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[Conrad Link]

Greed greed greed GREED!

This gouge the hardcore fans at launch desperate for a game to play on their shiny new console thing is not a new occurrence.

Watch everything magically become the same price by the end of the year.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

I saw this in another thread and thought it was semi relevant. Regarding possible costs of cartridges being more expensive than blu-ray, at least for Vita carts.

Mobile link to post.
http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=233439398

We already knew they cost more than optical media. That wasn't being disputed. We just didn't know how much more and considering the ridiculous pricing for all of the Vita's proprietary media, I wouldn't put too much salt into it. Although it gives us a pretty definite upper bound

 

[Skittzo0413]

I know RiME is an example of this, what other game is doing this?

 

[BigEmil]

More new system gouging than card cost

 

[Jubenhimer]

While Solid state media like game cards will always be more expensive than optical media, I doubt the price difference is that huge. This isn't the N64 days anymore, many games can easily fit onto a 1-8GB or so card that publishers can get for pennies, even 16 or 32GB, while likely more expensive, shouldn't cost that much more. I imagine that there would be some issues for publisher releasing physical Switch games, but I think the RIME guys are just trying to pull a fast one on consumers.

 

[BadWolf]

Early adopters are usually easy targets for stuff like this so companies are just taking advantage.

 

[cw_sasuke]

New system tax - should be obv. otherwise more title would be more expensive.

 

[ckaneo]

It's obviously a combination of both.

 

[TheAggroCraig]

Hmmmm. I find that interesting considering I own it physically and it's the same price....

Honestly had no idea, fair enough.

 

[The Elite]

I am going to put all my chips on new system gouging.

 

[Zombie James]

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/850116315436154881

Full Priced Retail Software

Publisher Gross Margin

50GB Blu-Ray = 55%
32GB Switch cart = 45%

That is one reason Switch games cost more

 

[Incitemaybe]

What are the multiple games? Cave story and Rime?

 

[Skittzo0413]

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/850116315436154881

Are there any Switch games that use 32GB cards? There are none that I know of... Even if there are how would he know that?

 

[UnemployedVillain]

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/850116315436154881

But none of those devs are using 32GB cards, so how are single digit margin differences accounting for $10 cost increases per unit?

 

[Pokemaniac]

Are there any Switch games that use 32GB cards? There are none that I know of... Even if there are how would he know that?

Pretty sure that Dragon Quest Heroes collection is.

 

[foxuzamaki]

The switch is new desired tech, it isnt exactly flooding with games at the moment, publishers can take advantage of this to get a little more out of customers looking to buy games for their new console.

 

[Fiendcode]

Seems we have a leak on Switch physical media pricing. It's about $8 per unit (versus about $5 on PS4) and minimum orders are 6000 per region.

Also much more detailed pricing on 3DS, Wii U and even Wii media pricing.

https://miketendo64.com/2017/05/13/...ishers-pay-for-physical-switch-wii-u-3ds-wii/

 

[redcrayon]

I don't buy the new system gouging theory. The PS4 was hot out of the gate and game prices didn't rise. In fact, the only time I can remember game prices changing with new system launches was with the PSX and Saturn, and those were price drops because of the move away from carts.

So I say it's the carts.

PS4 prices jumped to around £50 at launch here (from £40 for PS3) but then it had settled back down a year later.

Vita prices are also noticeably more expensive than PSP, at £40 rather than £30-£35 before discounting.

In terms of Nintendo systems here, DS games started out as £30 and dropped over time, and 3DS games then leaped to a starting price of £40. Six years later, and you can pick up new software for ~£28-£32 if you shop around. Same goes for WiiU, where the games were technically £50 at launch but by 2015 the online retailers sold them for £26-£38, roughly the same as the Wii games before them.

With the Switch, I expect to see prices of physical copies drop over time too. That's just the UK though, where physical copies are in a highly competitive market.

Retailers will always try to use a product launch to encourage a £5+ jump, and have done for almost every system I've bought in the last 30 years, it just doesn't always work.

 

[Eolz]

Seems we have a leak on Switch physical media pricing. It's about $8 per unit (versus about $5 on PS4) and minimum orders are 6000 per region.

Also much more detailed pricing on 3DS, Wii U and even Wii media pricing.

https://miketendo64.com/2017/05/13/...ishers-pay-for-physical-switch-wii-u-3ds-wii/

Some thoughts on it from Daniel Ahmad (basically, a bit too cheap for the PS4)

 

[Toadthemushroom]

Seems we have a leak on Switch physical media pricing. It's about $8 per unit (versus about $5 on PS4) and minimum orders are 6000 per region.

