Nintendo Raises Price of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to $70 [UPDATE]
The ninth generation of desktop consoles brought the biggest price increase for video games in years. It is possible that Nintendo, which prices its games highly, has decided to join this trend.
Update #2
The editors of Game Informer have received an official comment from Nintendo, regarding the price of the new Zelda. The Japanese company informed that each case of Switch games in the context of the suggested price will be considered individually. In other words, the company has no intention of making the $70 per game the new standard.
Update #1
Information about the new price for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom being $69.99 has been confirmed by Nintendo on the occasion of today's Nintendo Direct. This is the first game from the Japanese company priced at this level. We will bring you more announcements from Nintendo Direct within a day.
Original message
The case of increasing the price of the game by Nintendo was observed by Twitter user Wario64 (who regularly provides various information about games). He shared a screenshot from the eShop, which shows the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom with a high (by Nintendo standards) price tag. As a rule, the Japanese giant priced its AAA titles at $59.99, but for the continuation of Link's adventures, we may be paying as much as $69.99. Exactly, "may be", because the situation is not clear.
Currently, the game's tab in the store does not contain information about the price - it has most likely been removed. As noted by the same user, the price for the game in retail stores (outside of digital distribution) is the standard $60. Why would the boxed version be cheaper than the digital one from the eShop? It can't be ruled out that it was a error on the part of the store or the sales department (which gave external stores the wrong price). Presumably, it could also have been market research (to test the reaction of gamers) or an announcement that Nintendo will actually raise the prices of Switch console games in the near future.
The new prices for games have been in effect for two years, when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X consoles debuted on the market - at which time the the average price of a AAA game increased from 60 to 70 euros.
