Nintendo Is Making A Huge Change To Switch 2 Game Pricing Collectors Will Hate

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The Nintendo Switch 2 has been a contentious console ever since launch. Sure, you can play games you don't own with friends thanks to Gameshare, and the console's performance leaves the original Switch in the dust, but games on the Switch 2 are more expensive than analogous Switch versions. Prices are about to get worse for Switch 2 owners, too, but only if they prefer to collect physical titles.

Nintendo recently announced that starting in May, titles exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2 will be priced differently depending on whether players are purchasing a digital or physical copy. To get an idea of how this practice will work, we can look at "Yoshi and the Mysterious Book," which Nintendo stated will be the first game to use this new pricing model. You can pre-order a digital version of the game for $59.99, but if you want a physical copy, the pre-order price jumps to $69.99. To add insult to injury, this rule might only apply to the US, as Wario64 (who makes a career out of tracking game prices and sales) noted that Amazon UK is pre-selling physical copies of the game for the equivalent of $55.74.

According to the announcement, these new prices are meant to "reflect the different costs associated with producing and distributing each format," but retailers are free to set their own prices as needed.

These new prices are bound to rub many Switch 2 owners the wrong way since they will have to pay more for physical games. If people want to save money, they will have to buy digital games, which means microSD Express cards that increase Switch 2 storage capacity suddenly become a necessity. But you know what they say about clouds and silver linings.

As Nintendo has stated, the price hike is due to the "different costs associated with producing and distributing each format," the company has essentially admitted that making physical copies of video games costs more than digital copies. More importantly, since titles like "Kirby Air Riders" and "Pokémon Pokopia" are $69.99, Nintendo is all but admitting that digital games should cost less than physical games — an argument many gamers have been making for ages. While plenty of commenters admit they will stick to physical copies regardless of price, many are still praising the new pricing plan for giving digital adopters a discount.

On a side note, this news raises an important question: What will happen to Game-Key Cards? Unlike traditional Switch 2 cartridges, which include all the necessary data (minus patches), these cartridges don't contain any data, just permissions to receive a free digital copy. And if you lose the Game-Key Card, you lose access to the game. Using them is basically owning a digital copy, but with extra steps. Will future Game-Key Card games follow physical or digital format pricing rules? We probably won't know until Nintendo opens pre-orders for future games.