New Super Mario Bros. 2 more expensive on the UK eShop than retail
Two steps forward, three step back. That’s what we’re learning from Europe this morning where it’s revealed that New Super Mario Bros. 2 will be £39.99 on the European eShop. That’s 5 more pounds than the RRP and ten more than what Amazon is charging.
Then again Nintendo rarely sets RRP on many of their products (in Europe) , allowing stores to charge what they want and let competition dictate the final price.
So while you might be getting the game digitally and the benefits that come with that, Nintendo avoids paying for shipping, packaging and distributing fees and takes more of a cut. We realise Nintendo don’t want to piss off annoy retailers, but charging more?
What’s worse is we don’t know how much it’s going to cost here in Australia. If it’s $69.95 like it is in stores then we’ll not only be paying more for it digitally, but also at least $10 more than the UK.
First world digital problems?
There’s no such thing as an RRP in Europe, so each store is left to their own devices.
What’s happening here is that retailers are discounting the game to ensure people buy it from their shops. Nintendo always said they would price the game at their own price and let retailers do what they like.
So it’s not really Nintendo “charging more”, it’s a case of retailers charging less. Nintendo could sell Mario at $5 and REALLY piss retailers off, and probably still make profit. But they’re allowing the system to just work its own way out.
The manufacturer’s price will always be greater than the retailers so that the retailers could incentivise customers to buy the product from them. Undercutting the retailers would result in the retailers retaliating by no longer stocking Nintendo’s products. So unless the RRP for the retail product drops over time, the download version is likely to retain its default RRP price point for as long as it is available for sale.
Some games however, will have a lower RRP than the $69.95 default if the European eShop prices are anything to go by. Art Academy will probably be available for $59.95 locally whereas Freakyforms Deluxe will probably be sold at $49.95 (an obscene increase from the $9 original considering the miniscule amount of new content).