Also much more detailed pricing on 3DS, Wii U and even Wii media pricing.

https://miketendo64.com/2017/05/13/...ishers-pay-for-physical-switch-wii-u-3ds-wii/

I found that interesting, though it isn't as detailed as it needs to be. The $8 per unit for Switch game cards isn't complemented with a card size, I can see 16 and 32GB cards costing more than 8GB.

Still, assuming $8 per unit is what most publishers are happy to pay for their games (let's say it's for a 16GB card) I'm surprised it costs less than 3DS unit costs, where it's a similar price per unit for a tiny 256MB card, and more once you start going up to 2 or 4GB.

I suspect the 6000 units minimum run per region (since game cards and packaging still look different for each region) is what will affect publishing of smaller titles as holding inventory can be risky for these sorts of games. Nicalis has avoided European prints for their titles, and so far one publisher has picked up Isaac for release in July in Europe. I wonder if Australia is counted along with Europe?

Knowing Vita card prices would help, as I suspect publishing costs and minimum print runs are lower, Vita games shipping on smaller capacity cards - perfect for limited run indies and titles with a niche following - tend to retail for less at launch nowadays.

Still, if the $8 per unit is indicative of most Switch games I would be inclined to say that it is publisher gouging rather than Switch card prices, when comparing to previous systems which used flash storage for game distribution (3DS, Vita).

Nintendo also continues to produce and manufactures Switch game cards + packaging in Japan (though it looks like they've stopped assembling it all together in Germany for Europe), whereas Sony manufactures its cards in China. Not sure what difference that would make in terms of per-unit costs being passed on to publishers, or whether Nintendo would absorb some of that cost themselves.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Some thoughts on it from Daniel Ahmad (basically, a bit too cheap for the PS4)

I wonder how large are the minimum orders for PS4 and how fast they can turnaround and produce additional batches.

 

[Fiendcode]

Some thoughts on it from Daniel Ahmad (basically, a bit too cheap for the PS4)

If true then lower capacity cards should be a negligible price difference from PS4. Only when you start getting into larger capacities should we start seeing these $10 price differences then.

Puyo Puyo Tetris should fit on a 1-2GB card (it's only 1GB itself installed). How big is Rime?

 

[cw_sasuke]

From the article...

What makes it worse though is those 6,000 units are just for one region,

I dont think that pubs that have trouble ordering/selling 6k copies in a region would bother with a physical version to bein with....on any console.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

If true then lower capacity cards should be a negligible price difference from PS4. Only when you start getting into larger capacities should we start seeing these $10 price differences then.

Puyo Puyo Tetris should fit on a 1-2GB card (it's only 1GB itself installed). How big is Rime?

If Puyo Puyo Tetris is on a 1GB card, which seems to be the lowest available, I wonder why Deep Silver made the wholesale price that much higher for the Switch version. It was going for £20 at most retailers in the UK before launch, whereas the Switch version was £35-40.

If it was publisher gouging Deep Silver made the right call, given the Switch version at retail accounted for 76% of all sales, you could argue that the PS4 version was too cheap..

 

[Fiendcode]

I wonder how large are the minimum orders for PS4 and how fast they can turnaround and produce additional batches.

Going by Limited Run Games' smallest print runs it's at least 2000 on PS4 and 1500 on Vita. Awhile ago I remember hearing minimum orders are crazy on Xbox One (50,000) but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

I saw this in another thread and thought it was semi relevant. Regarding possible costs of cartridges being more expensive than blu-ray, at least for Vita carts.

Mobile link to post.
http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=233439398

that makes sense to me.

 

[Fiendcode]

that makes sense to me.

Vita uses a different kind of card though I believe. Their cards are fully rewritable while 3DS/Switch use cheaper once write media, that's why Vita games could write to reserved card space while on 3DS there were extra pools of flash for saving and on Switch saves are kept on the console.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

Vita uses a different kind of card though I believe. Their cards are fully rewritable while 3DS/Switch use cheaper once write media, that's why Vita games could write to reserved card space while on 3DS there were extra pools of flash for saving and on Switch saves are kept on the console.

Wow, had no idea about some being rewriteable. Do you think all Vita cards have this capability or is it only cards that publishers opt to use? I remember only a small number of launch titles having rewriteable space for saves (Sega's Virtua Tennis 4 and the two Namco games like Touch My Katamari), every other publisher opted to save to the memory card and plaster the "PS Vita Memory Card required" stamp on the box.