If you want to play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, you’re going to need to fork over some money, and now, it might be more than you were prepared to spend. Yesterday evening, the Nintendo Switch eShop showed a $69.99 price for the highly anticipated sequel. This might be confirmed to be true by the time the Direct drops, or it might be debunked. Let me know in the comments which it was!”
Well everyone, it’s been confirmed. Tears of the Kingdom’s standard edition will indeed be $70, and this confirmation, Nintendo has commented on the price point.
When reached out to by game informer regarding the $10 increase from the usual $60 Nintendo has been charging for their Switch titles, a PR rep for the company stated that future increases would be chosen on a case by case basis, insinuating that has always been the case despite $60 being consistent for the console’s entire lifecycle.
Nintendo clearly has an understanding of how big Tears of the Kingdom is going to be, as it’s keeping the $60 price point for its other first party title, Pikmin 4, a game that won’t sell even remotely close to what Zelda will.
Breath of the Wild sold nearly 30 million copies, almost 20 million more than the previous best selling Zelda game Twilight Princess. When the Switch launch title went on sale, it was initially outpacing sales of the console itself.
Nintendo is probably looking at the new standard set by both PlayStation and Xbox and, despite not releasing more powerful hardware, figures it can get away with matching that standard. If Tears of the Kingdom sells 30 million units, that’s 300 million extra dollars the company can add to the pile, and considering the Switch is now the third best selling console of all time, 30 million seems like a conservative estimate. Time will tell if the price increase has any effect on sales.
A game Nintendo is putting out that is actually a decrease from the $60 price point is the long rumored Metroid Prime: Remastered which is out now via the eShop and will be available physically on February 22nd, retailing for $40.
This pricing is initially also bizarre as typical Nintendo remasters and remakes get the $60 treatment like 2021’s Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but again, when you look at the value of the franchise, the best selling Metroid game hasn’t cracked 3 million copies, whereas Pokémon sales are always in the tens of millions.
You’re getting a lot of bang for your buck with that $40 as Metroid Prime: Remastered boasts redone visuals, updated controls, and bonus content, this seems to clearly be the best way to experience one of the best games ever made.
Metroid Prime: Remastered was one of a few highlights from yesterday’s Nintendo Direct. Some of the others were another look at Tears of the Kingdom, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games coming to Switch Online (the former two coming to the basic tier and the latter coming to the Expansion Pack option), and a look at Pikmin 4 gameplay.
