RiME’s digital price will remain the same as physical in Australia

Last night we reported that RiME developer Greybox had announced that the price of digital version of the game would be dropped to parity with the other consoles. The physical version, would remain the same but with the added sweetener of a code to download the game’s soundtrack.

This will not be happening in Australia.

A modified note from Greybox has been sent to us by the Australian company distributing the game, the game will remain remain $79.95AU both digitally and physically;

At Grey Box, we are determined to provide a fair deal for everyone around. And so we discussed how we could do that, without simply selling at a loss, all while also being fair to our retail partners

Basically they’re putting the happiness of retailers over you, the customer here. The game isn’t dropping in price digitally here as well because no store will bother to buy stock if it’s lower on the eShop. It’s a double edged sword. Whatever Nintendo need to do, to make Switch cards cheaper needs to be done sooner rather than later.

Lucky for you the Switch is region free and you can buy it, cheaper from another region.

Recently, we announced that the [Australian] Nintendo Switch version of RiME was going to be released at AUD$79.95. The reason for the higher price was due to the additional development, manufacturing, and publishing costs involved with that port. While some were understanding of these go-to-market costs, there were still a number of folks who weren’t happy. We totally understand: nobody wants to pay higher prices.

At Grey Box, we are determined to provide a fair deal for everyone around. And so we discussed how we could do that, without simply selling at a loss, all while also being fair to our retail partners. So, here’s what we’re doing.

Advertisement

On the physical side, we can’t lower the price without selling at a loss, but we can add more value to the package. And that’s what we’re doing. For the Nintendo Switch version of RiME, all physical copies will include a printed code for a download of the complete, beautiful soundtrack by David García (a sample of which you can find here). You will be able to download the music via Bandcamp in one of the multiple high-quality formats. The soundtrack is planned on being sold separately for $10 in the US [and equivalent prices in Australia], and so the value you’re going to get out of this will be the same as somebody who purchased a different version of RiME, and then bought the soundtrack.

Grey Box’s goals are to provide a great product at a great value. We hope you’ll find this new offering to be fair. Personally, we’re excited about it, because we want as many people as possible to hear David’s music! Regardless, we can assure you that no matter which version of RiME you play – and we hope to have a Switch version release date announced shortly – you’re going to have an amazing and touching experience. Thanks very much for your support!