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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Why are Wii games so freakin' expensive??

tokilamockingbrd on 03 August 2015

Go look at some gamecube games if you think the Wii games are expensive.

Skies of Arcadia Legends
Fire Emblem: PoR
Twightlight Princess

and many other fetch huge prices on Ebay. (and I own these 3)....



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asqarkabab on 03 August 2015

Because its Nintendo 😁



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the_dengle on 03 August 2015

Uhh, a few Wii games are expensive. Then you have games like Metroid Prime 3 and Kirby's Epic Yarn that are dirt cheap. There are a lot of those, many of them quite good.



gabzjmm23 on 03 August 2015
pokoko said:
One of the main reasons I don't have a Nintendo device as a "second console". I came close to buying a Wii when the price dropped but then I saw the prices of the games I wanted to play and I was all like,"nah, dog, nah."

Thanks, Nintendo.

i have Wii U and PS4, I don't buy a lot of new games for either console, the last one was Splatoon.  I'm glad for the PS4 which I'll wait in 6-10 months and the prices drop. :)

$60 for me is meant for certain games I'm hyped for, but for the others I can wait. I know some Nintendo games won't devalue that much, so I really need to be pick which game from previous gen I wanted to play.   Bought Xenoblade this year and it is worth it.  It really depends on the games you really wanted to play. I'm going for certain deals even I'm not going to play it for a while mostly on PS4 games.



TomaTito on 03 August 2015
Darwinianevolution said:
Xenoblade for the Wii is really rare, so stores take advantage of that. I don't knoow about SS, I bought Skyward Sword Special edition for 15€ new.

Last year I bought Xenoblade for 10€ new. You can find good deals, but only if you look for them.



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Darwinianevolution on 03 August 2015
TomaTito said:
Darwinianevolution said:
Xenoblade for the Wii is really rare, so stores take advantage of that. I don't knoow about SS, I bought Skyward Sword Special edition for 15€ new.

Last year I bought Xenoblade for 10€ new. You can find good deals, but only if you look for them.

I haven't even seen an original copy of Xenoblade, and you found it for 10 € XD



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Maraccuda on 03 August 2015

Title should read 'Why are NINTENDO games so freakin' expensive??'

Generally most 1st/2nd party games never go cheaper, even as second hand copies.

It does make me wonder how much more they would sell if they ever dropped to bargain prices like every other game.



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Ganoncrotch on 03 August 2015
Cobretti2 said:
ganoncrotch said:


If you are being absolutely ripped off being asked prices like 100+ for used wii games from 3rd parties you might consider modding your wii, I'm sure the thought of stealing money from Nintendo is of course bad... but you aren't talking about giving cash to Nintendo for these rare games, they simply didn't print enough of them and scalpers are cashing in on that fact on ebay or even shops like gamestop have pushed up the price of rarer Wii games, none of this money you pay would go back to the big N in the sky anyway.

I have my launch day wii modded simply for convience sake, the online service to the console was shut down so there was no risk of running into issues online and Wii games just aren't available new anymore here with my local 2nd hand market filled with 100s of copies of the same few popular games.

Might not be a popular opinion but for me Legit games > Piracy > Scalpers.


It isn't scalping though. Scalping is more about buying someting to flip quickly for a huge gain, generally concert tickets, stock market or preorder items.

The games you are talking about are several years old and are rare so the value just goes up over time and there is nothing wrong with it. can't blame somone for having better insite than you and getting it at a reasonable cost at launch. 

There is an entire business based around going through auctions of consoles on Ebay which include certain rarer games or going through charity shops just to buy games which have a high resell value. It's not really having better "insite" doing that nor even if it was is that money going back to Nintendo or the software developer like I said.

You wont find too many sellers who happen to have multiple copies of rare wii games for sale on Ebay just happen to have been buyers of them new.



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Dusk on 04 August 2015
sc94597 said:
Dusk said:

It means what I said.

As I said before, they only create/print a certain allotment of games based on their projected demand for the game. They generally don't make more games than that. That is why there always ends up with demand for the games as opposed to the market being saturated. I'm not sure if you noticed, but the price of Xenoblade dropped dramatically when the 3DS version released. It's because the demand for the game lowered, however there are still those that want the original version for the Wii which is why it's still a relatively high price. If there wasn't demand for the game it would be much lower. That is why this often happen with games that are more rare.

What you posted refers to is initial price points, not the used market. The used, or rare market more reflects that to the likes of cars. A Delorian goes for more than when they were brand new, and the price keep rising because less are on the roads. Same goes for certain records and tapes (more so vinyl records though). However there has to be demand for it. Nintendo games, ie Zelda, Smash, Mario, Metroid, Xenoblade or any others all release at the same price point as other games on their system, or new games on other systems. If it were artificially inflated then any of the aformentioned games would release at higher MSRP, but they aren't.


