 Hey everyone before I get into this video. I want to remind you. We are giving away a $99 Nintendo Switch eShop gift card to enter head down to the description or the pinned comment so I wanted to have a deeper discussion on Why Nintendo can get away with selling games whether they are ports remakes or remasters? $60 a pop now They don't always do this and people have correctly Corrected me the Wind Waker HD while the Princess HD released on Wii U at 50 dollars Which to me it's close enough to 60 to not care But it's also interesting they did that when they probably could have got away with the $60 price point back then as well But we know that Nintendo's been doing this a ton on switch You don't have to look far to see a $60 price point across the board for pretty much every Wii U port every remake every remaster that Nintendo controls and owns and A lot of people are kind of upset about Skyward Sword HD One it is $10 more expensive than the prior Zelda HD efforts to it doesn't look that great when you think about the fact that Super Mario Galaxy also a Wii game got the same sort of HD treatment the same sort of controller remapping and Was sold at 60 bucks but packaged with two other Mario games So it really makes the value of Skyward Sword HD seem like Nintendo is massively overvaluing it and screwing over consumers, but Why why can Nintendo get away with this and you want to know how we know Nintendo's getting away with this? We did a video earlier where the sales are just soaring right now for Skyward Sword HD You want to know how crazy the sales are for a brief moment today for about a 25 minute period Skyward Sword HD was sold out on Amazon Sold out they had to Literally publicly say something about it and they got a whole of Nintendo to procure more copies for pre-sale It's probably gonna end up selling out again because of that Skyward Sword HD is in very high demand Maybe the highest demand pre-ordered is all the game of all time not necessarily surprising if you look at how it comes off of the massive sales of Breath of the Wild and if we think the sales of this are crazy wait until pre-sales happen and We get some real data behind Breath of the Wild 2 whenever we're allowed to finally pre-order that game so Yeah, Nintendo not only is getting away with the $60 price point. They are massively benefiting from that But why can they do this? Why? Can Nintendo get away with it? Why are consumers okay with it? Well first we'll talk about Skyward Sword HD on its own and then I want to get into a deeper conversation on Why it's almost not fair to compare what Nintendo does with their pricing to what other companies have done like the ratchet and clink reboot back in 2016 or even You know the crash insane trilogy or whatever. Let's talk about this First by quoting myself. I'm actually gonna read a couple posts. I made on a forum called neogaf I don't really post there that often but there was an interesting conversation going on So I decided to Get in on this because some people were saying how the game doesn't look very good I'm not gonna talk about that so much because that's just a subjective viewpoint on art direction and all that jazz But I want to get into the stop process that Nintendo is trying to take advantage of people By saying hey, they're charging you 60 bucks to rebuy nostalgia. So here is why I had to say about that It's time to have an honest talk about this Skyward Sword came out on the Wii a decade ago Zelda at that time had peaked with Twilight Princess before it at around 8 million in sales It came out at a time after the next generation system Wii U was announced So the Wii was already dead and the idea of motion control Zelda really fell by the wayside as it came about two Years too late to catch on to that motion control Wii fad This led to the game only selling 3.5 million units Keep in mind at this point Skyward Sword was the most expensive Zelda game ever made yet It instantly became the worst selling 3d Zelda, you know traditional 3d Zelda ever released due to the poor release timing For what it was trying to accomplish Fast forward to 2021 and we have had a major Zelda game come out since in Breath of the Wild a Popular franchise in Zelda just became mega popular practically overnight Breath of the Wild expanded the Zelda fan base massively over doubling the previous best-selling entry in the series This is thus brought in an entirely new massive audience to Zelda an audience that probably for the most part Doesn't own a Wii or a Wii U and thus they have no other way to experience Skyward Sword Nor was Skyward Sword likely even on the radar as a Zelda game at that time A lot of focus is often put on the value of games at $60 It's just an emulation style up res right? It's just remap controls right to those of us that played the original Sure, I suppose. I mean technically it also doubles the frame rate But still with only 3.5 million of us actually existing that played the original Let's say all 3.5 