For quite some time, $59.99 has been the industry-standard price for AAA games across pretty much every gaming platform. However, this began to change back in 2020 when 2K priced the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of NBA 2K21 at $69.99. Now, Nintendo has become the latest firm to adopt this price hike... kind of.
At its Nintendo Direct event a few hours ago, the Japanese company showcased various titles coming to its aging Switch hardware, including a new Bayonetta game, Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, Metroid Prime Remastered, and a brand-new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, among many other things.
While the games shown off certainly hyped up Nintendo Switch gamers spread across various genres, one concerning thing caught the eye of many. The pre-order page for the new Zelda game is now live but it has a price tag of $69.99, a first for Nintendo titles.
It seems that Nintendo is now open to the idea of $69.99, following the footsteps of 2K, Ubisoft, Sony, Microsoft, and more. That said, the company has clarified to Game Informer that the new price tag won"t be a standard for all of its AAA games, rather it will "determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis."
Regardless, the latest move indicates a shift in the pricing for AAA games. All three major console players - Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo - have now indicated that they will be pricing AAA games at $69.99. Given that these companies have embraced this idea, it wouldn"t be surprising to see other publishers becoming more confident in adopting this strategy too. However, under the current economic uncertainty and rising inflation, only time will tell how favorably gamers will respond to higher prices.