Besides, Iwata has stated that games released only digitally will be cheaper than when they are available also at retail. That is to avoid people seeing the digital as a lower proposition than the retail, which it is not true.

You are not far from reality. People usually don't take into consideration how much it cost to maintain a server, especially one as big as companies like Nintendo, Sony and MS use. Instead of paying for the plastic, you are paying the maintenance of these servers.

That said, the price of a digital should still be cheaper than the retail version. Mainly because the retailer takes a big chunk of that money ($15 for a $60 game), add the distribution and cost of goods ($4) and you have $19 difference between what a digital game should cost. $19 per game is huge, and maintaining a server should be less than that (talking from personal experiences), but without knowing how much Nintendo spends on their servers, this is speculation on my part.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a8b7438c970b-600wi

I'm talking about 1st party games btw, because 3rd parties have to pay a fee to put games on the eshop, which will take the "retailers" part (although is probably cheaper than $15).

It probably wouldnt be a good Idea for Nintendo to undercut their 3rd party games in pricing, that wouldnt help with their relationship

If the servers costed as much as the difference to retail... Then sony would be closed already just from the ps+ giving you several hundreds of dollars for a small fee.

That's what the fees for PSN+ are for. Nintendo doesn't have any of that, their online service is free.

Plus, in the same way as MS, Sony is much more than gaming, if they need the cash they can get it from another division. Nintendo doesn't have that advantage.

But again, this is mostly speculation on my part, since I don't know how any of these companies work internally. I'm talking from personal experiences for companies which are much more smaller than any of the big 3.

That's a load of bullcr*p. Sorry. :/

Most Nintendo games for the 3DS for example cost 4800 Yen. But when you walk into a major retailer or buy from amazon, you can get them for about 3800-4200 Yen on average, right on release day.
Why in the world would I pay full price for a download (that I can't resell if I lose interest) if I can get a boxed copy for cheaper?
It just doesn't make sense to me.
Of course a download is convenient, but that doesn't justify the high price.

In my opinion games on the eshop should be about 25-40% cheaper than the SRP of the physical copy.

You guys do know there is NO such thing as a free lunch right?

They gotta get the money from somewhere

Abused by Nintendo? How? Just don't buy the game digitally. Or wait for a price drop or sale.

Nintendo is the Devil!

I value the boxed copy of the game much higher. The most i've paid for Steam game till now has been $15. Would have paid more for the retail copy of those games. I guess that is their thinking and they are going to stick with it.