Aside from Game of the Year 2017 contender Arms, some folks have opined that Nintendo’s line-up of games for the Nintendo Switch is looking a little weak. The only titles that are confirmed as Nintendo Switch launch titles are 1-2-Switch, Just Dance 2017, Super Bomberman R and Skylanders: Imaginators , as well as Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
While Zelda is certainly a kingmaker among classics, Breath of the Wild will also be available for the Wii U, which means current Wii U owners can wait and see if the Nintendo Switch’s line-up improves before investing $299.99 in the new console. Unfortunately, that sticker price doesn’t include any exciting game bundles. No Breath of the Wild emblazoned Nintendo Switch for me or you.
According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, the reason there won’t be any bundled games for Nintendo Switch isn’t a paucity of titles, but in fact a wish to preserve the $299 price point.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
“For this launch, what we found is that with the range of software that’s coming–not only available day one but through April and into the summer, and including the holiday timeframe with Super Mario Odyssey–that we wanted to enable the consumer to buy the software they want, to look to get to the most approachable price point we could get to. That led us to a $299 price point, and let the consumer decide what games they want to buy,” said Fils-Aime in an interview with Gamespot.
Apparently, the $300 price point was the first thing Nintendo set. After that, they worked to make sure they could deliver $300 worth of value and include everything necessary for the Nintendo Switch to work, such as the Joy-Cons and cables.
“The first decision that we make is, where do we want to be in terms of the hardware price point that’s going to be approachable and hit the marketplace we want? And from a US price point, we wanted to be at $299.Certainly, lower is always better, but at a $349 or $399 price point, we just didn’t feel that was the right place to be. So we start there,” said Fils-Aime.
“And then it’s all about, what’s going to be included? Obviously the inclusion of the two Joy-Con, critically important; all the right cables, the dock, critically important. We also have to do this from a financial perspective as well. Once we got to that bundle, it really needed to be at $299 without a piece of software.”
Nintendo Switch launches on March 3 with two versions, one with neon Joy-Cons and one with gray depressoid Joy-Cons. Do you wish you could get a game-bundled version of the Nintendo Switch, even if it pushed up the price? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.