A.O.T 2’s Switch pricing is something else in Australia
A.O.T. 2 releases on the Switch in just under a month and you can preorder it from the eShop right now.
But you probably shouldn’t just yet.
The pricing on the game is absolutely obscene on the Australian eShop, the game is $105AUD for the standard edition and $150AUD for the ‘Deluxe Edition’ which contains $45 worth of outfits for in the game.
So maybe it’s just expensive, and maybe that’s just the way it is. Well, that’s all good until you look at the other digital storefronts. The game is slightly cheaper on the Xbox Live store, at least for the standard version;
Meanwhile, on the PlayStation Network, it’s different again.
Perhaps we’re just not used to paying $99.95 for games as Nintendo fans. The Wii U RRP was around $79.95 and at worst Switch games have been $89.95. It’s just confusing because the kings of the RRP, EB Games have different prices yet again.
We’re going to try and follow this up with Koei Tecmo and see what’s going on – but for now, hold off on that preorder.
I was curious about this game, but at those prices, I won’t even consider getting this game unless it has a major price drop!
I almost didn’t preorder Payday 2, considering it is a 4 1/2 year old game, even though it’s new to Switch, but a tad pricey at $99.95!
It better be on a 32GB cartridge for them to be charging such a ridiculous amount. Rockstar have some nerve charging as much as they do for L.A. Noire considering that they skimped on the cartridge (don’t even get me started on NBA and WWE). Just Dance 2017 is only $20ish at the moment and that’s on the larger 16GB cartridge, so surely it can’t be *that* expensive (and Lego City Undercover has been available on the cheap as well). Ubisoft compressed the FMV significantly for Just Dance 2018 and squeezed it onto an 8GB cartridge, which is a shame considering that the Wii U version should eclipse the Switch version where A/V quality is concerned.
On the topic of pricing though, Wii games retailed for $99.95 back in the day and they were quite lo-fi compared to the Wii U. In fact, the ridiculous pricing put me off from buying a lot of Wii games and I refused to pay anything over $60. Wii U games had a more work put into them and I thought they were worth paying more for so I wasn’t as stingy. Thanks to the strong Aussie dollar at the time, Wii U games were considerably cheaper at $79.95 maximum at retail (with the price creeping up slightly to $89.95 towards the end of its life as the dollar weakened) and sometime around mid-2012, the RRP going forward for 3DS games dropped from $69.95 to $59.95 as well. My self-imposed limit for DS games back in the day was $60, but only for games that I wanted *really* badly (I was still in high school and relied mostly on weekly pocket money). As for everything else, I waited until they were $40 or less.
Now, with Switch games, I’m happy to pay virtually anything for AAA titles. $60 for USF2 was an extreme stretch though (and I only bought it because it was a launch period game and my, what a drought that was). And I’ll only buy collector’s editions if they come with a worthwhile extra, namely a soundtrack (Fire Emblem Warriors, Xenoblade Chronicles 2) or for a superior physical edition (the Japanese special edition of Bayonetta 2 which includes Bayonetta 1 on cartridge). Stupid trinkets have no appeal to me otherwise.
I’m interested in this point of view, is it the HD development that meant that the Wii U games were worth more than the Wii games? Like I’d argue Mario Galaxy is worth more than the Mario 3D World and something like Wii Sports is worth more than something like Nintendo Land. But these are just preferences of mine, I had a lot more fun on the Wii.
You raise a good point there, however Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel were in the distinct minority of top-tier software on Wii. Virtually every other sequel on Wii U was vastly superior to its Wii predecessor (Game & Wario is an extreme exception that immediately springs to mind though, and it’s a tough act to follow as WarioWare: Smooth Moves is absolutely brilliant). Funnily enough, Super Mario Odyssey is readily available for $69, the same price that Super Mario 64 DS had been sold for throughout the entirety of its shelf life (with extremely rare cases of discounts). Now, one of these is a cheap remake designed for a miniscule screen and the other was designed completely from the ground up for far larger displays on a much higher budget with a huge team. Accounting for inflation, Super Mario Odyssey has probably had the lowest launch price of any Super Mario game in history, and is also the largest Mario game in his decades-long history. I think it’s unfair that the market expects production values to increase beyond sustainability whilst being charged the same as their previous instalments (if not less). Now, this is not necessarily a problem for major publishers that are guaranteed to turn a handsome profit, but for struggling developers, this is a major issue and one flop could make or break a company.
One of my biggest gripes with Nintendo nowadays though, is that many of their major releases have season passes and the like, partly to offset the high costs of development (e.g. Pokkén Tournament DX, Mario + Rabbids, Fire Emblem Warriors, BotW, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, among others). Now, I wouldn’t mind buying the DLC at launch so much if the games were eventually rereleased with the DLC content included on cartridge in a future “Definitive” edition, but with no guarantee of that ever occurring, and the inability to carry over that DLC content when using the physical media on another system (which proved problematic when playing games such as Super Smash Bros. For Wii U at a friend’s place), it’s a practice that I do not wish to support, at least not indiscriminately. Just to be clear, I would be happy to buy the original retail game, plus the DLC, *plus* the rerelease if there was a guarantee that there would be an eventual complete package available with all of the content on cartridge, but Nintendo rarely ever does this, and even in the rare occasion that they do (*cough* Pokkén DX), they add content to what was already advertised as a “complete” package.
Ideally, as an alternative to DLC, I would much rather have sequels (or budget priced spin-offs, a la Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker), that contain new story elements and gameplay whilst recycling the engine/assets of a prior release, but that practice doesn’t seem to occur as often as it used to (a couple of examples that immediately spring to mind are DOOM (1993) / DOOM II and Kirby: Triple Deluxe / Kirby: Planet Robobot).
I have to disagree about Wii Sports vs. Nintendo Land (though I completely understand where you’re coming from). I feel that they both have their place, and I would not particularly favour one over of the other because they are both fantastic in their own right, but in terms of sheer accessibility and lasting value, I think Wii Sports trumps Nintendo Land in its simplicity, but again, I love both and I’m getting increasingly impatient with waiting for new instalments to these two gems. Sadly, it will be difficult to successfully surpass Nintendo Land without the asynchronous multiplayer (and dual-screen gameplay) that made the game so good in the first place. The effect *can* be achieved with local wireless multiplayer on Switch, but trying to sell the public two copies (for two consoles) will be a bit of a tough sell.
P.S. I feel like such a dope for only *just* getting the “Tobias” joke. =P