Currently Online 
| Louie said: I think it's really funny how some users here try desperately to act as if cartridges are dead or bad. Game cards are the thing that sets the Switch apart and people are upset because they want physical games. People are ready to pay a premium for a physical game. To each their own. I will gladly pay more to have a game on card. The Switch 2's biggest problem right now is that there is less physical media available compared to Switch 1 and that hurts software sales for third parties. Otherwise Nintendo wouldn't do public surveys about Game Key Cards lol. As for the actual topic of this thread: I'm really happy with the Switch 2's performance so far. Low-effort ports are basically PS4 versions with faster loading times, which is perfectly fine and what I expected. Higher effort ports are comparable to PS4 Pro and it looks like with the right game or the right optimization performance can land somewhere between PS4 Pro and Series S. This is all I could've asked for and I'm really happy with it. Also, the list of big games coming to the system is pretty large already. I prefer playing on handhelds or hybrids (even though I play a lot in docked mode, too) and my wishlist is already way too long. There's definitely more high profile third party games for the system than there was on the Switch 1. And Nintendo still provides their steady stream of one first party game per month, which is awesome. I just want more games on actual cards instead of Game Key Cards, and I don't mind paying more for that (in Europe first party games on card already cost 10€ more than downloads and that doesn't stop people from buying physical games at all) |
A Switch 2 game has to sell at $15 dollars more to make the same amount of money as the PS5/Xbox version per physical copy. And when you factor in digital ratios, it has to sell at about $23~ dollar more. That's a huge difference.
Higher prices are also objectively a deal breaker to a lot of gamers, they definitely will have an impact on sales performance overall. But I would agree that Switch 2 cartridge prices shouldn't discourage publishers from supporting the console, because the money they make on Switch 2 is an added bonus to the sales of the other versions.
From a business perspective though, I don't know if expensive cartridges would be more successful than cheaper game key cards. I'm inclined to say they are, because many of those who won't buy 3rd party games at such high prices will either wait for a deal, or get the games digitally (which would be more profitable than physical even when sold at $20 cheaper).
