Greed, or survival?

A lot of people are complaining about the prices of the the Switch 2 console and games. I have a few things to say about this. For starters. Let me get this out of the way. The people doing the loudest squawking will be the first in line to buy everything Nintendo is selling. As for the prices themselves, the Switch 2 being $450 I feel is fine. Would I have preferred $399? Sure, but it's NOT that. So, you can either complain about the price, or, stop complaining and make a choice. A. Choose not to purchase the Nintendo Switch 2 or it's games and continue stomping your feet like a petulant child hoping to get your way. B. Choose to purchase the Nintendo Switch 2 and it's games and enjoy it. You see, there is this thing called "inflation" that exists. When you actually look at the retail prices of consumer products in the past and compare them to prices today you will see that you are getting over on some of these companies. In 2017 when the Nintendo Switch released, games retailed for $59.99. If you adjust for inflation (meaning adjusting the price of a product to get the same value in current times of the purchase compared to prices in the past,) you would see that a $59.99 dollar game in 2017 is $78.09 in 2025. So, with games today that still cost less than that, companies are actually LOSING value on the sales of games. A lot of people have a "bee in their bonnet" about games like Mario Kart World being $79.99. Adjusted for inflation, that price is actually just right. Especially considering the game that it is and how valuable that the game is for pushing console sales. With Donkey Kong Bananza, which is $69.99, you have a game that is LESS than what it should be as a major AAA,1st-party title. Again, adjusted for inflation, back in 2017 the game would be $53.77. LESS than the normal retail-price of games in that era. Of course, people will try to make excuses and justify their hypocrisy claiming that because the Switch 2 isn't on-par (graphically) with other consoles that the games should be cheaper. Or course, these are the SAME PEOPLE that will beat you to death with the mantra that "Power DOESN'T Matter" and that the "gameplay" and "innovation" from Nintendo's 1st-party games outweigh the visuals of the competitors. I got just two words for those people.....

In terms of the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 itself? The Nintendo Switch was $299.99 on 2017. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $390.51 today. So, that is just about $10 bucks short of the price we wanted. So, essentially Nintendo padded an extra $50 bucks on this thing. I'm sure there are many reasons why. The current economic climate and the volatility of it obviously plays a major role. I think people need to understand that this is not a "Nintendo" issue. This is not even an "American" issue. This is a worldwide issue. Prices for ALL video game hardware and software from ALL companies is going to go up and keep going up. You can cry all you want. It AIN'T gonna stop it. The tech (that we know about) inside of the Switch 2 is not cheap. Even though it is not an OLED screen, having an LCD screen with a 120Hz refresh rate along with VRR and HDR isn't exactly cheap. The magnetic induction circuits used to hold the Joy-Con 2 controllers in place is also a premium function. There is a lot more tech crammed into this tiny device than we thought. When docked, this game puts out resolutions of 4K60, 1440p120, and 1080p120. That is impressive. Apparently, this device does indeed use DLSS upscaling, and real-time ray tracing according to a blog on nVidia's website.

"The new RT Cores bring real-time ray tracing, delivering lifelike lighting, reflections and shadows for more immersive worlds.

Tensor Cores power AI-driven features like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), boosting resolution for sharper details without sacrificing image quality.

Tensor Cores also enable AI-powered face tracking and background removal in video chat use cases, enhancing social gaming and streaming." Credit: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nintendo-switch-2-leveled-up-with-nvidia-ai-powered-dlss-and-4k-gaming/ This device is more powerful than the Steam Deck. The rumors of this device being close to an XBOX Series S in terms of the visual presentation and capabilities seem to be true. I think $450 is fine. $399 would have been perfect, but I can handle $450. I would like to see the difference between what the visuals look like with the DLSS and ray-tracing turned "off" as opposed to being "on" just to see how much of an improvement it makes. We probably won't get that for awhile. Enclosing I would like to say that, if you call yourself a Nintendo fan, you really have no business going off about the prices. For all the shady things that Nintendo has done over the years and you all white-knighted for them so hard, this really is nothing. If there was ever a time that Nintendo deserved the benefit of the doubt, the time is now. They have EARNED that. The Switch is still holding strong at 150 million and counting. The only thing that I will push back at Nintendo with this situation is their stance that they will NOT be lowering the price of ANY Nintendo Switch device. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Once the Switch 2 is out there, the sales of the Switch are going to plummet. They will briefly rebound once Switch 2 consoles starting selling out, but over time once the Switch 2 becomes readily available, I can't see a bunch of people paying full price for an inferior device when most (if not all) of those games that you would want to buy a Switch for can be played on Switch 2 in the way you should have been able to play them in the first place. I mean, pretty much everyone that wants a Switch already has one. Who's gonna buy a Switch now to play Breath Of The Wild, Tears Of The Kingdom, Super Mario Odyssey, etc? A LOT of people are going to want to buy those games for the Switch 2 and a lot of people that already own those games will want to purchase the upgrade packs.

If someone wants to throw a red flag at Nintendo for greed, I would not stand in their way when it comes to not lowering the price of aging, antiquated, and after June 5th, 2025, superfluous hardware.