My dad used to tell me that in the ’70s, you could walk down to the corner shop with 20 cents and come back with a bag of hot chips and a game of pinball. On a good day, if he beat the high score, he’d get the chips for free. It’s the kind of story my brother and I would laugh at, but lately, it’s been on my mind because in 2025, a single Nintendo game can cost $119.
With the Switch 2’s lineup now out in the open, one number is grabbing more attention than any other: the price tag. Mario Kart World is launching at $119 AUD. Other first-party titles, like the new Donkey Kong Country Returns, are set at $109. Then we have remakes like Bravely Default: Rediscovered are asking for $59. That’s a full spread of pricing, and not everyone’s happy about it. As someone who spent years behind the counter at EB Games, it’s wild to see $119 make a comeback. During the Xbox 360 era, that price point was pretty standard. I remember selling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and other multi-disc titles at that exact RRP. For a while, competition knocked those prices down to around $99, and they just sort of stayed there. But now, game prices are on the move again. And as a reviewer, a parent, and someone saving up for the Switch 2 like so many of you, I’ve been thinking about what that means—for families, for players, and for the industry. This isn’t a rant. It’s a look at the reality we’re walking into—and whether it might actually be overdue.
To understand why games are hitting triple digits again, it helps to look at the history. In Australia, we’ve seen game prices rise, fall, and now climb once more. During the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era, $109 wasn’t unusual for a big-name release. Then something shifted. Whether it was digital sales, more competition, or simply changing expectations, prices settled. For most of the Switch and PlayStation 4 generation, $79 to $99 became the standard. It felt fairer, especially as deluxe editions and pre-order bonuses picked up the slack for publishers chasing higher margins. Digital storefronts also played a major role. With Steam, the eShop, and PlayStation Network offering regular discounts, the perceived value of a game started to drop. Why pay full price when a sale could be just around the corner? I saw this firsthand with Ubisoft titles in particular. Their games often saw steep discounts not long after launch, which quietly changed how myself and a lot of others approached buying them. I remember picking up Far Cry 6 just a few months after release and getting the deluxe edition for almost $50 off. That kind of price drop didn’t just make me feel like I was getting a deal. It trained me to wait.
At the same time, publishers began pushing more expensive deluxe editions. These versions are bundled in early access or extra content, making the $119 price tag feel more like a premium tier than a baseline. In many ways, this was a quiet reintroduction of higher pricing, only now, the extra cost came with a shiny new label. As I touched on in my recent article about the death of midnight launches, this was also a period when physical retail lost a lot of ground. The magic of launch nights faded, and digital became the default. It changed how we bought games and how much we were willing to pay for them. All of this fed into a new perception of value. Games were getting bigger. Updates and post-launch support were becoming standard. But now, that cycle may finally be catching up with the industry.
It’s easy to look at a $119 price tag and feel a bit blindsided, especially when that number used to represent a collector’s edition. But there’s a side to the conversation that’s often overlooked: games today cost more to make than ever before. Budgets have ballooned, particularly for AAA studios. What used to be a 50-person team is now 300. Voice acting, full-motion capture, global marketing campaigns, and orchestral soundtracks- these aren’t niche luxuries anymore. They’re expected. The result is that games now often take five or six years to develop, and in some cases cost more than major films. Take The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as an example. While Nintendo didn’t reveal specific figures, it’s widely believed to have cost significantly more than Breath of the Wild. The sheer scope of its world, new mechanics, and polish show just how much work went into it. And yet, it launched at the same RRP as most Nintendo Switch games.
There’s also the matter of inflation. The average cost of living has risen across the board, but game pricing has mostly stayed frozen since the early 2010s. In a lot of ways, what we’re seeing now could be seen as a course correction. It doesn’t make the prices sting less, especially during a cost-of-living crisis, but it does put things into perspective. From my side of things, I’ve felt the crunch as a content creator too. Reviewing games independently means I often buy them out of pocket. Trying to keep up with releases, particularly as I plan for the Switch 2, isn’t cheap, especially when you’re also raising two kids and watching every dollar.
It makes you think carefully about what you’re buying, and more importantly, why you’re buying it. Are you paying for a finished product? A name? A promise of updates down the track? It’s not always clear anymore. There’s no denying that $119 AUD for Mario Kart World has raised a few eyebrows. For many families, especially those with younger players, that’s a big ask. As someone budgeting for a Switch 2 while also having two children who are gamers, I completely understand the sticker shock, but on the other hand, it might also be what the industry needs. We’ve seen countless stories of layoffs, closures, and cancelled projects, even from studios that seemed to be doing everything right. If higher game prices help stabilise development timelines, allow studios to take more creative risks, and offer more complete experiences at launch, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep publishers accountable. Consumers should absolutely expect value for money, whether that’s in content, polish, or post-launch support. If prices reflect actual development investment, rather than just a cash grab, then perhaps we’re seeing the start of a smarter system. It also opens the door for publishers to scale appropriately. Not every game needs to be $119. If something like the Bravely Default remake can release at $59, then maybe we’re heading toward a future where pricing aligns more with the scope of the game rather than just brand power. In a sense, we’re in a reset period. The Switch 2 is ushering in a new generation, not just of hardware, but potentially of expectations around what a game is worth. Whether this shift results in better, more sustainable games remains to be seen. But it’s worth watching—and maybe even welcoming.
It’s understandable why gamers are upset, especially when you see a familiar franchise priced higher than ever; it’s easy to feel like you’re being taken for a ride. But the reality is more complicated. Nintendo fans, in particular, are feeling the sting right now. For years, new Switch titles consistently launched between $69 and $79 AUD. Now, Mario Kart World is arriving at $119, with other first-party games like Donkey Kong coming in at $109. That’s not just a gentle increase, it’s a massive dollar jump in one generation. Compared to the more gradual pricing shift we saw with Xbox Series X and PS5 games, this feels sudden, and fans are outraged. During a recent Nintendo Treehouse livestream, the frustration was impossible to ignore. The chat was flooded with “Drop the price” messages. It turned what should have been a celebratory moment into a live broadcast of fans frustrations.
So, should we be angry? Maybe not.
But we should be thoughtful. We should ask why a game costs what it does, and whether the value matches the asking price. We should encourage flexible pricing, support studios that treat their teams and players well, and recognise that sometimes, paying a little more can help keep a studio alive. Ultimately, it’s not about whether prices are rising; it’s about what we’re getting in return. If that means more polished games, fewer rushed releases, and a healthier development cycle, then maybe this shift is worth embracing… even if it means I now have to budget a little more carefully.
