guybrushfreeman
Unconfirmed Member
He's a developer who posts on GAF.
It would be nice if someone could link the relevant posts instead of just name dropping him then
He's a developer who posts on GAF.
Gamestop.co.uk linked me to that page.
Gamestop UK is part of Gamestop Ireland.
One of my jobs a long time ago was to manage the ordering of Nintendo cartridges for a big publisher, which at the time was N64 and Gameboy Color. The cost of the cartridge is not the whole story at all and I doubt anything has really changed.
When you order the carts they are made in Japan, I'm assuming the same is true for the Switch. Which means you have to pay for shipping of those carts from Japan to the US/Europe. BUT, you have to use the shipping company Nintendo owns and their prices are not competitive. Same goes for the printed parts, manuals, boxes. You have to use Nintendo's printer and they are not cheap. Also factor in that there is a minimum order you have to buy from Nintendo and you see all the costs add up ontop of the cartridge price at BOM level so tax ext are added onto that. Also the carts sizes are fixed so if your game is just over the steps in cart size you could be buying the next biggest cart you need with wasted space. Disc games are fixed no matter how much space you need unless you get a multi disc title.
Compared to the other format holders, they provide you with a regional disc duplication plant and you might be able to choose your own disc replicator. Like I said, this was a long time ago and things might have changed but Nintendo's gonna Nintendo and rinse profit out of every step of the process which means the consumer is eventually picking up the tab.
Keeping parity with retail costs is just a bullshit excuse.
Is it though? How many manufacturing plants are there for Switch carts right now? Especially small orders. The thing about having many different places to print discs is true and makes a big difference
Yes, but there's still potential for a lot of the stuff to be outdated (ie forced printers, forced shipping companies etc)
this was obvious and I'm surprised there were so many arguments that it wasn't likely. Especially the puyo puyo thing. That is just reaching for an excuse and ignoring the vast evidence across all platforms that digital tends to cost the same as MSRP of physical.
I'm sure partly that's to avoid pissing off retailers, but also I expect publishers are happy at the relatively higher return they get which is a meaningful alternative to putting up prices at retail
The missing piece of the jigsaw is just how much more expensive the cards are. They don't have to be $10 more to put the price up by $10. Assuming retail/wholesale are working on percentage markups, a $3-5 increase in cost price by Nintendo could easily result in a $10 retail price bump.
Uhh... but Puyo Puyo Tetris is perfect game
Are the carts that expensive or is Nintendo charging high licensing fees?
We've heard this policy is why some smaller publishers and developers are going with the eShop only for their Nintendo Switch games. To release a physical version would mean factoring in the cost of manufacturing a cart, bumping up the price accordingly then price-matching the digital version.
For Binding of Isaac. IIRC That $4 included, in addition to the cartridge cost, and 20 page full color manual as you mentioned.According to BoI devs cost of manufacturing of physical copies + manual = 4 dollars.
Right.
How is Puyo Puyo Tetris charging a cheaper price in the US? Does NoA have a different policy.Well, we've heard that Nintendo's policy is that Switch eShop games should cost the same as their physical versions, in a bid to keep bricks and mortar shops on-side.
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We've heard this policy is why some smaller publishers and developers are going with the eShop only for their Nintendo Switch games. To release a physical version would mean factoring in the cost of manufacturing a cart, bumping up the price accordingly then price-matching the digital version.
Mass producing the carts is definitely more expensive than bluray but we don't know exactly how much. Just think about how manufacturing works. The Switch cart is basically proprietary media, there won't be as many factories that produce them compared to those producing bluray, and they would certainly charge more knowing that there aren't a lot of competitions just yet. Also, since the Switch's installed bases are still very small, publisher won't risk ordering a large batch of the game at once and having their game collecting dust on the shelf, but instead they order several small batches which can drive up the cost.
Switch GameCards DO NOT COST $10 more than Bluray discs. Sure they may cost a bit more, but not $10 more.
For Binding of Isaac. IIRC That $4 included, in addition to the cartridge cost, and 20 page full color manual as you mentioned.
