Though your comment made me realize something, compared to most AAA game studios, theyāre a select few that have little to no articles about them having the, āmass layoffs, biggest profits ever.ā I think they have a low turnover rate over at their company. Granted, could be biases that are not letting me see those things but still.Ā
From what I understand execs at Japanese companies are held accountable a lot more than their American counterparts. Execs will often take a hit to their pay in order to avoid layoffs where most American companies will lay people off to avoid having to pay the execs less.
According to their 2023 financial report the top executives at Nintendo made around 2m$ which is significantly lower than most other gaming companies which probably helps avoid layoffs where
One person profiting while the rest of their colleagues suffer for it would be quite frowned upon in Japan, its culture is largely focused around supporting the collective. It's much more shameful for an executive to take more than what would be considered their due at the expense of those under them. If they got caught for it at least.
I don't know how it is for the rest of the world, but for the last 40+ years, the U.S. Federal Minimum Wage has increased every 5-10 years.
The last time the Wage was increased was 2009, 16 years ago!
That's why $80 is bullshit. I can afford it but many people can't and this is how Nintendo rewards its faithful customers, especially after their disgraceful failure known as the Wii U (irrelevant if anyone loved it, it's still the worst thing Nintendo has created since Virtual Boy and Nintendo needed the Switch to succeed).
I thought the Japanese were all about respect, but Nintendo just hides being their Japanese culture, they don't embrace it. Nintendo just acts like any other greedy Western capitalist company.
You idiot, learn to research before making a dumbass comment.
āWhile itās difficult to pinpoint an exact percentage, the United States is Nintendoās largest market, accounting for over a third of their annual revenue, making a significant portion of their customer base American. ā
DUURRR IM KINGRUFIIO I THINK NINTENDO DOESNT NEED TO WORK WITH ONE OF ITS BIGGEST CUSTOMERS DURRRR
Wow your username checks out. You hear an opposing opinion and immediately start being disrespectful. I bet you never leave the house without a fedora and swamp ass.
Not 100% sure what you are implying here, and I won't pretend to know what the current state of the Nintendo hierarchy is, but Iwata (RIP) once took a 50% paycut to prevent layoffs within Nintendo. I'd like to believe that culture still exists.
A large portion of their pay comes from performance bonuses which would have been pretty low during the wiiu era (when he took the cut) his salary was likely unaffected
$80 is specifically for Mario Kart most of the games are going to be $70. We all knew this was going to happen when PlayStation 5 games went up to $70.
Absolutely agreed! They are looking to see what the market will bare. I just have seen the misinformation of $90 come up time and time again to rile people up, and at least I haven't seen proof of that in the US yes, though it's very real for the EU of course so still a factor and worth discussion.
I find it odd that people think games can just cost $60 forever, this is what we paid in the 90s for games, like at some point they were bound to raise with inflation. Did people expect to still be paying $60 in 2045 too?
Yeah, tbh I was upset then I thought about this too, when I was like, a wee lad (I'm 21 now) the 360 games were like 60 dollars. We've had a recession and a whole plague outbreak but the price has only went up very recently. I don't think there would be any outrage about the price if wages also went up and people's basic needs were covered for
I just think the outrage is misplaced, like the economy is somehow Nintendo's fault.
Shit, in high school I could get a beefy 5 layer burrito at Taco bell for a buck, that shit costs like 4x as much now but I don't blame Taco Bell specifically for that.
Nintendo's getting a lot of blame here because of console war mentality that doesn't exist for many other markets. Like, there are no Del Taco fanboys to make memes like this about Taco Bell, no Walmart defenders who meme when the price of something at target rises, etc.
Exactly, basically everything everyone buys has increased in price except video games, how are people this shocked and outraged when games finally catch up. Sure these companies make a ton of money, but they can't just be expected to take a loss because people want video game prices to stay the same for their entire lives while everything else raises with inflation.
Google when the last time the American federal wage increased and you'll see why at least so many Americans are upset. Costs go up, sure, but salaries have to go up.
Also with your mentality, why aren't we paying $100 to go see a movie?
The reality is -- it doesn't need to be $80. Nintendo is making plenty of money in so many other venues besides their games. Truth is, they can still make plenty of money, it's just greed.
We have been a spoiled community because in reality we have not had tons of price increases, so now when it finally happens we all pout and say it isnt fair
Itās a miracle 60$ was the price for as long as it was, heās not supporting this, heās just acknowledging basic inflation. Games are expensive af to make
How can you acknowledge the rising development costs for bigger and better looking games and not see how that isnt sustainable. They are making a (small) profit on 60 dollar games now, they cant keep doing that long term.
Dude they developed this game with the money from selling $60 games. The game IS developed. Whatever profit they're making right now was enough to develop this better looking game. Or do you think they will pay their developers after it sells?
So you keep costs low for a higher volume, then each game is a gamble. Following Nintendo ads so much dlc that essentially becomes call of duty. Ergo $60 with a bimonthly $30 battle pass. From a corpo perspective this could make more, but from a dev? Nah man that's hell, Nintendo makes games and not services primarily.
It's not their core business, not developed by them (it's by DeNa) and they've been winding it down. They only have three mobile games and they just turned Pocket Camp into a pay-to-own.
This conversation is so stupid since switch games are $60 and they are making a profit right now. Whether it's because of volume or saving in distribution.... It's working, they are making money right now.
