Nintendo Switch Owners Will Have To Wait Longer And Pay More For RiME

Lame. This is the sort of thing that will cause me to reconsider a purchase. Ah well, plenty of other things to play. I wish the company all the best, regardless.

Physical ?!
Hm....
Some games from PS4 that should be in Switch card are Earthlock Festival of Magic and Overcooked.

There is a concerning trend that the price of games for the Switch are higher than their competitors, something that will hit it hard unless something is done. I am interested in this game but not to the point I will pay £40 for it.

Is the physical version exclusive to the Switch?

Great. I really hope Switch games don't continue to be priced so high compared to the other systems.

Pretty steep price for a game that's only like 6-10 hours long, anyway.

Not for me, just because of the prices, 29 dollars becomes 35€ ??? and 10€ more for the switch version. I'll wait for a sale for it

Wonder if it'll have worse performance too

@JKRiki should not be too suprising. Many 3rd parties are already skipping switch and other games like yooka layle are also coming out later instead of alongside ps4 and xbox one versions.

@KirbyTheVampire I wonder what the root cause of this is? It's this sort of thing that's going to turn off potential customers and former Nintendo fans from getting a switch. Only the most diehard of Nintendo fans are going to be happy to pay more for the same game you can get elsewhere.

Well, that's pretty messed up. Looked like a promising game but I won't buy it on any format now, out of principle. It'll probably hit PS Plus sometime anyway. The delay doesn't bother me but there is no justification for increasing the price.

Why??? Do they not want games to sell on the Switch ??
It was the same with Skylanders., twice the price than the other consoles for a lesser version and you didn't even need a portal for the switch version. Same with just dance, twice the price. Do they want it to fail?

Eh? $40 is a little harder to chew when it's 10 hours to complete. One could buy the card and trade it later I guess. Still not right to charge more without additional content.

Could very well have to do with cartridge costs in combination with lower expected sales targets, in comparison with the other platforms. Not all that great if you're a Nintendo-only gamer and are interested in this game, but for me personally, this was kind of to be expected, especially with smaller studios putting their games on cartridge.

This probably reflects rising game costs overall. Get ready for a USD$70 or $80 base price for games next gen.

Not this again. My biggest issue with the Wii U was how third parties often gave the system late ports and drastically scaled down versions of their products.

Please let it only be a RiME issue.

I think the price will drop on this quick, if the Switch is getting the later version when compared to the PS4 & Xbox 1.

Inb4 3rd parties go "Our titles didn't sell well on the Switch so we don't plan on supporting it anymore". When presented with a choice customers tend to go for the cheaper option. Make the price the same across the board and everyone wins.

Why do Switch owners have to pay $10 more though?

Ugh, come on.

Well, if this is the cost of 3rd party on Nintendo... as much as I despise it, I'll accept it. I wouldn't on Wii U, but on Switch given its a hybrid and offers 2 versions per game, most the only handheld version that exists... I can justify it.

But I still think it's discriminatory. I think I understand why they're doing this: 3rd party games typically sell less on Nintendo, to the point it's not worth it to port games. If the "Atlus Tax" has to be applied to make it worth porting over... so be it. It'll always drop in price.

I do think it'll backfire though. More people will be turned off from buying day one that the added profits may not be enough to cover the losses of people waiting (and then buying for less or forgetting about the game and never buying at all)

Was thinking about it but now I'll pass. Games should not cost more on Switch compared to the other consoles. You're getting better graphics and likely better performance on the other platforms, so even if the portability on Switch is a plus, the higher cost will certainly drive most away.

Why would they expect anyone to support this? Later is acceptable but making it more expensive really is setting it up to fail.

@telecaster24 you do realize that's because they didn't have dev kits until the last minute and this rime issue is totally different right?

What? No no no no. This better not be used as an excuse as to why the game didnt sell well on Switch, like so many third parties did on the Wii U.

@nathatruc "29 dollars becomes 35€"
I went nuts as well when I first read it, but actually we can buy it on the US eshop.

Nope! I won't be purchasing now.

I'll still get it because of two reasons;

With Switch, the RIME becomes a game you can play at home and on the go. So I guess you could look at it like you're paying a little extra for other version? Truth be told, paying £40 for me isn't a big deal because I was expecting to pay that much anyway. I'll agree with some of you that they need to get their act together but I'm not in a position to be picky right now. I need to inhale more games for my Switch.

I'll wait for the inevitable sale.

This is poor news...

The game did not look that interesting to me and the price killed any impost buy...oh well.

I don't mind waiting but why the price hike if nothing new is being added? I'll wait for an explanation at this point but the game has dropped to a wait and see status for me now.

