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EA can’t predict the future for Nintendo’s upcoming Switch hybrid game console

Kevin Parrish
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Nintendo Switch
When the original Wii hit the streets, Nintendo was praised for being innovative. Third-party developers seemed eager to shove their games on the console at first, but eventually they began to notice that owners were more focused on more generalized motion-based titles than hardcore experiences. The Wii U appeared to set its sights on that seemingly forgotten hardcore crowd with better hardware and a tablet-like controller, but hardcore players and developers just didn’t take the bait, flocking to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One instead.

Now Nintendo is attempting to reach that crowd again with the Switch. And while the hardware and Nintendo’s overall innovative approach — combining a console and clamshell handheld into a single unit — seem hopeful, whether or not customers and developers will flock to the new system is currently a wait-and-see game. Publishers are understandably cautious about what they are throwing onto the next-generation post-Wii hardware, including Electronic Arts chief financial officer Blake Jogensen.

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During the UBS Global Technology Conference, Jogensen said that EA will be bringing one if its biggest games to the upcoming console/handheld hybrid. But he also hinted that the gargantuan games publisher will only provide “a game or two” at first, and indicated that EA can’t predict if the Switch will succeed or fail at this time.

“We’re excited for Nintendo,” he said. “It’s an interesting device, but I can’t yet predict how broad it’s going to be, and will people be interested in a portable device alongside their regular portable device that they have.”

Jogensen definitely makes a point. Nintendo is trying to eradicate the line separating the living room experience and on-the-go gaming with one single solution. Right now, there seems to be no plan to move away from the 3DS platform when Switch arrives in March 2017. The company has even stressed that the handheld aspect of Switch will be different than the 3DS, and software will continue to roll out for the older handheld well into 2017.

But the big problem with handheld game consoles is that the increased progress of mobile technology enables gamers to play great titles on their smartphones and tablets. This is the very reason why Nintendo shareholders pushed the company into releasing titles like Pokémon Go and Miitomo. However, Nintendo has remained successful in the handheld market it essentially created with the original GameBoy while Sony’s latest Vita handheld just didn’t catch on here in the States. Many are curious as to how the Switch will disrupt and/or merge the handheld and living room markets early next year.

Right now, the “big game” from EA could be any franchise the company is currently brewing across its multiple development houses. Maybe Switch owners will see The Sims 4 or perhaps even Battlefield 1 or the latest Mass Effect installment. Regardless, Nintendo’s brief tease in October will be followed by a curvy full-page layout for all to behold on January 12, just days after the hectic CES 2017 convention in Las Vegas. Maybe at that time EA will fully disclose what Switch owners will have in their hands this March.

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Kevin Parrish
Kevin Parrish
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
Don’t expect Zelda’s $70 price to become the new Switch standard, says Nintendo
Link looks at his hand in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be Nintendo's first Switch game to be priced at $70. News that Tears of the Kingdom, a sequel to one of the bestselling and most critically acclaimed titles on the system, will have an increased price compared to its predecessor came as a surprise over three-and-a-half years after its announcement. It also raised questions about what the future of pricing for Nintendo games will be, especially as Sony, Microsoft, and third-party publishers all upped the cost of their new games in recent years. 
While Nintendo will release Tears of Kingdom at $70, a spokesperson for the company tells Digital Trends that this will not always be the case for its first-party games going forward. 
"No," the spokesperson said when Digital Trends asked if this is a new standard. "We determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis." 
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Official Trailer #2
To get more insight into the price shift, I spoke to Omdia Principal Analyst George Jijiashvili, who explains what has caused the price of games to go up in recent years and how Tears of the Kingdom demonstrates that Nintendo will "remain flexible about first-party title pricing." Ultimately, Nintendo fans are finally starting to feel the impact of inflation that's been sweeping across the game industry, even if it's only "on a case-by-case basis" for now.
The price is right
Nintendo claims that not every one of its significant first-party game will be $70, and we can actually already see that in action. Preorders just went live for Pikmin 4, which launches on July 21, after Tears of the Kingdom, and it only costs $60. Still, Zelda's price tag indicates that going forward, Nintendo will at least consider raising the price of its most anticipated games to $70. But why start with Tears of the Kingdom?  
When asked why it chose Tears of the Kingdom as its first $70 Nintendo Switch game, a Nintendo spokesperson simply reiterated that the company will "determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis." Still, it's a surprising choice for Nintendo to make that pricing change to just one exclusive game almost six years into the Switch's life span. Jijiashvili thinks the choice to do this with Tears of the Kingdom was a pretty apparent one for Nintendo, although it won't apply to everything going forward.
"If you are going to make a game $70, it's going to be the follow-up to one of your most critically acclaimed and bestselling games ever," Jijiashvili tells Digital Trends. "I don’t think that this means that $70 will become the standard price for all major Nintendo releases. It's worth noting that Metroid Prime Remastered is priced at $40. It's clear that Nintendo will remain flexible about first-party title pricing."