They. Are. Making. A. Profit. Breath of the wild was wildly more sophisticated than skyward sword. Did they lose money there? Do you know for a fact that World didn't reuse some of MK8D's code? You don't, neither do I, would be weird if they didn't... But we don't know. All we know is the switch, right now, with sophisticated games at $60, is making an insane profit. That's it. Sure the switch 2 console can be more expensive but justifying $80 games when they're making a profit is absurd. Even more so since they're making a profit while developing it. Or do you think they will pay their devs after the game sells?
Last I checked Nintendo didn't go broke from developing this game, already developed, sustained from the sales of other games that cost $60. This makes no sense whatsoever
Just because they are making profit (Which you in reality dont know that 100%) Doesnt mean it is a huge profit, and it also still doesnt change, that EVENTUALLY, that development cost is going to catch up. It wasnt going to stay that way forever
This is also ignoring the fact that these switch 2 games probably took a higher development cost, then what switch 1 games cost. We are talking about a whole new console, that has way better performance.
It would be like comparing Xbox 360 game costs, to current gen Xbox game costs.
I do know... We do know. They release financial statements. If it were to catch up it wouldn't be after release... That's stupid. Again, they developed it while not selling it at $80 and didn't go in the red, we know they are making a profit right now while developing...
This is either stupid or clearly not in good faith, good day.
As opposed to you? I'm not saying I'm an analyst, you are. All I'm saying is the fact that they are making money right now. Developing this "super advanced" or whatever game, right now, paying for that development right now and still making billions in profit. That is a fact.
But of course you can't answer that so you just state something unrelated. Which actually might make you a better candidate for this position I guess
No, Iām not the one claiming theyāre doing business wrong. Neither am I defending it, but youāre acting like you have their business model in your back pocket.
you're saying Nintendo should start willingly burning through cash reserves so that they can keep prices at $60 until they run out of cash reserves and then they would raise it up?
They wouldn't be burning through any reserves. The whole point as if they could sell these games at a reasonable price and still be making a reasonable profit. Reasonable profits don't pay for a second or third vacation home or yacht though.
no, reasonable profits do not matter at all to a public company. every quarter they have to make more profit than the last quarter. it's why they all go to shit.
exactly, it's not a good thing. So why is everyone in here gargling Nintendo's balls like it's inevitable? Its a choice they are making, not something they have to do or force going bankrupt.
Besides the fact that consoles not games mind you, have historically been sold at a lost, doesn't Nintendo make almost pure profit from their games because thy're first party?
Why are you acting like a company that made more profit in their last generation then they did from the 1980's until 2016 combined would be in trouble for pricing their games a bit more reasonably?
I mean that's great and all but doesn't address what I was saying to the person I was replying to. They aren't doing this because they aren't making money, or because inflation is keeping them from profit. Keeping prices where they are also wouldn't result in them "burning through cash reserves" like you suggested either. Like, I know companies are greedy I don't exist under a rock, but to act like they've been keeping prices low out of the goodness of their heart for so long or that unless they do they won't make money or start to lose money as you suggested is just silly.
Firstly, the new console can do 4K/60 so you will see game budgets increase to match the power of the system as developers find they can really pretty up their games now.
Secondly, high cash reserves is how Japanese companies operate. The country has about $4.8 trillion tied up in corporate cash reserves.
The businesses are extremely conservative with cash and make sure they have shitloads available in the event of a downturn in business.
Nintendo holding $9 billion in cash is not the equivalent of an American company doing so.
Oh boy 4k/60fps! On a handheld console. That almost certainly can't run anything at 4k unless docked and even then good luck because it's running on a modified tablet.
Why are you so okay with Nintendo charging next gen prices for last gen (graphics wise) games?
Bro even if they showed games running at 4k/60fps flawlessly for every game, I've been doing that on my PC since 2017. The games will not have cutting edge graphics and I have to ask again, why are you so okay with being charged next gen prices for last gen games? Like they're hyping HDR you can't be serious with this
Because even on a relatively average income for my country, the prices are still affordable to me and will provide more entertainment per hour than most forms of entertainment?
I'll gladly pay $80 for Mario Kart which I will play for years to come. I wouldn't pay $30 for a new assassins creed game or whatever looter/hero shooter dogshit is fotm.
If you think it's fun now, just wait until these people see the $80 pass through a 24% tariff and break $100 after tax. Assuming the trade war doesn't escalate any further.
It's not impossible, if the market grows, then that development cost can be split between more people. Or else you make it up in microtransactions. But yeah I agree the default expectation should be that it rises with inflation.
This is only true if you consider all games to be the same "size".
The problem is that games are getting bigger and bigger, take years to make and this raises the costs primarely. And btw, with lower financial risks, we might also get more experimental and innovative games, so a Win Win imo
But yeah, Nintendo has a unique stand where they basically have guaranteed sales, so I still totally agree that they messed up
A lot of people here completely missing that the games market has grown massively in the last 20 years. A long with making everything digital as opposed to the physical copies we used to get, prices were expected to go down, not up.
Look at companies earnings instead of their pricing to understand the economy of it. Contrast with average consumer income. People now have considerably less expendable income than they did 20 years ago.
Do you realise that the market for videogames has exponentially grown far faster than inflation or other nonsense you want to attribute to the newest pricing big companies want to put out their games?
They don't even pay for phyisical copies anymore and now they sell over 20 million copies for any half ass Pokemon game they released lmao.
Obviously games will go up in price, but when they are filled with micro transactions, and or the quality is really bad, there's no excuse to justify charging more money
380
u/Tortue2006 23h ago
I donāt have a problem with a higher price, although 80 bucks is quite a bit. I have a problem with salaries not going up as well.