Nintendo Explains Why Digital Games Aren't Any Cheaper

[Karadalis]

Oh nintendo how have you fallen...

You know if you still where the stronghouse you have been during the times of the SNES with titles like secret of mana, final fantasy, breath of fire, Contra, street fighter, r-type and the megaman series i would maybe.. just maybe see a point.

But nowadays all the "good" games you have are the same old nintendo lineups, pokemon, mario (including spinoffs like mario cart), zelda and metroid.

Your console name has become synonimous with shovel ware.

If it hadnt been for the fact that you cornered the handheld market and sony shooting itself in the food with its attempts then the situation would look just as bleak as it did before sega stopped making consoles themselves.

Lets face it, the overwhelming mass of games for your consoles arent even worth half the prize you ask for them. And those who are are so milked that their teats are about to fall off.

The console basicly has NO triple A exclusives anymore that arent a nintendo house franchise or from a japanese game developer.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

So digital games are the same price as physical copies cause publishers want more money.

All it is and all it ever will be. The excuse they've come up with is hogwash. Granted, there have been mixed reports for their finances and they've let people go, but please don't use an excuse like something EA would use.

Well, half hogwash. The last bit in their is totally true, by putting new IPs or games they don't think will sell well at a lower price they should succeed in getting more interest for those games. They know they can get away with the regular price points because they have data to back it up. The moment people stop buying the 'overpriced' digital products they will drop the price to encourage sales, but as they said it will likely never happen.

 

[klaynexas3]

I have a few questions. One, why are they getting targeted specifically? All console people do this. Only on the PC do we see sales and even then they're just that, there is still a base price that is the same, in fact sometimes more, than retail. Another question, why do they expect people to switch to digital when their digital distribution is absolute shite? Seriously, I can't think of a worse online shop. Maybe that's why they're answering this, because they think this is why we complain. I'm fine with buying a digital game as long as I have benefits to buying it digital over physical. It's a detriment to buy a digital Nintendo game, simply due to their piss poor way of using accounts. Dammit, now I'm pissed off again by their incompitance with the online world. Dammit Nintendo, god dammit.

 

[loa]

Digital only games already are devalued because they are digital only which means locked to the specific system they were bought on in nintendos case because nintendo is incompetent as fuck when it comes to online.
What an idiot.

 

[Weresquirrel]

Frankly, I'd be less annoyed at this attitude if the downloadable games weren't the same price now as they've always been. The Ocarina of Time remake for the 3DS is still £40 on the eShop. I find it staggering the Nintendo thinks it's okay to price a 2 year old port of a 15 year old game at the same price as a game released this week. Ditto for their Star Fox rerelease. I only have it because I found a physical copy for 1/4 of their asking price.

What makes it all the stranger, is I can buy a downloadable copy of the game from another company's website for cheaper than direct from the source.

 

[bdcjacko]

Why do people get outraged the games cost money?

Because you pay the same and get less, that's why.

What do you get less of, do they withhold the last level if you buy a digitial copy?

 

[loa]

Why do people get outraged the games cost money?

Because you pay the same and get less, that's why.

What do you get less of, do they withhold the last level if you buy a digitial copy?

You get less of an entire game if you ever use another system.

 

[Neonit]

So yeah, it costs the same because we want money. No news here, move along....

"oooo, we have to pay for the servers, that we dont have because we live in middle-ages - thats why we dont have websites nor emails"

ffs, we all know it - just be honest.... at this point they are like a guy explaining that he didnt commit murder, while holding the body in one hand, and knife in the other. and a post-it with "today i shall commit a murder". and a map titled "i shall bury the body here" with a big red cross. you know what im getting at.

 

[Samurai Silhouette]

I don't mind it costing the same, but why can't these fucks tell the truth instead of sugarcoating lies with bullshit?

 

[bdcjacko]

Why do people get outraged the games cost money?

Because you pay the same and get less, that's why.

What do you get less of, do they withhold the last level if you buy a digitial copy?

You get less of an entire game if you ever use another system.

How if that different than a physical copy? If I buy say call of duty for wii u, it would play on Xbox 360. So that is dumb argument.

 

[loa]

Why do people get outraged the games cost money?

Because you pay the same and get less, that's why.

What do you get less of, do they withhold the last level if you buy a digitial copy?

You get less of an entire game if you ever use another system.

How if that different than a physical copy? If I buy say call of duty for wii u, it would play on Xbox 360. So that is dumb argument.

Buy your call of shooters on a WiiU digitally, you can only play it on that WiiU.
Buy it physically, you can *gasp* bring it to a friends house and play it on their WiiU.
You can give it to them or sell it.

Bought pokemon X digitally and your 3ds broke?
No more Pokemon X for you if you buy a new 3ds.

 

[Brian Tams]

It would be nice if these gaming companies would just come out and say "We won't lower the price on digital copies because its more money for us."

Just say it. Hell, I'll even gain some respect for you because of it; a small amount, but still an amount of respect. But don't give us the run-around. We aren't stupid.

