Seriously, it’s a great launch line-up, especially if you’ve not owned a PS3 or 360 for a little while, and the couple of first party titles available at launch are very Nintendo.
However, it’s the pricing of the games that’s a little disappointing, with many third party titles appearing on the high street shelves at £50 or so. That’s £50 for – in some cases, like Batman: Arkham City and Darksiders 2 – rather old games.
RRP can be troublesome thing, but naturally you can buy most of the games for around a tenner less if you shop around, especially online. But Nintendo’s own download version, the eShop, is sticking to those top-end prices.
So, New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendo Land will both run you £49.99, along with the aforementioned Darksiders 2 and EA’s latest footy game. Thankfully SEGA’s All-Stars Racing, which we reckon is the best karting game this year, is there for a bit less – £39.99, but that’s still £10 more than it is on the PSN for PS3.
At least it’s a decent selection – Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is there (£37.49), Just Dance 4 (£39.99) and the first compilation title – something the Wii had plenty of – is present and correct with “30 Great Games” for just £27.99.
In terms of eShop only titles, Trine 2 is available for £10.99, Puddle for £7.99, Little Inferno is £12.99, Chasing Aurora is £10.79 and the great looking Nano Assault Neo is a penny under £9.
Update: apparently Ubisoft are wanting £55 for ZombiU and Assassin’s Creed III.
yobrenoops
But surely this is a publishers issue rather than Nintendo. As SCEE always say, the Publisher sets the price so when you see some ridiculous Ubisoft game at £57.99 on new release it’s not entirely the platform holders fault.
Taylor Made
I think the reason publishers set the price so high up cause they also have to pay some sort of price to Sony/MS to publish the game or Sony/MS takes a percentage of the game sales too not 100% sure
cc_star
Each unit of software sold means a licence fee to the platform holder – this is a key reason why PC titles are usually 30-35 at launch & their console versions are 40-45.
Would have thought additional fees would apply on the store too for marketing positioning & stuff, not sure beyond that.
Other online stores like Steam take 30% though & that’s massively cheaper than PSNXBLA 99.99% of the time
yobrenoops
Surely its the same at retail as well. My point is I doubt the cost of DL is due to the platform holder.
The Pubs don’t want people to pay Retail prices for DL because that would cut retail out the loop and I just don’t think that’s what they want.
Danlisa
In as far as UK prices go, Publisher and the EU/EU law are to blame.
This was explained to me recently:
“Publishers don’t like to upset their retail partners, and because of EU law, it means EU retailers not discounting effects the UK. EU retailers don’t do discounting, but because UK ones do, it means UK digital pricing looks really uneven.”
Not having ever bought anything over in mainland Europe, I can’t say if retail/digital ever discount content but, if not, it would certainly affect the prices we see in the UK.
The sooner we ditch Europe, the better. ;)
jimmy-google
A lot of Europe imports games from the UK as UK games are significantly cheaper.
When I went over to the US I found it was still cheaper to buy online in the UK.
Sony, however, tend to (not always) set more sensible pricing for their own games. Nintendo seem to have followed EA and Activision etc…
Taylor Made
I picked up the wii u last night & I honestly have to admit this thing is creaking awesome, it changes everything. It kind of takes time to get used to looking at the screen then controller, mario is good as always
LTG Davey
Cannot wait until this afternoon when I go to pick mine up :D
Dom El
I got mine this morning!
It’s an absolutely awesome piece of kit – it does feel (in no way detrimentally) like playing a giant HD DS, and it has that inimitable Nintendo charm. That is until I put ZombiU on tonight and scare the hell out of myself…
LTG Davey
:D glad to hear! Getting a bit worried as my local Blockbuster didn’t have mine in stock when I rang at 10am… They said to ring back at about 1pm as that is when they normally get deliveries in
Dom El
Fingers crossed for you dude! My Nintendo ID is Dom-El if you want to make a start on your new friend list!
LTG Davey
Didn’t end up getting it Friday but it arrived first thing yesterday so was still able to play it most of yesterday :)
Awesome console so far with a lot of nice features. Really loving the fact you can play a lot of games on the gamepad away from the console in a different room. Just about to fire up ZombiU, can’t wait.
I’ve just pinged you a FR. I think you need to add me too to complete the process. ID: Eldave0 <— thats a zero btw, heh.
LTG Davey
Actually it might be a capital ‘o’. I can’t remember if the WiiU allows numbers in your usernames, heh :$
Dom El
Sorted! It’s a fantastic console – and realistically it can only get better! My only gripe so far is the inability to use the pro controller with Mario U – though apparently there’s motion sensitive sections later on that it isn’t capable of performing :/
LTG Davey
Yeah, I thought it was a little odd, then again I’m happy to play games like that using a good ol’ wii remote.
Playing ZombiU with the new gamepad however is a cracking experience and I can’t imagine playing it any other way :-)
cc_star
It took a long time for reasonable prices to appear on PSN & to be honest they still aren’t
FIFA 12 was £55, FIFA13 a bit better at £50 massively more expensive than the physical product. NfS Most Wanted at £60, yes SIXTY.
Sony show the way, but £50 for FIFA 13 can’t be too bad as it’s PSASBR even though it’s almost half the price elsewhere.
cc_star
*it’s outselling*
david24
what’s PSASBR? or did you mean outselling there?
jimmy-google
PlayStation All-Star Battle Royale
colmshan1990
I guess you can always charge a little extra at launch due to lower competition.
The prices will come down in time I’m sure.
I’m jealous of all of you guys with a brand new console right now, in my book you’ve no rit to complain. :P
KeRaSh
Same here. I resisted buying a Wii U on launch because they delayed Rayman Legends but the thought of having a brand new console next to my TV warms my heart.
LTG Davey
Glad I’m getting Mario and ZombiU from HMV today then. With my mates store discount it will come to £60 :D
Greg Aldridge
Why should Arkham City and Darksiders 2 be cheaper just because they’ve been out on different formats before? Mass Effect 2, for example, wasn’t any cheaper on PS3 just because it had been out on the Xbox 360 for a good while beforehand.
As mentioned above, the deep discounting by UK retailers does tend to skew our view of the European retail prices we see on the digital stores. Add to that too many people thinking that digital content has little to no value as they’ve been downloading “free” music/films/TV for years and you end up where we are.
Forrest_01
“Update: apparently Ubisoft are wanting £55 for ZombiU and Assassin’s Creed III.”
I think that £55 for two new games is quite the bargain as it goes! :P
bunimomike
Dan posted a tweet showing titles at £54.99. No wonder Nintendo said “we just need gamers to buy one game per console to make a profit”. They’re charging the Earth!
R1MJAW
The 3DS eShop is the same though, so I don’t know why anyone would be surprised.
jeccross
Do we know whether the overpriced stuff sells? Or is it just put on there to have a presence on the market.
Given how slow PSN downloads are for me, it’s actually quicker for me to go to a shop anyway if I want something right away.