A slip up by Nintendo’s website team may have revealed the price for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, coming in with a $70 USD tag that is a $10 increase over Nintendo’s first party Nintendo Switch games to date.
This price hike would see Nintendo following in the footsteps of Sony, Microsoft and almost all the major game publishers in raising the prices of games. However, while most of these companies did so at the start of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S generation or as they shifted away from cross-gen game releases, Nintendo would be doing so six years in to the Switch’s life and with the biggest console install base.
Many are already a bit miffed at the price increases across the industry, with companies justifying the move in 2020 as needing to push for higher fidelity graphics and growing game budgets as game studios increase in size to meet that goal. Of course, the Nintendo Switch isn’t pushing 4K graphics, but that doesn’t mean that development doesn’t now cost more for Nintendo, especially as the game’s development has taken 5 years and we’re seeing inflationary pressures. Still, I doubt many will be pleased if Tears of the Kingdom is priced at $70, and especially not if the rest of Nintendo’s first party games start to follow suit.
With tonight’s Nintendo Direct expected to focus on games coming to Nintendo Switch in the first half of 2023, the previously announced release date for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and now this hastily removed store listing, it feels likely that the Breath of the Wild sequel will feature heavily during the stream and that pre-orders will open afterwards.
‘Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ was announced back at E3 2019, as Nintendo decided to expand what was originally planned as a DLC expansion into a full new game. That original trailer focussed on underground elements, but the real adventure expands high above Hyrule, as last seen in Breath of the Wild. While the game had been planned for release in 2022, Nintendo eventually announced that it will be coming to Nintendo Switch on 12th May 2023.
via Nintendo Life