Instead of clarifying your statement you just let it be. Okeydokey. If what were "factual"?

I already explained Xenoblade and The Last Story through shortages ( that is what the graph shows.) Nintendo does more than just shortages though. They take advantage of retailer inelasticity of demand to make deals that keep the prices of said games high for longer than other games.

Nintendo games get much more shelf space and retailers keep them on their shelves longer than third party games. This is partly because of inelasticity of demand, but also because of the deals Nintendo makes and the perceived values of Nintendo games. Other games that NOA have been involved with also benefit, like Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest. Notice that when these games released for other systems their prices decreased much faster. This was because there were no bulk retail deals and third parties wanted to replace retail space with something else. You could still find games like metroid other m at these high prices not because there is high demand but because of Nintendo's predictions and retailer deals. Meanwhile stores that didnt have these deals put the game in the bargain bin because of low demand and they weren't restricted by Nintendo with regards to bulk purchases.

The used market is affected by the equilibrium price of the new market. Not entirely, but partly. If a game retails at $50 for two years then the equilibrium price in the used market is going to be higher than a game that only retailed at $50 then got a price drop after a year. 


I'll take a picture of the Gamespot near me and show you are wrong that statement is.



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sc94597 on 04 August 2015
Dusk said:
sc94597 said:


Instead of clarifying your statement you just let it be. Okeydokey. If what were "factual"?

I already explained Xenoblade and The Last Story through shortages ( that is what the graph shows.) Nintendo does more than just shortages though. They take advantage of retailer inelasticity of demand to make deals that keep the prices of said games high for longer than other games.

Nintendo games get much more shelf space and retailers keep them on their shelves longer than third party games. This is partly because of inelasticity of demand, but also because of the deals Nintendo makes and the perceived values of Nintendo games. Other games that NOA have been involved with also benefit, like Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest. Notice that when these games released for other systems their prices decreased much faster. This was because there were no bulk retail deals and third parties wanted to replace retail space with something else. You could still find games like metroid other m at these high prices not because there is high demand but because of Nintendo's predictions and retailer deals. Meanwhile stores that didnt have these deals put the game in the bargain bin because of low demand and they weren't restricted by Nintendo with regards to bulk purchases.

The used market is affected by the equilibrium price of the new market. Not entirely, but partly. If a game retails at $50 for two years then the equilibrium price in the used market is going to be higher than a game that only retailed at $50 then got a price drop after a year. 


I'll take a picture of the Gamespot near me and show you are wrong that statement is.

With regards to which statement? I made a lot of them. I can also take a picture of Metroid Other M being $40 at the local Walmart (new) and $12 in the bargain bin at the local Target (also new.) Likely because the latter wasn't strangled by some deal or they finally sold all of their stock. Why would any of this be if the market is determining prices and not Nintendo's influence on retailers?

I already mentioned how eight Gamestops within ten miles of my location (in a medium sized metropolitan area - Pittsburgh, PA) have multiple copies of Skyward Sword in stock, but also price it at $55 (New) and $45 (used.) There obviously isn't a shortage in the local market, as there are dozens of accessible copies in the immediate area. If demand exceeded supply so much so, in this scenario, then there wouldn't be so many available copies, unless their price is overvalued for most people - that is - and most people don't value Skyward Sword at $45/$55.

Why is the case that they over-value the games passed the market equillibrium? Because they know that even though the game will be on that shelf for maybe another year or so, its price won't drop. So when it does eventually sell, they will get it for that $55/$45. Why won't the price drop? Because for Gamestops competitors (Target, Walmart, Best Buy, etc) they like to buy items in bulk. Part of their bulk deals with Nintendo is that there is no buyer's protection (meaning if the value of an item decreases rapidly Nintendo won't let them sell it back.) That means they either take a huge loss, or just wait it out over the years with a highly priced game because somebody will buy it (see the Metroid: Other M scenario.) Additionally, Nintendo makes shelf-space deals, in which the retailer MUST put their games in that space by contract, and Nintendo controls the supply to favor their first party games. Even if the game isn't highly demanded, it is going to be there for ages, and its not going to decrease price unless more new Nintendo games come out, and the retailer says, "okay, let me take a loss, because "Mario XYZ" is coming out and I need the shelf-space for that. Throw Metroid Other M into the bargain bin." This is all precisely why you find Nintendo games either $30 + or in the bargain bin, at bulk retailers - regardless of their demand curves.