I apologize in advance if this has been discussed before but I am "relatively new" here, so it is difficult to know. I also apologize for my English, I am using the translator. And first of all, make it clear that I'm a fan of Nintendo but not stupid. 

I still do not understand Nintendo and its prices. I'm going to put it this way to illustrate the situation: Horizon zero dawn and Zelda BOTW were released the same day, a year later, Horizon has an edition that includes the DLC in 40 dollars and Zelda no, if you want to have the complete game, this still costs 80 dollars. At this point Zelda BOTW should have a GOTY Edition of 40 dollars that includes the season pass.

Someone can say: "The sales of Zelda BOTW (I put Zelda as an example but I'm talking in general about any Nintendo exclusive) are still at an incredible pace" and that person could be right, but this is not only about sales of the game (a cheaper game would even sell at a better rate) but to encourage sales of the consoles. Cheaper games encourage console sales. I usually talk to a lot of people about video games and they always tell me the same thing "Nintendo games are incredible but very expensive" and the comparison with PS4 always jumps, because PS4 exclusives usually lose their price in a very short time. Arms should be in 30 dollars, Splatoon 2 in 35 or 40, Mario Kart 35 or 40, Bayonetta 2 in 40 (actually 40 should have been its launch price but well, that's another story). If this were so, I'm very sure that would encourage console sales because the first thing you would think "Nintendo games are incredible and cheap, it is definitely worth buying a console." Nintendo has to remove that "exclusivity" label and open up as something more accessible.

What do you think?

This is exactly what i do now with Nintendo. The last nintendo system i bought was Wii. Since then i just borrow a friends Wii U or Switch to play Zelda and some others and never touch the system again. There are day 1 games and then there are games you buy when the price goes down. Zelda is day one while many of the others are not. I would buy more if they went down in price over time but sadly that is not Nintendo's approach.

Some games on other platforms are the same. Overwatch for instance is -still- $100 AUD despite launching a couple years ago.

I do not know if it is for the country but Overwatch GOTY Edition a few days ago was 20 dollars in Amazon USA. Now it's 37 dollars.

Nintendo has no competition.

I think they have a great system set up. Many of their titles have strong legs. Then when they finally do slow down, they get a second wind through the "Selects" brand.

This is not just about competing, this is about selling more consoles. And for this, Nintendo needs to attract an audience that might be interested in buying the console but does not because buying their games is unsustainable over time. The fact of seeing an attractive product at a good price motivates people to buy.

i agree that lower game costs would probably boost console sales a bit. but, like you stated before, nintendo’s games seem to sell well regardless (at least this generation). even when they haven’t sold well, nintendo seems to be reluctant to lower their prices. i think nintendo has a lot of pride for their flagship games, believing that they are still worth full price sometimes 3-4 years after they’ve been released.

This is why I'm of the opinion that Nintendo doesn't actually want "full" third party support. They want enough to be a popular option, of course, but I don't think they'll ever court publishers and developers like their competition. Nintendo is a software company that uses hardware to sell games. Sony and Microsoft use games to sell hardware and related services.

Well in terms of physical games, that's not Nintendo's choice. It's the retailer's choice to raise or drop price of their inventory, they're only given a MSRP. For example Mario Odyssey is like 48 bucks on Amazon. In terms of digital, they have discounted one 1st party game to my knowledge... and that was ARMS.

But then there's the business stance, if people are still buying your game at $60, which they are, why drop it to $40? Horizon Zero Dawn is no longer in the top 10, Breath of the Wild still shows up in the top 10 NPD. Why drop the price? It doesn't make much business sense unless you're desperate or nobody is buying your game anymore. Sega was desperate to beat Nintendo, so they did price drops and pack ins of their best software. That helped them get ahead, but not for very long. For Nintendo, I'm sure it makes sense for them to keep a game at a certain price. And eventually, they do Nintendo Selects which drop their top games to 20 bucks.

There's also something to be said about Nintendo's physical game philosophy. They make sure, or at least try to make sure that your game in its entirety is on that disc, or cartridge or game card. And in an environment where that's hard to come by, it's valuable. A lot of other developers fit 25 or 50GB of space on a blu ray and make you download and install the rest. Nintendo's 1st party games do not do that. So you're actually buying a game, a real physical game. And I think that adds value.

And lastly, Nintendo 1st party games are just usually of high quality, and often second to none. So people see value in quality. I remember about 3 years ago, I went into a GameStop and traded in my Wii collection, for reasons, but I digress. I traded in my Wii games and got over $300 cash for them. The cashier made sure to tell me that "The only reason you're getting this much is because the games you traded in are Nintendo games". Word for word, that's what she said to me. And even further back, I remember going to GameStop and trading in old Nintendo 1st party Gameboy games and the manager had to come out and tell my dad that we're trading in valuable and rare games.

They're quality and highly sought after games, and people are still buying them. That's why I think they keep their prices the way they are. If the games start to sell rather poorly, or less than they expect, then I think Nintendo would discount them for sure. Their job is to maximixe profit. I think they'd rather sell 10 people a $60 game than 20 people a $20 game. As far as digital sales, I think Nintendo does need to embrace that more and hopefully they do that with the online deals in September.

Edit: in terms of making sure a game reaches more people, like I've mentioned above, Nintendo does Nintendo selects and even before then, Player's Choice which discounts games.