I think everybody understands that cartridges are slightly more expensive than discs. However, demanding a whole 10 dollar more is and always has been pure and utter greed. Even taking 5 dollar over the disc-version would be pushing it, but at least it'd be closer to reality.
I'll never buy and 3rd party-games at full price that display this level of disdain towards the people they want to sell their games to.
Well, its representative of their costs. Nintendo still thinks its 1992, which is the root of basically every problem theyve had since thr N64. They follow basic business, control supply to create demand. Because they think theyre a toy company which operates mostly on short term fads, (a toy that remains a best seller for 4 years is extraordinarily rare) they short supplies of consoles and games (and were caught many times in the S/NES days doing so), and make sure Switch will be available on Sunday! Keeps them in the news. Eventually this strategy costs too much money and they behave like an electronics manufacturer thst actually wants to sell product.
By not establishing a manufacturing center on each continent, preferably several in North America (where an east coast center can subsidize Europe), they drive costs up exponentially for publishers. Not to mention the 3-4 weeks on a boat and customs before it even hits a warehouse. Oh, and thr digital versions have to be the same price, or the retailers, where the majority of sales take place, will refuse to carry it. If you think this isnt a factor, check out how GameStop consoles come with physical discs instead of download codes (which is extraordinarily cheaper, not just because of the lack of media, but the cost of shipping consoles to the host country, where a seperate Crew has to insert those physical discs into the box and seal it. Download codes can be printed anywhere, months in advance of the game going gold)
Im sure Nintendo is adding on the same kinds of margins plus some as any other manufacturer. Understand this. The reason why there are no Xbox Limited Run Games is because Microsoft doesnt own thr manufacturing. They plonk their customized machines down in an existing facility like Cinram and pay then rent on them. These facilities capable of million disc runs have minimum orders (50k I believe theyve said). Sony owns DADC, and therefore has enough internal pull to get exceptions made. Nintendo thinks they will once more own 80+% of thr market, and that this power allows them to abuse publishers like this. Guess what, its just not going to fly, especially as they run out of games thst can be easily ported (coming very soon). The sheer expense, long restock times, inability of the stock console to hold more than a few games (rule #1- if everyone doesnt have it, that seriously damages viability, hence the Kinect pack in to make the marketplace Amazon now enjoys with Echo (designed by many of the same people)
I have no specific knowledge of contracts and deals, but Ill wager that as usual, Nintendo approached everyone about publishing their games, and once again chased publishers of M rated games to do the Switch. They likely invested heavily in the LA Noire remaster, which is why the co-branding is so hardcore,and likely helped make it possible. Theyll get a GTAV port because their port 360 to WiiU tools have already been adapted to do Switch. But the online support will be seriously limited. So then theyll be faced with publishers telling them no because they wont sell half the copies at a cost of 3-5x as much. And its a lot more expensive to make these investments in a panic than during the boom period when you can pay them off quickly.