Long-time gamers know all too well that Nintendo has a rather unique policy when it comes to discounts for its exclusive games: they rarely, if ever, exist. Most of the time, you’ll see Nintendo titles keeping their full price even years after their release, whereas every other platform, be it other consoles from Sony and Microsoft or PC itself, applies regular discounts for even the biggest games some time after their original launch.
Former Nintendo of America president and CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé provided his own explanation for why that’s the case. In a recent talk with games analyst Joost Van Dreunen at the NYU Game Center Lecture Series, the executive referred back to Nintendo’s roots as a company headquartered in Kyoto.
The Nintendo mentality is: we’re shipping a game complete. It’s ready to play. There’s no, you know, day one update that’s gonna take three hours. And so part of it is it’s a different mentality. That is their thinking. I liken this to this idea of Kyoto craftsmanship. So the company is headquartered in Kyoto. For those of you who are knowledgeable about Japanese history, the old emperor’s capital, and a city known for its fine craftsmanship: linens, china, pottery, that is Kyoto.
I’m convinced Nintendo, as a company, has that same type of mentality. We are going to build the best games, we are going to send them out feature complete, and as a result, this is where sometimes customers push back: we don’t discount our games. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild never received a price discount from the day it was launched. Never was discounted. Occasionally, retailers might decide to do something, but the company never discounted. It’s part of this process: we’re gonna make it the best we can, we’re gonna send it feature complete, and we’re gonna charge a fair price, and that price is never gonna change.
Whether you agree with this unique philosophy or not, Reggie’s explanation at least makes clear that Nintendo’s pricing rigidity is a deliberate cultural stance rather than simple commercial opportunism, one that’s baked into the company’s original identity long before the modern games market existed. That said, I’m sure most gamers would prefer if they were a little bit more flexible: being a Nintendo fan certainly is expensive.
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