A new Nintendo Switch report is bad news for your wallet. Gaming on Nintendo Switch is already more expensive than gaming on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox for a variety of reasons. For one, Nintendo eShop sales aren’t as plentiful or charitable as sales on Steam or the PlayStation Store. Meanwhile, many of the console’s biggest and best games, rarely receive appreciable discounts, especially if they are published by Nintendo. And lastly, while it’s not as common as it used to be, Nintendo Switch tax, which refers to a game being more money on Switch compared to other platforms, still exists. All of that said, it sounds like gaming on Switch and Switch Lite is about to get even more expensive.
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Over on Reddit, SMG Studio — the developer behind Death Squared, a popular indie puzzle game — claims that the Nintendo eShop has a new rule that will prevent games from being less than $1.99. Of course, free games will remain free, but the developer claims the days of games going on sale for $0.99 and below are ending.
Now, running contrary to this report, two games — Plague Road and HoPiko –– are currently on sale for $0.99, making them the cheapest games on the platform currently. There are plenty of other games on sale, but none of them breach the aforementioned $1.99 price point.
On the surface level, this seems to dispel the claim from SMG Studio, but as the developer notes their game was also recently $0.99, but that’s because they planned the sale back in August. In other words, these two games may be in a similar boat. The fact they are the only two games on sale below $0.99 suggests this is the case. There are still plenty of other games listed for $0.99, but this is their normal price, and again, they are likely grandfathered in.
All of that said, for now, take everything here with a grain of salt. Nothing here is official, and so far Nintendo hasn’t provided any type of comment or clarification. If this changes, we will be sure to update the story. As for why Nintendo would do this, who knows. It could have something to do with the eShop’s top seller’s page, which has been littered with games dropping to dirt-cheap price points, but for now, this is just speculation.
