$400 PS4 in 2013 = $547 today with inflation. 

Even from 2020, the PS5's $500 launch price is $616 today. 

Switch 2 with Mario Kart World included for $499.99 flat and being able to be both a home console + portable machine is entirely reasonable. 

Also Nintendo is one dunking on Sony these days, Sony is never going to have a system that sells as well as the Switch 1 because Switch 1 is soon going to dethrone the PS2 itself. 

Oh yes, Nintendo definitely wanted to be nice... LOL

I'd still buy a few Nintendo games Day One, but damn lol.

They pushing the envelope for full game prices when Sony already took one for the industry. Now the rest of the industry is getting ready to follow suit. 

I mean they very easily could have (and probably honestly should have) just nixed cartridges entirely and gone 100% digital only. They are being "nice" by accommodating people who must have physical for whatever reasons when they really don't have to and probably shouldn't. 

People need to understand there is a significant cost difference here, $10 goes to the packaging/shipping and retailer cut cost right off the top, then throw in these are new carts that are likely more expensive because they have to be faster (otherwise the internal storage would be way faster than the cart and just as SD Express cards are more expensive than standard SD Cards). So you're probably getting into the range of $15-$20 more per physical game versus a digital copy ... yeah no shit, no business would subsidize that margin forever it's a huge cut of the overall cost of the game. 

It's far worse than the PS5/XBox where at least a physical copy only means a disc, and a disc only costs 5 cents to press. A cartridge is probably another $6-$10+ cost (depending on the size you need) alone, so all in you're at $10 for the retailer's cut + packaging + shipping and then another $6-10+ for the cart itself, that's a good $16-$20 less you make per game sale, that's a ridiculous amount of money to lose per copy. 

I like collecting things but when the physical product just economically is getting out of control in cost, it's a net negative. If we had digital downloads (high speed internet + cheap mass storage) available back in like the mid/late 1990s when the N64 was out, digital would've been a godsend for the N64, especially would have allowed many more games without the $70+ price point in those days for the stupid cart. Physical was fine while it lasted, but especially in the case of cartridges that cost substantially more than a disc ... it's time for them to go bye bye. There are far cheaper ways to distribute games these days. 

It's too soon for that for Nintendo since physical still makes up a huge percentage of game sales for them. Japan in particular is still big on physical and if there's anyone they don't wanna piss off it's the Japanese. Having digital games be cheaper is the right move for now till physical is niche enough which might be the case by the time the Switch 3 comes out though the physical digital ratio for Nintendo hasn't shifted that much recently but the Switch 2 being significantly better for digital could help with that.

I suspect these new cartridges cost significantly more just due to the higher speed.

Look at SD Micro Express cards ... they are definitely a premium over older, slower SD Cards. No one complains about that because it's expected.

But for cartridges it's likely the same deal ... the new faster carts cost more than the old, slower ones.

To match or be in the ball park of UFS 3.1 speed (Switch 2's internal storage) and/or the speed SD Express cards, it likely cost Nintendo a premium.

Physical is just going to have to cost more or Nintendo was going to have to gimp the speed of the games and add in longer loading times.

It's nintento, so it's not that often they come out with bangers. Some of their exclusives, probably 2 a year will be worth full price

I wouldn't buy needless physical junk even if it were cheaper.

It's been about 15 years since I've bought a physical copy of a game, I'm pretty sure my last one was Mario Kart 7 from the beginning of the 3DS generation. Even earlier if you count PC games, music, and films.

Yeah... Nintendo rarely develops any of these "bangers" compared to others 🤪

Junk would imply having no monetary value. Which is exactly what a digital library has.

Physical games meanwhile are still worth money after being purchased and people will have switch physical game collections on their shelves worth over $1k and for the very large collections much much more.