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New Super Mario Bros 2 will cost more on eShop that the RRP in the UK
News reported by 
(Editor)
August 13, 2012, 13:01
 
Nintendo has announced that NSMB2 will cost £39.99 on the eShop in the UK, this is £5 higher than the RRP and £10 higher than online retailers such as Amazon are charging.

They have also announced that the original version of Freakyforms which sells for £5.40 will not be available on the eShop to purchase from Friday and will be replaced by Freakyforms Deluxe. The download will be available to download for £24.99 while retailers are already selling the game for less than £19.99.

The last retail title being added this week is New Art Academy which will sell for £29.99 on the eShop but is widley available for purchase at retailers for £19.99.

Nintendo must be crazy here, with only storage and bandwidth costs to consider rather than manufacturing, packaging, shipping and storage costs for physical versions they are inflating the costs by a ridiculous amount. Do they honestly expect digital content to sell well at these prices? I can only hope they hold regular sales or drop prices soon otherwise they are setting themselves up for a fall before they even start.

Here is a full list of Downloadable titles available this week in Europe.

3DS eSHOP – 3DS CARD SOFTWARE
New Super Mario Bros 2 (Nintendo) – £39.99
New Art Academy (Nintendo) – £29.99
Freakyforms Deluxe (Nintendo) – £24.99

3DS eSHOP – VIRTUAL CONSOLE
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (Game Boy) (Konami) – £2.70

DSiWARE
The Lost Town: The Jungle (Circle Entertainment) – £1.80 / 200 Points
Escape The Virus: Shoot ‘Em Up! (Teyon) – £1.80 / 200 Points

3DS eSHOP – DLC & MISC
Videos
- The Incredible Barbazan: Up Your Sleeve – £1.40
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy DLC
- Battle 2 (Final Fantasy IV – Battle Music Stage)
- Battle Theme (Final Fantasy XI – Battle Music Stage)
- Esper Battle (Final Fantasy XII – Battle Music Stage)
- March Of The Dreadnoughts (Final Fantasy XIII – Field Music Stage)

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Posted: 08/13/12, 13:01  - Edit:  08/13/12, 13:18
 
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That sucks. Seems Nintendo are trying online retail, but setting themselves up to fall.

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 13:05
Isn't this the same with retail games being sold digitally on consoles in the UK? Maybe not all companies but I recall EA selling their games for a heck of a lot more than the retail version. Maybe there's something we're missing here...?

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 15:38
So don't buy it digitally.

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 18:07
Welcome to the digital revolution!

... I'll stick with physical media, t'anks.

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 20:06
c'mon. it doesn't cost anything to manufacture reducing a big chunk of overhead. why isn't Nintendo incentivizing this by reducing the cost? it should save off at least 5-10 bucks not increase the cost.

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 20:12
@vids

True, but they probably don't want to piss off retailers by undercutting them.

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 20:52
People who buy it digitally are not paying for the boxarts or istrruction booklets. It should be cheaper than getting the cartridge.

Also, how does Nintendo want people to get into buying in the eShop if they make the games more expensive?

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 21:08
NinSage said:
Welcome to the digital revolution!

That's like holding up Superman 64 and saying "Welcome to 3D gaming!"

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 21:31
@vids

If Nintendo is spending as much as $10 per 3DS game just in production something has gone severely wrong.

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 21:49
@Stephen

when you factor in manufacture, shipping, retailers cut I bet it starts getting up there.

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 22:27
@warerare

The most significant thing you mentioned was the retailers cut which I believe is about 20%. That is significant but it's not a production cost.

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 22:38
I think their justification will be because of server-side storage. In reality, it should save exactly what it costs to package the game with instructions...you'd think.

Posted by 
 on: 08/13/12, 23:01
I have a feeling that Nintendo are upset when stores sell their games under the MSRP, and so this is their attempt at selling games for full price.

Posted by 
 on: 08/14/12, 00:44
@Jargon

True, true. But I guess what I was trying to say was, what did people expect? For years people have been talking about expanses in the digital realm as if suddenly these huge companies wouldn't care about money or protecting the value of their products.

All it really ever meant was we wouldn't have physical control/ownership over the things we paid for. Not too much else.

Posted by 
 on: 08/14/12, 05:35
@NinSage

Maybe for Nintendo, but not for plenty of digital vendors.

Posted by 
 on: 08/14/12, 05:44
@Jargon

So 1st party Sony/MS games are constantly cheaper to download for PS/V/60?

Posted by 
 on: 08/14/12, 18:07
@NinSage

I dunno, I don't have a PS3 or Vita and I don't buy retail games on 360 in downloadable form. But on PC, many games start out cheaper than their physical counterparts, quickly get permanent discounts and then often get put on sale for even less.

Also, over the course of my life, I've had many physical games lost or damaged (often due to living with kids). That is something I don't have to worry about with digital games, which to me makes up for the possibility of losing the license at some point. There's two sides to every coin.

Posted by 
 on: 08/14/12, 18:30  - Edit:  08/14/12, 18:31
 
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