From time to time news appears that indicates events that everyone knows will not happen, in the same way that no one believes that the Martians are going to land tomorrow to confess that they have been among us all their lives. Expecting from the Japanese a change in their pricing strategy with Nintendo Switch and its games is like asking an elm for pears, and If you think otherwise, you don’t know them.
Value your product above all
Nintendo has hit the nail on the head with Switch. Virtually from day one, its hybrid console achieved the unthinkable of getting position itself as the alternative to the two great entertainment giants domestic such as Sony and Microsoft. The parents of Mario and Zelda bet on a discreet console in technical potential but rocky in its catalog with the always incombustible presence of its main franchises.
This success has allowed the Japanese to carry out an inflexible pricing policy that always places their machines in the same range: 349 euros for the OLED model, 300 for the normal one and 229 for the Lite. And from there they have not moved except for exclusive discounts carried out, in most cases, by the grace of the establishment itself. So when the machine has managed to be the third best seller in history, do you think a discount will come?
The excuse for asking for something like that is that Nintendo Switch could be at the end of its life cycle and that the drums of a new version could help that reduction. If you believe something like that, you don’t know the Japanese, who rarely they got off the donkey of the prices if it is not for a good reason of survival that, in these days, does not occur. And it is not necessary for its president, Shuntaro Furukawa, to have come out to confirm it, so that we all know the answer.
But was it always like this?
Obviously, Nintendo has decided not to lower the prices of its consoles or the AAA news in its catalog (59.99 euros, for now). is the result of one year after another leading all the rankings sales of both hardware and software in many countries around the world. You only have to look at the Top 10 in the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan or Spain to see Japanese products perched at the top… one week after another. And in that situation, there will be no rebates.
Has it always been like this? Obviously not. Especially with hardware, where two large punctures mark the company’s price memory: Nintendo 3DS was one of the most recent cases (2011), with a significant drop in price practically three months after it came out, or Wii U, which was already out of date at the beginning of 2013 and the Japanese had to resort to small drops to encourage purchase.
Even so, the software did not move from its price and always the AAA of the company we had to pay them to what is known as full price, without discounts. Something that companies always aspire to, having the ability to maintain prices within the highest range despite the passing of the years, as a way of respecting their own work and adding value to everything they do. Does it seem wrong to you?