 

[JarinArenos]

I'm *drowning* in the bullshit here. Seriously, how stupid do the putzes in marketing think we are that anyone is going to accept this explanation? They'd have been far better off continuing to say nothing.

 

[Yoshi4102]

I really do like getting digital for 3ds (who seriously wants to carry cartridges around) but I wish there was some sort of digital loyalty program or something. If they want to push digital so badly, then give people incentive.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

Not as much "bullshit" said by Iwata as I'm reading here in the comments. =p The simple fact of the matter is that plenty of publishers and devs have said that they can't price down digital sales of their games because major chains like Gamestop have threatened that if they do that, they'll simply stop stocking their games. And since currently the majority of console game sales still happen through brick & mortar stores they can't afford to lose them quite yet.

 

[Atmos Duality]

"[Digital games aren't cheaper] because we want consumers to value software as highly as possible and because we have been trying to heighten the value of our software whenever we produce it," Iwata said during an investor Q&A, adding "We decided that, since the contents are the same, the company would offer the software at the same price, be it the packaged version or the digital version."

So he's saying:
"We're price gouging you and we think you're all stupid enough to buy our Snob Appeal excuse."

Thanks Nintendo! That sure cleared everything up!
...And fuck you too!

Not as much "bullshit" said by Iwata as I'm reading here in the comments. =p The simple fact of the matter is that plenty of publishers and devs have said that they can't price down digital sales of their games because major chains like Gamestop have threatened that if they do that, they'll simply stop stocking their games. And since currently the majority of console game sales still happen through brick & mortar stores they can't afford to lose them quite yet.

Uh, no. Iwata is still spouting total bullshit, because the reason he provided isn't the one you provided.
Yours actually makes a lick of sense; his is just a big ol' strawman about customers valuing software, even though customers logically would get more value from the CHEAPER alternative if it existed.

But nowadays all the "good" games you have are the same old nintendo lineups, pokemon, mario (including spinoffs like mario cart), zelda and metroid.

I understand why people throw Mario, Pokemon and Zelda under the bus as tired Nintendo perennials...but Metroid? Really??

10 games in 25 years, plus one spinoff. Samus is definitely not milked to the anywhere near the same degree as Mario and Pokemon, or Zelda, or even freaking KIRBY.

 

[Arif_Sohaib]

He is basically saying we will charge more for these famous products because we know people will buy them and pay whatever we ask. However, we will reduce prices of new IP or experimental stuff because we don't know if it will sell.
Doesn't this "devalue" any new thing they do?
To combat this I suggest not buying or buying less of their famous titles and buying new and more innovative ones instead.
They will be cheaper too.

 

[Orekoya]

"We could make them cheaper, but we won't. We're also not sorry."

Basically what I read.

So when I buy a digital game, really I'm just doing Nintendo a favor since it's saving them money on the production of a physical copy. That's pretty much it exactly. Okay, I get it. You want to save money. That's fair. But what do I get out of it? I have to go buy a fucking SD card for Luigi's Mansion because the game is so huge that the default SD card doesn't have enough room on it. So there's another 19.99 out of my pocket. Oh, and if I want Fire Emblem, I'll have to splurge on an even bigger card.

It's just nonsense and poorly thought out by the hardware developer to have such criminally small storage space for the sizes of some of these games, you can barely fit more than a couple of games per SD card. They should make cards specifically designed with their own slot to store and retrieve game data. Possibly with customized logos so I know which game is stored on which card and -- oh wait they do that.

And it's the same cost game for game with no extra cost of buying each individual SD card.

Why would I ever buy a 3ds game digitally again?

 

[bdcjacko]

Why do people get outraged the games cost money?

Because you pay the same and get less, that's why.

What do you get less of, do they withhold the last level if you buy a digitial copy?

You get less of an entire game if you ever use another system.

How if that different than a physical copy? If I buy say call of duty for wii u, it would play on Xbox 360. So that is dumb argument.

Buy your call of shooters on a WiiU digitally, you can only play it on that WiiU.
Buy it physically, you can *gasp* bring it to a friends house and play it on their WiiU.
You can give it to them or sell it.

Bought pokemon X digitally and your 3ds broke?
No more Pokemon X for you if you buy a new 3ds.

Oh, I didn't realize you couldn't transfer accounts between wii u's (how the do you pluralize wii u?). Well now that is a horse of a different color. Being able to transfer games between compatible devices is one of the selling points of digital content.

 

[InsanityRequiem]

Sheesh a lot of people are taking this negatively at face value. Not actually looking at it from Nintendo's perspective. They're a long running company with a big history. History full of third party publishers crapping on them whenever they make new consoles. Now with the Wii U, it's even worse.

So while I feel Iwata's saying some truth, he's not saying the whole truth. How can he tell investors that the third party publishers and retail stores would react negatively to games, on release, cost $20-$30 cheaper than retail?

Gamestop and retail chains would either not stock or 'mislabel' the Nintendo brand. Third party publishers would never put their games on the E-shop, stop making games for Nintendo at all, or make them inferior to other consoles.

This 'explanation' seems more like Nintendo taking the bad PR hit in an effort to keep retailers and third party publishers from abandoning Nintendo products.