Really? It was £40 on Wii U earlier today.
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Switch Game Prices getting lower in the UK
- Thread starter bomblord1
- Start date
Really? It was £40 on Wii U earlier today.
Stallion Dan
Member
lifa-cobex
Member
It's £48 for Wii U
£50 for Switch
edit: I'm guessing more ppl pre-ordered the Wii U version than Amazon expected...
CalamityPixel
Member
BASED THERESA MAY
Of course this is a joke
BumblebeeCody
Member
Still gonna get them from Shopto since they are generally the cheapest.
Toadthemushroom
Member
The article stating how Nintendo's bringing their prices (which they don't set! They only have wholesale prices, and then retailers decide, which is what happens with every publisher in the UK) in line with US prices is factually incorrect.
Okay, so in the US, Switch games are one of two RRPs by the looks of it:
1) $60 RRP - top tier price bracket on console market for Zelda, Mario Kart
2) $50 RRP - lower tier price bracket for 1-2-Switch etc
A $60 game in the UK market would be £48.85 + 20% VAT = £48.85 + £9.77 = £58.62. These games are £49.99 maximum in the UK.
A $50 game in the UK market would be £40.54 + 20% VAT = £40.54 + £8.10 = £48.64. These games are £39.99 maximum in the UK (£34.99 on Amazon).
So the games are substantially cheaper than their US equivalents (remember that Splatoon was a $60 game but was £24-32 when it launched in the UK). Nintendo hasn't somehow brought them in line with the US pricing.
The focus should have always been on other games in the UK, now the Switch pricing makes sense compared to that. For instance, Gravity Rush has been £45-50 everywhere in the run up to launch. Mario Kart 8 DX, at £45, and Zelda, at £48-50, is now competitive with that sort of pre-launch pricing for console games.
Okay, so in the US, Switch games are one of two RRPs by the looks of it:
1) $60 RRP - top tier price bracket on console market for Zelda, Mario Kart
2) $50 RRP - lower tier price bracket for 1-2-Switch etc
A $60 game in the UK market would be £48.85 + 20% VAT = £48.85 + £9.77 = £58.62. These games are £49.99 maximum in the UK.
A $50 game in the UK market would be £40.54 + 20% VAT = £40.54 + £8.10 = £48.64. These games are £39.99 maximum in the UK (£34.99 on Amazon).
So the games are substantially cheaper than their US equivalents (remember that Splatoon was a $60 game but was £24-32 when it launched in the UK). Nintendo hasn't somehow brought them in line with the US pricing.
The focus should have always been on other games in the UK, now the Switch pricing makes sense compared to that. For instance, Gravity Rush has been £45-50 everywhere in the run up to launch. Mario Kart 8 DX, at £45, and Zelda, at £48-50, is now competitive with that sort of pre-launch pricing for console games.
I still have it pre-ordered for £35 with them.
Are you suggesting they're price fixing again?
They've already been fined 149m for that once.
Delusibeta
Banned
Ultimately, this is the effect of how utterly ruthless the physical games market is in the UK, and also Amazon's desire to be among the cheapest for most games at launch. To use a non-Switch example, Amazon UK is currently taking preorders for Nier Automata for £42, an eight pound discount over the RRP (and subsequently, the digital price).
With that said, I do think it is noteworthy that Zelda, to the best of my knowledge, is the first game in the last fifteen years or so to have an (effective) RRP of £60 for a regular edition copy of the game that does not require special, bundled controllers.
With that said, I do think it is noteworthy that Zelda, to the best of my knowledge, is the first game in the last fifteen years or so to have an (effective) RRP of £60 for a regular edition copy of the game that does not require special, bundled controllers.
This is all true.
The issue is that people haven't factored in the effect of the Brexit Vote. When thinking about comparative game costs.
So for example in Jan 1st 2016 1 USD got you 0.6782635048 GBP
So a $60 game is £40.70
Adding 20% VAT gives £48.83
$50 game is £33.91
With 20% VAT is £40.70
So with your calculations for the price of today, it's pretty easy to see that price increases are inevitable.
Phife Dawg
Member
Do we know if there will be online retailers offering digital downloads day1? At these prices it would be cheaper than going to domestic retailers.
Nice one, they'll honour the lowest price it was between when you ordered it and despatch. Can't really argue with that.
What? Because some items were outsold by others, there's no nostalgia for Nintendo? Look at Retro Gamer magazine, or the love for Pokemon/Game Boy or the NES classic. Just because more kids had a master System or Megadrive doesn't mean that a shedload of kids didn't have Nintendo consoles/portables too. If they didn't, I must have imagined the kids in my school in the early 1990s being pretty much 50/50 Sega/Nintendo if they were console gamers rather than Amiga fans.Nintendo will always struggle in the UK. No nostalgia.
Master System was more popular than the NES.
And the 360 outsold the Wii in the UK, iirc.
Anywho, the Pro controller can be found at £55, so that's cool
Here's some pics from a recent 'show us your NES nostalgia pics' competition by Nintendo UK.
