Arlo's video makes some excellent points. For Nintendo's rereleases and new titles their pricing is all over the place for what the release is.

Nintendo's usual philosophy during Switch has been: Retail game? $60. But then we see stuff like Metroid Prime Remastered which is a graphical remake of one of the most-acclaimed games ever and it's $40. 

I have to imagine there is some complicated behind the scenes discussions and budgetary things that dictate why Metroid Prime is that price but stuff like Luigi's Mansion 2 HD is $60. But from what we know publicly, most of this makes no sense.

And we have titles like WarioWare that has both of its installments for $50 and yet Game Builder Garage and Big Brain Academy are $30, and Clubhouse Games is $40. 

Lololol, I was currently watching this exact video before seeing this thread 🤣

The discussion in itself is interesting but I personally think beyond the budget and efforts put into these remakes, remasters, in-betweens and HD ports.

Sometimes their pricing is only due to the IP to which it is attached. They obviously highly value Luigi's Mansion and DKC enough that they're willing to sell those HD ports at the same rate that high polished remakes or remasters effort like TTYD or Xenoblade Chronicles DE for example.

Metroid Prime Remastered however is prolly seen a bit lesser in that regard because it doesn't the numbers those series do.

Also, Imma gonna respectfully disagree on Arlo's tangent with the Famicom Detective Club remakes. He's clearly uninformed of the old-school Japanese adventure genre to simply classify it as "another visual novel" despite it not being that.

And from an art perspective, those games got massive upgrades over their original which ultimately justify their prices more than enough.

I just chalk it up to Nintendo being Nintendo. Trying to make sense out of Nintendo's decisions is nigh impossible.

Like why hasn't wind waker HD been ported to Switch? Nintendo being Nintendo.

Cool video and interesting thoughts.

Usually pricing is not determined by a classical calculation like cost + profit margin = consumer price.

It's the marketing department estimating what price they get away with. Internally Nintendo decided they can sell Luigi Mansion 2 HD for its standard price point and then let's not forget put some marketing behind it.

For Metroid Prime Remaster there was almost no marketing attached to it besides the Direct announcement. Just showed Nintendo did not expect a huge seller, which with 1 million +, it did do decent, but not mindblowing.

I think the lower price for Metroid Prime Remastered is due to fans waiting so long for MP4. Remasters are usually 60 bucks.

Wii U ports are $60 but admittedly most have new content. 

I'm used to it.

I just wait for digital deals or wait when the eshop cards go on sale and then redeem them for vouchers.

Probably just a matter of how much they think people will pay. Mario is bigger than Metroid, and Prime received a fairly recent remake compared to TTYD.

Pricing is consistent because it's decided in accordance to how much the games will sell.

For Metroid Prime, you have to remember that it had already been packaged within a trilogy in 2009 (retailed for $50 back in the day on the Wii) that was re-released on the Wii U digitally for $20. That's why $40 for a graphical overhaul seem to be the right price.

WarioWare and other party games command a lower MSRP because the $40-50 bracket has worked for generations. Titles like Big Brain Academy and Brain Age have always had the lowest tier in terms of pricing.

All the confusion stems from the false assumption that price is determined by production plus marketing budget when it's actually determined by value. And value is determined by customers.