reason for that to cost more. It really feels like NS owners are being taken for a ride...especially when other companies are releasing games for the same price across all systems.
ScientificPizza
Banned
Yeah, I'm not defending the pricing here, I'm just saying you can't expect to have a major difference between the physical and digital pricing of a game on the same platform
In this instance they should have just eaten the costs on the physical version or gone digitally only
Council Pop
Member
I think people are barking up the wrong tree with the stuff about the gamecards being prohibitively expensive compared to discs. I was under the impression that the price difference would be so minimal that it wouldn't affect the actual cost of games whatsoever.
What I'm interested in is whether the Switch is inherently more expensive to develop for, or if it's more to do with internal development issues with Rime itself, and porting it to the Switch at a late stage.
What I'm interested in is whether the Switch is inherently more expensive to develop for, or if it's more to do with internal development issues with Rime itself, and porting it to the Switch at a late stage.
RichiRamjag
Member
I'm sorry, but this doesn't say much more than what was said on twitter and it's a bad decision. At the least, the digital version should be cheaper. It's crazy to give us the game late, then have a $10 high price tag as well.
Vote with your wallets. Support the games with price and date parity.
No lies here.
I see what you're saying. For better or for worse though the expectation has been created, especially by devaluation in recent years of game pricing for non-AAA games and for digital games and games of certain genres, that if a game can be offered for one price on one platform digitally it can or should be offered for the same price digitally across all platforms on which it's available, or offer some additional incentive if not. Here Switch players are explicitly told that if they had another system, they could get the exact same game more cheaply digitally or physically. That seems to cause cognitive dissonance at best. As others have suggested, even if the game was coming later on Switch, if the price was the same digitally and even let's say $5 more expensive physically I don't think people would have balked too much. It's the digital price difference that seems to be sticking on people's collective craw in particular. With Puyo Puyo Tetris for example the game was cheaper digitally than physically and the physical copy came with bonuses of some kind so people weren't nearly as up in arms about it because they had the opportunity to get the same game for the same price.
I hope that makes sense, just kinda thinking out loud here. I have no ill will towards the publisher, I've been looking forward to the game, I just can't wrap my head around paying $10 extra for the same game when I can buy it more cheaply on another platform. Yes, Switch has the ability to play on the go, but presumably the performance and visuals are better on other platforms - each platform has its own incentive.
Ultimately, yes, that would be a viable and better option.
One reason for equal pricing between physical and digital version of a game is not to mess with retailers and e-tailers. But you also have other reasons, explained by that specific post.
uncle_koploski
Banned
I'd honestly rather the developers/publisher drop the physical release and just release the game with price parity on all platforms. If you aren't going to support the Switch with price parity, the version is going to fail and you will not get a good Return on Investment. People interested in the game will buy it on the other Platforms and the Switch release will be forgotten.
It's just frustrating as a Nintendo fan to be expected to pay more because I want to play a game on that console.
I'll just buy it on Steam when it goes on a steep sale, and I'll spend my money on other games in the meantime.
It's just frustrating as a Nintendo fan to be expected to pay more because I want to play a game on that console.
I'll just buy it on Steam when it goes on a steep sale, and I'll spend my money on other games in the meantime.
The fact that it's cheaper on some platforms than on others is already messy with retailers. And it wouldn't be the first time that a game is cheaper on digital than on retail, not even the first time on Switch.
unknownstranger
Member
Still probably would have been $39.99. The extra cost probably came from hiring additional people to get the Switch version done as quickly as possible.
The way I think it's working is either the Switch version ~2 months later (just a guess) at $39.99 or the Switch version 6 months later at $29.99.
OverturePT
Member
Huh, I was first interested to buy this game on Steam, after the Switch version was announced I kinda changed my mind and thought it would be nice to have this in portable form, but really, I'm debating not buying for either. I don't really see a good reason for this, especially maintaining the digital price the same as physical if the carts are the problem.
...just stop, you don't sound clever you just sound like a jerk.