million of those people ended up buying Breath of the Wild that leaves roughly 17 to 18 million additional Zelda fans today Who haven't so while Nintendo is properly advertised in it as a blast from the past with AG Anoma telling people directly? This is not going to play like Breath of the Wild to a majority of people buying this It's literally their first time ever experiencing this game So the question isn't so much is it worth $60 to people who have already played it The question is if it's worth $60 to those of which this is basically a brand new game for them This is often overlooked in conversations over pricing of old games reports the $60 because the majority of the time People buying these games are spending $60 because for them It is literally a brand new game as far as they are concerned This brings the question up of perceived value But reality is if it was worth $60 no issues as a brand new experience back in 2011 Do people under which this is basically like Nintendo releasing a brand new major Zelda game for the first time? Is it worth $60 to them? Obviously we can tell with Amazon sales alone the answer is absolutely this game is likely going to outsell the Wii version day one Heck it may even become a 10 million seller instantly becoming the second best-selling Zelda game of all time Reality is most of us look at this under the guise of paying extra for nostalgia But literally a majority sales for this game are going to go to first timers now That's just the most conversation but I actually went into a deeper conversation on The prospect of Nintendo selling games of 60 bucks because a lot of counter arguments come out there about other companies that have done more and Sold games for less, you know 40 bucks versus 60 on the original So there's a grander conversation that other companies respect their fans more put in more work and give us games for cheaper And frankly, you're probably not wrong. I mean people can bring up ratchet and clank back in 2016 But that's just one of any however most of the time not all the time But most these examples are frankly far less valuable IP as an example that ratchet and clank 2016 game It's like the second best-selling ratchet and clank game ever yet It didn't outsell Skyward Sword on the Wii the worst selling 3ds all the game ever released This should put things in perspective Did they charge $40 because they were trying to give people a good deal? Or did they charge $40 because ratchet and clank is simply not a very popular series? And thus trying to charge $60 at that time for a remake of a game that also didn't sell that well seemed absolutely ridiculous Okay, fine. What about Shadow of the Colossus HD? $40 it was cheaper than the PlayStation 2 launch price. Oh You mean an HD version of a game that barely cracked 1 million in sales the first time around Do you not see a trend here if these companies thought they could remake and remaster games and charge you $60 they would They don't because they understand the value of these IPs is already not really that high I'll give you a polar opposite example a game that is popular from a franchise that is massive Final Fantasy 7 They put such an incredible amount of work into the remake, but in actuality You were fundamentally going to be spending more to get the complete experience or over the original release They know they can get away with it because Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy 7 was that big of a deal and that big of a seller Back in the day, they gave you part of the game right now for $60 You might get the rest of the game later for another $60 assuming that they don't you know actually give you all the game in That $60 package they could do a part 3 who knows is the game worth at least $120 for many Absolutely, but that's actually a price hike not a price cut Now there is no debate about the amount of work that goes into a remake versus simple HD port Which by the way HD ports were very common back in the PlayStation 3 and 360 days So naturally it's easy to argue that even part of Final Fantasy 7 remake at $60 is Potentially a better value than Skyward Sword at $60, but that's not the point It got remade just like other games that got remade that originally were $60, but came back and sold at $40 on the remake They didn't even give you the complete Final Fantasy 7 game and they still charged you $60 Why didn't they launch it at $40 especially knowing they were gonna have to have a second part because Final Fantasy is a very Valuable IP. They know they can charge $60 and sell a crapload So I think before we start comparing effort and launch prices and how Nintendo is relatively lazy We need to first examine the actual value of the IP. We're talking about is Skyward Sword HD basically the same thing they did with Mario Galaxy, which was packed in with two other games Absolutely, is it far lazier than so many other HD jobs and remakes and remasters who then decided to release at $40? Yeah, you're not