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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Why NON Nintendo games prices go down so fast

As a gamer I prefer the strategy on pc, ps4 and xbox by s country mile. It means I can buy a shit ton of games for less money. Over the last 2 months I've bought about 10 games for about €10 each sometimes less. I bought spiderman deluxe on sale from €80 for €50 under 2 months after release and I bought RDR2 + Spyro trilogy at launch with $15 cash back thanks to a psn ptomotio. So basically both of them for $85.

Unless you are a philanthropist, you should want the model seen on pc, ps4 and xbox. More games for less money.



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KingofTrolls said:
manuelogando40 said:

 So, what do you think. Sales, marketing strategy?

Thank you for your answers. 

The competition. The PS4's games library is flooded with new games every month. Day-night difference between Switch and PS4 here.

The difference is day-night?



omarct said:
manuelogando40 said:

I am not agree with this. In fact, most Nintendo games sell in a impressive way, and they sell with strong legs. It is safe to say they reach the most people with their games. 

Thats false, only the very popular Nintendo games have strong legs because Nintendo fans have no choice but to buy full price. But their less popular games do not have strong legs.

But this works well for Nintendo because they make a few strong games and dont have to worry about cannibalizing themselves with many games and lowering prices, which is why they dont care so much about third party games as they see them as competition. If you are an avid gamer, this is one of the reason why having only a Nintendo console its not recommended as their selection of games is very limited compared to the other consoles/pc. 

TLDR one of the many reasons for lower prices in other consoles  is the result of competition from many third party games trying to get a piece of the pie. Meanwhile Nintendo has almost 0 third party competition on their console which allows them to keep their prices up, not to mention they have a very dedicated fan-base.

Games move regardless, even if some have much better legs than others.



The Democratic Nintendo fan....is that a paradox? I'm fond of one of the more conservative companies in the industry, but I vote Liberally and view myself that way 90% of the time?

Nintendo relies heavily on SW sales for profit, while most other gaming companies don't. Sony gets a ton of profit from PS plus, MS XBL, Activision DLC and Blizz subscriptions, EA DLC, T2 from GTA online, etc etc. Nintendo recently tried diversifying by launching Nintendo Online and offering small snippets of DLC.

There are some games like GTA and Red Dead Redemption that hold their value just like Nintendo, but even then Take 2 can decide to drop the price or bundle their games to push their big money making strategy with GTA or RD online, Nintendo does not currently have that fallback strategy.



Faelco said:

I hate Nintendo's strategy. The thing is, after a while people who really want your game already paid it full price, or close to it. If you want to convince more people and expand your customers base, the best way is to lower the price.

When I see a game half price or even 70% off during sales one year after the release, I can say "Oh, I wasn't sure about getting it, but at this price, why not?". And for the next game, I could be interested enough in it to buy it at release (happened for several IPs that I became a fan of thanks to half random buys during sales). But 60 dollars for a game that I really might not like? No thanks. At lower risk, it's an acceptable risk.

Meanwhile, I'm still hesitating about buying Fire Emblem Fates, but since the price didn't go down, my position didn't change either: "Maybe one day".

This is why I buy far fewer games for Nintendo systems than I do for the others.  At $15 or $20, I'm often willing to take a shot on a game that I'm not crazy about.  But, I never drop $60, or even $50, on a game unless I'm nearly certain I'll enjoy it.  That means I only buy a couple Nintendo games per year, while I may buy 10 or 12 PS or XB games.  



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Competition.



Some people that have Nintendo don't understand how life is in places like South America for example, something that Sony and even Microsoft does. Instead of becoming competitive here they just choose the elitism approach which is very sad. They don't even release games here anymore while PS4 and X1 games are released even with subtitles in portuguese. I have a P4, 3DS and Switch (that I bought while I visited my brother in Canada last year) and quality wise there is no reason for Nintendo act the way they do. Their games are not better. I loved "Breath of the Wild" and and "Odyssey". But I loved Persona 5 and God of War way more and they are not 60$, a game like Mario Party being $60 really makes me laugh to be honest.
Games should be enjoyed by everyone and even though I will continue playing Switch next year because of their approach I will play way less than I could have.



Short answer? Competition.

Long answer:

If someone bought a NS say, this time next year. You can pretty much list out the top 7 games the person can or will buy right now. Now since there are very few must have  games to chose from or more specifically fewer publishers offering must have games on the platform, nintendo pretty much has a monopoly on their library. The know that anyone buying their platform is going to buy (the usual suspects) mario, mario kart, smash, zelda.....etc. The same group of best selling games on every nintendo platform. So the only reason to drop their prices is if their sequels are released on the same platform.

Its also a way of forcing the hand of their buyers. Take me for instance, I have not bought either detroit or spiderman yet, because I have a backlog I am still going through and I know that by the time I am ready to play them sometime in march next year they will cost less. Hence it makes zero sense me buying it now and having it just sit in my hard drive till next year. Nintendo buyers don't have that luxury. You might as well just buy the game now cause its price is never coming down. Meanwhile when I am ready I will probably get both games for $60.

Last edited by Intrinsic - on 22 December 2018



KLAMarine said:

The difference is day-night?

Yes. Nobody invests tens of millions of dollars for a game, and will simply sit and stare at other's new games overshadow it a week after launch. 

The Nintendo consoles have a lot less multiplats and there is a reason for it.