It makes basic financial sense for Nintendo to ask for a little bit more for a game it knows will be one of the biggest releases of 2023. But what factors in the game industry and world's economy at large caused Nintendo to make this decision? 
Priced Out
For more than a decade, people got comfortable with AAA video games being priced at $60. Of course, there were occasional exceptions to this rule, but it was seen as an industry standard until the dawn of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Publisher 2K was one of the first to announce a price increase, and companies like EA, Sony, and Microsoft have all followed suit. Jijiashvili chalks this up to inflation-related pressure on game publishers.
"The games industry has already been experiencing a lot of inflationary pressure," he explains. "AAA games are much more expensive to make now than they used to be, but prices have actually been declining in inflation-adjusted terms -- if prices had risen with inflation since 1990, they would now be over $90. On top of that, we’ve had a big burst of general inflation, meaning that publishers are looking at big increases in everything from salaries to tools. It’s going to be really hard for most publishers to avoid passing on all those extra costs at some point."
Jijiashvili provided us with a graphic created by Omdia that "shows what the typical price points for each generation would look like if you adjusted for inflation." As you can see, the inflation-adjusted prices are only exponentially growing, and the big game pricing shifts the graph highlights were all technically not even enough to keep up with inflation when they happened. 

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Nintendo Switch Online expands with Game Boy and Game Boy Advance Titles
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During the February 2023 Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced that it is adding Game Boy and Game Boy Advance Games to its Nintendo Switch Online service. Game Boy games will be available for basic subscribers, while the Game Boy Advance games are available for those who are subscribers of the premium Expansion Pack.

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Goldeneye 007 comes to Game Pass and Nintendo Switch later this week
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Rare, Nintendo, and Xbox Game Studios confirmed that their remaster of classic Nintendo 64 FPS Goldeneye 007 will launch on January 27 across Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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For most, this long-awaited enhanced re-release will be locked behind a subscription service. On Nintendo Switch, the only way to play Goldeneye 007 is with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pass subscription, which grants players access to a variety of Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, NES, and SNES games alongside the DLC to some first-party Nintendo titles. That said, Microsoft has confirmed that the Nintendo Switch version of Goldeneye 007 will be the only one to feature online multiplayer, although it'll still be displayed in split-screen.
Meanwhile, the Xbox versions of Goldeneye 007 don't have online multiplayer but benefit from the addition of achievements and an upgraded 16:9 4K resolution. To play the game on Xbox, you'll need to either have an Xbox Game Pass subscription or own the gaming compilation Rare Replay that was released in 2015. Still, fans are probably happy that they'll just be able to experience this classic on a modern controller.
While it has aged quite a bit, Goldeneye 007 is a highly influential FPS game that also became an iconic Nintendo 64 release thanks to its fun multiplayer. Unfortunately, the license it's attached to likely prevented the game from getting a proper re-release until now. It was one of the best announcements in September's Nintendo Direct, and its launch will also technically mark the first Xbox first-party game released in 2022. 
Goldeneye 007 releases for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on January 27. 

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