wrong But most of those comparisons are for IP that simply put They're not really that valuable and couldn't get away with a $60 price tag the ones that can do charge that much Don't pretend because these other companies are like your friend because they're charging you less They don't charge $60 because they can't Nintendo does because they can because the games and IP they're doing this with are Extremely valuable and in high demand. Hello scourge or did she literally selling out on Amazon? So yes scoured sword HD is quote-unquote lazy. It's quote-unquote overpriced But for those who played it already Yet it's still more valuable than basically any brand new Third-party triple-a game landing on switch this year really this side of Monster Hunter Rise and That's really the fundamental part of this. Is it not? Nintendo gets away with these $60 price points consistently because the IP they're doing it with is So much more valuable than all of the comparisons. I have heard Tons of games brought up and you know what I don't hear. I Don't hear people mentioning those games aren't very popular Zelda is more popular than it's ever been They can re-release the winmaker HD for $10 more than they did on Wii U And it's going to outsell the Wii U version and the original release back on Gamecube Same thing for Twilight Princess HD. It might outsell the Wii version of the game That's all over 8 million What we need to understand here is Nintendo gets away with the $60 price point because they acutely Understand the value their IP has why do you think they know they could sell you those classic systems the Nessence Ness classic Why do you think they know they could put their games behind a? Paywall and do the Nintendo switch online service stuff Why do you think they were able to make you rebuy games for premium pricing at times? $20 a pop for some n64 games on virtual console over and over and over again because Nintendo knows Their IP is valuable and as long as Nintendo treats their IP as valuable It's consistently going to hold a high price Breath of the Wild today has yet to be reduced officially at retail sure you could find $45 copies on Amazon and other retailers that are just trying to shoot stock out which notably the prices aren't that way during the holidays typically but Technically the MSRP has not changed it is still being sold today four plus years later, you know almost four plus years later anyways At $60 why because Nintendo understands the value of their IP we could talk about evergreen We could talk about continued sales and how scourge sort of still sells in the top 20 Worldwide every single month and all that jazz we can go into all the particulars about how Nintendo gets away with that pricing The reality is Nintendo has consistently treated their IP as high value So if Nintendo holds their IP at a high value it creates the expectation from consumers to equally hold Nintendo's IP at high value in addition to the fact that many of these IP in comparison to the other games brought up that did more and charge less simply Frankly aren't as big of a deal They couldn't get away with $60 they would have sold significantly less copies because the game is not that popular in the first place The interest level isn't very high that new ratchet and clink coming out looks fantastic I you know, I can't wait to play it on PlayStation 5 But it's not gonna outsell Skyward Sword HD Skyward Sword HD is gonna outsell that game by miles and yet No, it's a brand new ratchet and clink game it more effort for 60 bucks But it's not as valuable as Skyward Sword HD and this we're talking about the worst selling 3d Zelda ever So Why does Nintendo charge 60 bucks? Not because we're all suckers, right? You know, you can say you're a sucker, right? There's too many suckers out there Well for starters Skyward Sword HD again went over it first time experience for many people It's like a brand new Zelda game to them to well frankly Nintendo holds their IP at a high value causing consumers to hold it at a high bill We're not suckers for holding games at the same value that Nintendo does If anything other companies wish they could go back in time and do exactly what Nintendo has done You think these other companies are your friends? No They can't get away with what Nintendo does because they don't value their games that way when you go and you see I don't know. What's the next major game called? I guess ratchet and clink on PlayStation 5 might be the next major one or you see Halo Infinite come out or next Call of Duty or Whatever, right? Like maybe it's a do last of us game or something, right? We just had last of us, you know Two or whatever part two. Okay, so those games come out Guess how long the companies keep the value at $60 a Month sometimes only a couple weeks. I've seen $60 games reduced to 40 to 30 in a week sometimes Why? Because the companies undervalued their products and when they undervalue their products the consumer undervalues their