Global Hardware 14 December 2019

[Slownenberg]

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Slownenberg said:

ha yeah i could totally see nintendo refusing to budge from $300 as they watch sales start going down in 2021. Hopefully they are smarter than that but we'll see. The hardware companies used to actually compete, now they seem to just be on three different trajectories and don't even really bother competing, tho obviously sony and microsoft go more head to head.

I would think they would drop OG Switch price and announce a slightly beefed up new $300 version so they can keep that price point while letting people who want hybrid option and not Lite but have been waiting years for a price cut to finally get in. That way even like two years from now they could still indeed have that $300 price, but have OG Switch at like $230, and have the Lite at like $170.

They really need to get that Nintendo Select or whatever its called, $30 games, going next year. Zelda, Splatoon, MK8, Mario Odyssey, and the Wii U ports, along with smaller games like Arms and whatnot, should all be cut to $30. The only one that maybe doesn't make sense would be Mario Kart since it still has solid legs.

Nintendo isn't going to cut the price of anything next year.  From a business perspective next year is pure gravy.  Switch sales rates are still increasing, and PS4 and XB1 sales are plummeting.  They are going to be competing against no one.  MK8, Zelda, and Smash Bros still have really good legs too at $60 each, and Pokemon is going to join that list.  It's all gravy.

They should probably cut the price in 2021 though.  

Depends on how sales are doing next year. I imagine next year will be Switch's peak year and it won't really have any competition, so price cut wouldn't make sense for most of the year unless they see sales start to slow mid-year. But price cut does make sense leading up to the launch of the new systems to keep the Switch as the must have video game item next holidays. Nintendo won't want to get drowned out by the excitement of two new systems, so they should definitely be making business moves at that point. A couple 10+ million sellers launching plus a price cut would put them in good position to maintain buyer excitement in the wake of new systems.

On the other hand maybe they'll just actually have discounts going on instead of an actual price cut next holiday. Could totally see Switch actually being given real BF deals and then holiday discounts and then Nintendo watches as 2021 progresses to see if they need a permanent price cut during first half of 2021.