It also included 2 sheets of stickers, and an extra alternative boxart cover.
How is Puyo Puyo Tetris charging a cheaper price in the US? Does NoA have a different policy.
Maybe that's just NoE's policy, because in the US Puyo Puyo Tetris is cheaper on the eShop.
$30 digitally, same price as on the PS4.
$40 retail, with physical bonus' (keychains)
Sorry, what I meant was that the cost of porting the game isn't what is putting the costs up, or keeping profits low (like in the case of the 3DS).
Could the blame be put on the publisher? During Resident evil Revelations release Capcom sold the game for 50 dollars : http://gonintendo.com/stories/177878-capcom-explains-why-resident-evil-revelations-deserves-a-50-pri
Some people think some publishers are exaggerating the difference in cost betwwen blue ray and cardridge to try and make a profit.
Its all nonsense with Rime in any case, it'll be down £10 a week or so after launch, they'll just try and get day 1 buyers to pay more
He's a developer who posts on GAF.
They word this like its a Nintendo only thing, we all know this is why digital costs more than physical
If Rime was going to cost Switch owners £10 more because of the cost of cartridges, maybe they should have just gone digital only. Its seems crazy that digital buyers would be the ones to suffer just because they decided to make a physical version
Its all nonsense with Rime in any case, it'll be down £10 a week or so after launch, they'll just try and get day 1 buyers to pay more
It's hard to tell if this is an issue or not. RiME because it is blatantly obvious they are charging more. With PuyoPuyo Tetris, it is hard to tell if they are charging more for physical because it is more expensive or because they are including other things like a keychain with it (making a glorified 'Special Edition' of the game). Also, PuyoPuyo Tetris digital game is the same price as the other versions.
Maybe this is a one-time deal with RiME and we are making it a bigger issue than it is. Maybe it is a foreshadowing of things to come. Only time will tell.
I'd be surprised, it will have had a small print run , you won't see deep discounts on it 1 week after launch
Could the blame be put on the publisher? During Resident evil Revelations release Capcom sold the game for 50 dollars : http://gonintendo.com/stories/177878-capcom-explains-why-resident-evil-revelations-deserves-a-50-pri
Some people think some publishers are exaggerating the difference in cost betwwen blue ray and cardridge to try and make a profit.
Captive audience. When your system only has 4 physical games and about as many unique digital ones, and very little coming out on the physical front for months, people will pay more to get anything new to play, and developers know this.
Well, we've heard that Nintendo's policy is that Switch eShop games should cost the same as their physical versions, in a bid to keep bricks and mortar shops on-side. A shop such as GAME, for example, is unlikely to go all in on a Switch game if you can download it for half the price instead.
Well, we've heard that Nintendo's policy is that Switch eShop games should cost the same as their physical versions, in a bid to keep bricks and mortar shops on-side.
Capcom actually conceded to the market and it launched at $40. Not to say that there weren't eventually $50 games on the 3DS (thanks, Atlus), but RE:Rev was an example of consumers winning out.
Luckily i am a patient person that wait Atlus games to drop to $20.Capcom actually conceded to the market and it launched at $40. Not to say that there weren't eventually $50 games on the 3DS (thanks, Atlus), but RE:Rev was an example of consumers winning out.
Also why not sell just a download-code at retail and make that version cheaper? Same profit for the publisher and the eShop games could cost the same as the download-only retail version.
http://www.gamestop.com/browse?nav=16k-3-has+been+heroes,28zu0
How can Has Been Heroes do it for $19.99 then?
For those of you who didn't bother to read the article:
I'm not entirely sure that's accurate as I went digging through his post history a few days ago since some in the other thread were placing more stock in his word versus Kenny's and the closest parallel to "I'm a developer" I could find is "I work in tech", which is rather vague and doesn't necessarily point to the video game industry specifically. It's distinctly possible if not probable that he was basing his comments on his experience elsewhere in the technology sector and isn't actually privy to Nintendo's cartridge pricing.
He is
Artificially keeping physical retailers afloat is just BS. It's bordering on an unethical practice and has 'price fixing' written all over it.