why the hell do first party nintendo games stay expensive for so long?

[Joelcool7]

Galaki said:

animefobber said:

@Galaki

u got another example? i don't think the TP one holds up really well

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000FQBPCQ/ref=sr_1_1_olp?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1288937884&sr=1-1&condition=used

It's what I see at ebgames. Apparently, games are more expensive here in Canada, too.

However, I do notice there are more Nintendo games going on sale more frequently this year than previously.

Note that I only buy new games.

I dunno I'm Canadian and at most retailers new Wii games sell for 49.99CAD, in the US most game stores sell their games for the same 49.99USD. Thats the same price seeing as our dollar is pretty much on par or around par steadily. Now that being said EBGames likes to stamp an extra five bucks on. I paid 54.99$ for Kirby but because I had it pre-ordered and put most of the money down already I couldn't really walk into FutureShop and buy it there for 49.99$.

Now American's get X-Box Live cheaper and they do also have better sales more often. But we get great deals too.

Thats why its so cool to live on the border a good deal comes up and I can simply cross the border and buy it cheaper. I'm so looking forward to BlackFriday its like our boxing day but with better sales.

Also do note not all Nintendo published games hold their price. BattalionWars 2 was only 19.99$ at my local EBGames and I saw it for five bucks used at a local game store. If the game doesn't sell then Nintendo does cut prices or at least retailers do.

Nintendo sells games at a profit at all times , during the GameCube era Nintendo made most of its profits from software sales and now that they are enjoying such good sales they want to make the most of it. Even if a game ins't selling well then Nintendo really wants the game to be sold at a higher cost.

Say a game is so unpopular it only will sell 50K, do you sell the game for 19.99$ and sell an extra 25k. Or do you sell the game full price for 49.99$ and only sell 50k?

 

Also Nintendo officially addressed this in 2006. Iwata stated hardware  prices would not be slashed in a few months or even a few years. Iwata stated thats how the industry used to run slash prices a few months later to increase demand, he said that model didn't work. So it would appear Nintendo is taking the same approach with software that they did for hardware.

 

Lastly if you only buy games new and are on a budget their are two times of year you can really stock up on games. If you live in a border town that is.

BlackFriday (USA) - I bought Zelda TP for a friend's Christmas gift for like 29.99$ a couple years ago. I also got Excite Bots for 14.99$ last year. I saw MarioParty8 on sale for like 20$ and other great games. Select Nintendo titles can be found at Best Buy , Target, Walmart. Those are the three I usually hit, I used to hit Circuit City as well but they no longer live.

Boxing Day (Canada) - Boxing day is our Black Friday. I remember launch year 2006. I bought SSX:Blur, FarCry for 9.99$ and Zelda for 19.99$ (Thanks to a typo in the ad) Check FutureShop, BestBuy, Walmart , Zellers and no suprise (Usually avoid EBGames like a hawk).

In all honesty their are also smaller sales all year round. Recently DS hardware was 50$ off at Zellers. I also saw several games on sale at FutureShop and BestBuy.

My advice shop around for sales and you can get most of the big name games within a few months of release really cheap!