Cartridges Mean Switch Games Will Always Cost More

If you lot're erstwhile plenty to remember the original PlayStation launching, so you'll know how big of a deal switching to optical media was. Rather than shipping an expensive cartridge full of chips, games were burnt on to cheap spinning discs. Information technology didn't take long for other home consoles to follow and discs accept been the preferred media for home consoles ever since.

With the launch of the Switch, Nintendo is reverting back to cartridge media for a home console. Nintendo handhelds have stuck with cartridges ever since the Game Boy launched, but at that place wasn't really whatsoever alternative. For a home panel, though, it poses a large trouble in the form of pricing.

Inevitably, cross platform games volition be released targeting the Xbox One, PS4, and Switch. You only have to wait at listings for Puyo Puyo Tetris to see the challenge Switch developers (and Nintendo) face. On PS4 the game costs $29.99, but on Switch it'southward $39.99.

The reason, as highlighted past Eurogamer, is one of manufacturing cost. Optical media, even Blu-ray discs, are very cheap to mass produce. Cartridges are relatively-speaking much more expensive. They also aren't a set cost.

Regardless of whether you lot burn down 5GB or 40GB to a Blu-ray disc the media costs the aforementioned. Switch cartridges on the other manus, escalate in price depending on whether yous demand 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB of storage. They as well go more than expensive per cartridge the smaller the batch ordered.

If you lot only own a Switch, then the price divergence doesn't really matter every bit you are stuck paying $39.99. Withal, many gamers will own, or plan to own, a PS4 and a Switch, much similar many have owned a abode panel and a 3DS. In that case, Nintendo will lose out on cross-platform game sales to the PS4 or Xbox One due to the price differential. The PS4/Xbox One are significantly more than powerful than Switch pregnant the same game will inevitably expect better and run faster while also existence cheaper.

The pricing issue is compounded past the fact Nintendo insists that digital versions of a game offered through the eShop must be priced the same every bit physical versions. So opting to invest in a large SD card and only downloading games won't save you lot any greenbacks.

With fourth dimension and the continued success of the Switch, economies of calibration should see manufacturing costs fall. But for the foreseeable future, Switch games are going to be more than expensive than the same game on another platform. In fact, manufacturing costs will mean they are always more expensive to produce than the optical disc equivalent.

Will this impact a publisher'due south determination to release games on Switch. Potentially, yes. Just Switch sales will be key. If Nintendo continues to sell millions of units and then the marketplace exists to brand releasing on the platform viable. And the more than Switch sold, the bigger the cartridge orders can be, and therefore the cheaper they become.