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/201...gia-photos-from-UK-Nintendo-fans-1133569.html
walking fiend
Member
Region free ahoy
Hmm... maybe I should've said "less nostalgia."
Spending school time in the US and summers in the UK, and being a "gamer" for 30+ years, I can say through experience that there's much less love for Ninty in Blighty.
Spending all my time in the UK and also being a 'gamer' for 30+ years, I can say there's less love for Ninty than there used to be, but there used to be a hell of a lot. The Wii being outsold by the 360, and the NES by the Master System, doesn't change the fact that the Wii and DS combined shifted a hell of a lot of kit, and the same goes for the NES/Game Boy. Only looking at home consoles isn't really a fair look at what kids (of whichever era of console games) were into, and not 'winning' in sales doesn't mean that a platform isn't fondly remembered. There's a reason why it's the NES games that still get talked about in Retro Gamer and across forums by U.K. players of a certain vintage, far more so than their MS equivalents. At my secondary school (1990-1995) it seemed split fairly evenly between Amiga, Sega and Nintendo players if you took the portables into account.
I'd agree that the NES is perhaps less fondly remembered here than the Game Boy (or Pokemon) and Nintendo in general though. The cartoons and merchandising probably help to prop up nostalgia too.
Donniewahlberg
Banned
Before shopping around Nintendo themselves will sell you a new XL for cheaper than £200, and obviously it can go lower elsewhere, I've seen them between £150-60. A 2ds which plays the same software can be bought sub £100 bundled, I believe Argos or shopto has a regular XL for £100.
I don't think the switch is overpriced, but there's no point pretending the 3DS xl is £200. The Mario KArt/Splatoon double bundle for the wii U was £230 for a long time, although I haven't checked up on that in awhile.
I'll bet that you'll find more people nostalgic for (or can simply remember) the NES in the UK than the Master System.
Starwolf_UK
Member
The problem with talking 90s is numbers are sketchy (charts were gallop polls for example) and sample sizes are limited to what was at school, friends and families.
I have the gut feeling NES wasn't that popular but I don't know if that is like Wii U isn't that popular or N64 wasn't that popular (which are two completely different things) but Game Boy was far more popular than Game Gear (also Super Mario Land rap music made the charts). I remember a Kellogg's tie in with Super Mario land 2 but looking online I see this also happened in America.
I have the gut feeling NES wasn't that popular but I don't know if that is like Wii U isn't that popular or N64 wasn't that popular (which are two completely different things) but Game Boy was far more popular than Game Gear (also Super Mario Land rap music made the charts). I remember a Kellogg's tie in with Super Mario land 2 but looking online I see this also happened in America.
If I'm not mistaken the last shot is a US collection as Final Fantasy and Bible Adventures didn't come out here. At a glance the rest seem European though.
I can only "say what I see" my man. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that the sense of nostalgia towards Nintendo is greater in the US and elsewhere than it is in the UK.
Yup.
It never surprises me that during console launches some of us experience temporary amnesia.
Maybe, but as I've said, I can only call it as I see it. And how I remember it.
HandsomeCharles
Member
Anywho, the Pro controller can be found at £55, so that's cool
Where abouts?
Oh, absolutely, agree with you entirely there. I remember looking through imported US mags and thinking the scene looked so much more vibrant for Nintendo over there, far more games etc too.
HandsomeCharles
Member
I don't know, I think you're right due to the large amount of baseball/American football games and what looks like Contra rather than Probotector.
Yeah, I'd have to admit that my memories of the early 90s, being 25 years ago and limited to one school in one small town in England, probably aren't a reliable source either
I remember Game Boy being huge, and the cartoons, magazines and all the rest of the merchandise.
It's hard to express what Nintendo games did to the "playground."
When a new Nintendo Power hit, (if you'll permit me to use today's parlance,)
the hype was real
I look at the Angry VG Nerd videos and it does seem like it was the cult newsrag for team Ninty!It's hard to express what Nintendo games did to the "playground."
When a new Nintendo Power hit, (if you'll permit me to use today's parlance,)
the hype was real
We had Super Play for the SNES, which covered US/JP imports of all the RPGs we didn't get like FFVI, Chrono Trigger etc. I distinctly remember all the SNES owners in my class pawing through each issue, talking about how they were going to save up for an adapter and £60+ quid for one of them, before routinely spending their spare pocket money on an iced bun from the canteen instead
I look at the Angry VG Nerd videos and it does seem like it was the cult newsrag for team Ninty!
We had Super Play for the SNES, which covered US/JP imports of all the RPGs we didn't get like FFVI, Chrono Trigger etc. I distinctly remember all the SNES owners in my class pawing through each issue, talking about how they were going to save up for an adapter and £60+ quid for one of them, before routinely spending their spare pocket money on an iced bun from the canteen instead
lol good call on that iced bun!
Thanks for the nostalgia overload and the chatlol good call on that iced bun!
Mr.Fletcher
Member
As a Brit who now consumes predominantly American games media, it's eye-opening to see the reverence in which Nintendo is held overseas.
Sega has always been more popular over here from my personal experience, with the big N struggling to really gain traction outside of obvious hits such as the Game Boy, Pokemon and so on.