products There is a consumer expectation to wait to buy games sometimes because the prices are going to drop and that's beneficial Right makes games cheaper, but it's also happening because these companies have undervalued what they have Okay, Nintendo Consistently for 30 years has not undervalued their IP and they've created the expectation that we should value it at the same level They do you don't have to value it the same level they do you absolutely can just not buy it and you're not wrong for doing So you're right to critique Nintendo for not doing more. There's nothing wrong with the critique This isn't this isn't telling you to accept what Nintendo is doing But it's telling you why they do it why they get away with it and why other companies actually Honestly wish they could pull off what Nintendo is doing, but since they haven't done it consistently They've consistently created expectations for low prices for honestly more work Which actually leads to less money for developers and crunch and all this crazy crap that shouldn't happen in this industry in the end We're left with Nintendo Understanding the value of their IP and holding it to it no matter what if you are a Nintendo fan You know, you're not gonna buy a port or remake a remaster or a brand new game from Nintendo Typically anything less than $60 it happens on rare occasion the one maker HD Hello Princess HG captain toad released at 40 bucks. Don't trouble freezes 40 bucks originally on We you I know it was 60 on here. They actually increased the price But here's the thing Nintendo knows the value of its IP and They're gonna keep it that high because as long as they do Consumers are gonna continue to value with that high as well The moment Nintendo starts to do what the rest of the industry does is the moment Nintendo can't get away with what they're doing So why would Nintendo budge they shouldn't if I was Nintendo They're just doing their best job to make as much money as possible at all times while keeping Consumer expectation on the value of their IP and an all-time high. Let me tell you Sony Microsoft Activision EA 2k all these companies out there wish they could keep their IP valued so highly But they can't not even Grand Theft Auto 5, which is what 80 million plus in sales Jesus like just a behemoth. I mean what we sports is like the only thing up there. That was a packing game Okay, so 80 million plus what minecrafts up there, too, but you know what I mean 80 million plus there You see, you know things like the Red Dead Redemption 2 selling like crazy, right? But they undervalue their game so quickly so quickly that it creates consumers expectations that hey when Skyrim comes to the next platform When GTA 5 is ported over, you know fully with the next gen update We want that for free or we want it for like 20 bucks Why because they created the expectation Nintendo doesn't play by anyone else's rules Which is why Nintendo consistently is the most successful company in the video game industry They really are think about it like this They've been doing video game stuff for over 35 years 40 years to be exact right starting with Donkey Kong 40 plus years Nintendo has been doing video games in those 40 years. They only have two years ever Where they didn't make money where they did not make a profit where they actually posted net losses two years You know how many times that's happened for EA in the last 40 years They've even been around them. Well, just one quick look up shows seven times. How many times it happened for Sony? Oh, man 14 times how many times does it happen for Microsoft? Well a bit harder to judge there because you have to separate out video game revenue from the rest But it's happened four times that I can count These companies wish they had the success Nintendo does but they don't It's not to say they're not successful in their own right But Nintendo does their own thing and Frankly, it's okay for you not to be okay with it, but Nintendo is not going to change No matter how many people boycott and don't buy a Pokemon Sword and Shield enough people are gonna buy it to keep it going Nintendo has created expectations and they keep well consistently sticking to those expectations All right, folks, I'm dinner over just from the time Let me know what you think about this down in the comments below again You don't have to be okay with what Nintendo's doing be critical I've been critical, but at the end of the day They're just doing what they always do Which creates higher expectations from us of the things they do make that are brand new Which I think I'd fairly say on switch they've kind of lived up to that, right? Odyssey was great, but the while was great Splatoon 2 was pretty good Splatoon 3 is looking even better like Nintendo's creating high expectations for their new games because of what they do As long as they keep delivering on those expectations for the most part, they're gonna be just fine. All right, folks I'll catch you in the next video