The Switch 2 is in trouble IMO

[Wman1996]

sc94597 said:

Airaku said:

I would argue this is far worse than the PS3 situation. PS3 games didn't cost and arm and a leg. 

A $60 USD game in 2006 is about $97 USD in 2025 dollars. 

In real prices, video games have been pretty flat (after a small decline in price over the 2010's when games were stuck at $60 MSRP for about a decade, despite other prices increasing with inflation.) 

Now of course there is a lot more to it. There are more DLC/microtransactions these days, no subscriptions then (for PS3 in 2006), and Nintendo games rarely drop in price, but brand new PS3 games weren't that affordable.

The most affordable period for game purchases probably was the 8th Generation.

In the 80's and 90's games were even more expensive than now, and games in the 00's were about comparable to this. 

Now this isn't to say Nintendo isn't being profit-seeking/greedy, they are, but it is to say that they do have room to experiment with prices on titles that sell in the tens of millions and that is likely what motivates them here.

I agree that the very late 7th gen and just prior to COVID-19 (or as you said, the 8th gen more or less) was probably the most affordable period in many markets for gaming in history when you compare inflation in the USA and other countries over time.

I also agree that while it is unfortunate that Mario Kart World is $80 and $70 looks to be the new standard for Switch 2, it's not as dire taking inflation into account as games at the launch of PS3 were. Also, what first or third-party games were people looking forward to on PS3 early on? From what I can gather (I didn't play PS3 when it was a new thing) it took until Uncharted in November 2007 and GTA IV in April 2008 for people to take PS3 more seriously and it became a real contender with the PS3 Slim and better games from September 2009 onward. 

We are not in a PS3 situation yet. I'd say the worst situation we're in is Xbox One. It sold a good deal less by percentage and number of units than Xbox 360 and while it shipped 10 million units by October 2014) it was pretty clear it couldn't live up to 360 in the long haul. 

Switch 2 is going to have to face a big backlash to sell less than 100 million units.