When I grew up in the 90s (27 later this year), almost no one I knew had a Nintendo console.
PlayStation and PlayStation 2 outsold the Nintendo 64 and GameCube by a shedload from what I remember hearing, and now Microsoft and Sony trade dominance in the UK.
Anyone got any theories on why Nintendo doesn't have as strong a legacy in the UK as other parts of the world?
Sega has always been more popular over here from my personal experience, with the big N struggling to really gain traction outside of obvious hits such as the Game Boy, Pokemon and so on.
When I grew up in the 90s (27 later this year), almost no one I knew had a Nintendo console.
PlayStation and PlayStation 2 outsold the Nintendo 64 and GameCube by a shedload from what I remember hearing, and now Microsoft and Sony trade dominance in the UK.
Anyone got any theories on why Nintendo doesn't have as strong a legacy in the UK as other parts of the world?
Garrett Hawke
Member
I mean... the stock markets aren't a myth and we are already seeing price adjustments across the board, even from supermarkets.
Pancakes R Us
Member
This. £280 for Nintendo hardware that's not groundbreaking like OG Wii is way too much. It'll sell to the core Nintendo crowd and then get either a) a price cut or b) gradually dropped by retailers.
Do any PS4/XBO games launch at £50? This is a bit of a joke.
Nintendo basically indirectly decides the prices them-self by selling products on their own store. No retailer will go above what Nintendo sells it as.
Whilst North America was playing SMB on their NESes the Brits were playing Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy on their ZX Spectrums. The NES and its games were prohibitively expensive for most here. Then the PS1 pretty much obliterated the N64 in terms of sales, same with the Gamecube and PS2, and whilst the Wii outsold the 360 early on since it didn't have the best versions of FIFA and CoD most "hardcore" gamers didn't care for it after 2010 or so.
Home computer industry meant there was no narrative of Nintendo 'saving' anything, and it was tough to convince parents to go from funding a £1.99 game cassette to a £40 cartridge in 1990. That combined with the relatively late release of the NES (if I remember correctly) and competition from Sega (also slightly cheaper games, with better arcade ports) meant that it was launching into a market with multiple strong local competitors. That those computers got trounced by consoles over the next decade didn't mean that the NES had an easy time of it launching when kids were already entrenched spectrum/c64 etc fans.
Garrett Hawke
Member
Okay, HERE we go:
Using Amazon's BIGTHANKS (£10 off over £50 until end of Jan 20) you can get Zelda + MK8 for £80.98 w/ Prime. £40.49 each!
Add them both to basket, use BIGTHANKS
Using Amazon's BIGTHANKS (£10 off over £50 until end of Jan 20) you can get Zelda + MK8 for £80.98 w/ Prime. £40.49 each!
Add them both to basket, use BIGTHANKS
Okay, HERE we go:
Using Amazon's BIGTHANKS (£10 off over £50 until end of Jan 20) you can get Zelda + MK8 for £80.98 w/ Prime. £40.49 each!
Add them both to basket, use BIGTHANKS
Nice one, just did that with MK8 and ARMs. Might as well.
Stallion Dan
Member
I don't think the videogame crash affected UK like it did the US, so Nintendo was never this white knight saving the industry like it was there, gamers were busy playing games already. They also took the piss with pricing more than anyone else so were never as attractive.
When Saturn was a mess what did Nintendo do? A £250 N64 launch (was $200 in US), vs the £150 at that point PlayStation.
UK was Sega land, when they shat the bed with Saturn PlayStation took over.
Ignore playground measurements, the real telling points were games sections in stores, Nintendo was always the smallest as it was less popular.
Pancakes R Us
Member
Hmmm...how long is this code valid for? I may preorder a pro controller if I can.Okay, HERE we go:
Using Amazon's BIGTHANKS (£10 off over £50 until end of Jan 20) you can get Zelda + MK8 for £80.98 w/ Prime. £40.49 each!
Add them both to basket, use BIGTHANKS
"Price" of games changes as they near launch, news at eleven. This happens with just about any game ever. I don't think I've had a single game where the price did not change at least once between preordering and launch day.
Spoilers: Kingdom Hearts 3 isn't going to cost 100 at launch in Germany either.
Spoilers: Kingdom Hearts 3 isn't going to cost 100 at launch in Germany either.
UnemployedVillain
Member
And yet Nintendo still comes in at 4th overall. Are you trying to help or hurt your argument?
And if you meant hardware, seems a bit irrelevant in a thread about software
Why are you comparing this to two overpriced pieces of hardware too? Compare it to a PS4 or even a NVidia Shield.
Combination of people resonating more towards adult/mature themed games (Which the PlayStation locked down some solid titles with), being the first to impress on a wide scale with 3D graphics and relations with third-parties shifting to Sony's side rather than Nintendo's. The most prominent being Rockstar and S-E during the PS2.
Then there's just the shallow aspect of consumer trends. Anecdotal as it is, I've seen kids own Playstation consoles simply because it's a bigboi system and/or their cooler older bro owns one. Fuck Nintendo because that's for kids. They don't want to admit they're one.