Edit: After seeing their response which I feel like is pure Switch Tax and unnecessary, I will either skip this or buy the physical version used. Either way they lost a sale and I own all the platforms it is releasing on. Hopefully no one else will follow suit with this practice.

Hold on , is this higher price ONLY for the physical version? I truly hope that's the case, otherwise, this is just downright absurd.

I'll but it when it's $15 or less if it reviews well.

Waiting longer? Can do. But pay more? No thanks!

This has no RiME or reason for the price increase. 😆

Typical Nintendo tax. Third parties or indie games seem to have three different ways of gouging Switch owners:

1) Selling a port, or update, of an older game for full MSRP. See: Street Fighter II

2) Games being significantly cheaper at various times on other platforms like Steam, Humble Bundle, or PSN, because they are willing to put their game on sale on those platforms. See: $40 for Binding of Isaac.

3) We're just going to charge more, because there's nothing else out there and we're going to take advantage of that. See: this game, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Bomberman.

Well, if they went through a different company to make the port, that might explain the increase.

I will probably still buy it using Amazon Prime. Still a decently priced game if it truly is 10+ enjoyable hours.

This is Lame....

that good ol' nintendo tax heh.

And developers are wonder why their ports don't sell as well on Nintendo systems...

I wonder if it's because the Switch doesn't have a large library of games yet, and they figure Switch owners will be desperate enough to pay this for more games.

@DiscoGentleman wait what lol

You pretty much contradicted your first statement with your second statement.

@Nygiantz17

They probably saw how many people bought Bomberman or want Street Fighter II and thought, you know what, there's plenty of suckers who bought this thing to sell to.

Seems like some third parties WANTS their game to bomb on Nintendo consoles. This is LAME. Well guess what, i won't buy this game on any platform, this is bs.

Probably the added cost of using game cards vs. discs coupled with the NDF-pushed agenda of "we only buy Nintendo consoles for Nintendo gamez anyways" nonsense.

Basically, blame Nintendo fans and the company themselves on this one.

Well a physical release is cool and makes me slightly more likely to be interested in the game. But $40 for a 10 hour puzzle game? There's a lot of indies coming with much bigger games than that, and there's some retail titles not far off in price than that (Bomberman, Setsuna (eshop only) etc. Seems a high asking price for what they're selling.

If I recall the developer behind this was one of the few criticizing the development process somewhat saying development was difficult and that memory limitations were producing even more challenge than the processing limits. Meanwhile many more much more experienced indies and majors have bee praising how amazingly easy the porting is.

Part of the cost could just be increased development resources due to the developer being unfamiliar with the system and/or code design that favors other architectures for some unusual reason. A physical release, though, makes it easier to accept a fee. At least I don't have to import it unlike Setsuna....

@gatorboi352 - Yeah, it's totally crazy that people purchase Nintendo consoles to play Nintendo games. Idiots!

Tantalus seems like a talented studio who should be doing something a little better than pushing out indie ports that are overcharging for their games. Nintendo should just buy them out to help on remakes and virtual console games.

Could be something to do with the physical cost of cartridges over optical media.
But if that's the case, they should opt to price the digital version accordingly...

"Quite why this should be the case is anyone's guess; the Switch version isn't being advertised as having any unique content compared to the other versions"

What do you think? You pay the Nintendo premium, as always! Mark my words, this will be the case with most games on Switch. Super lame, but totally expected!!

Obviously you can't tell from just game website comments, but from the ones I've seen there is a universal disdain over the Switch version's increased cost. I can understand for the physical somewhat as it may become a bit of a collector's piece, but the digital should match the prices on other platforms.

The developer better be putting together an explanation or be willing to switch their minds before launch.

Well I was interested. Not so much now...

@FX102A

Grey Box responded on the price stating:

"We set prices for our products based on the costs of development and publishing for each specific platform."

Most will obviously get it where it's cheaper

Because the Switch has a much more limited library to choose from thereby less competition so they will try and grab the extra 10 bucks.

@Anti-Matter overcooked IS coming to Switch

Sadly this have been happening for a while. No a Switch exclusive problem but all Nintendo consoles. I hope developers find a way to make prices equal on all platforms. People won't easily understand the reason behind this

@Nygiantz17 that's my theory exactly

I wasn't planning on getting it but if I were after this I would get it for PS4.

I just remembered, isn't this the game that Sony announced at their own E3 conference as though it was some magical messiah for the PS4 as an exclusivity deal? It was supposed to be Sony's take on Wind Waker mixed with Ico and they presented it as a special first party indie collaboration. And then it was announced it was coming to WiiU. And 3 years later, here we are?

It seems like this game has gone through some rough times and development nightmares since it's initial unveiling and the Sony deal must have fallen through. They actually dedicated stage time to this 3 or 4 years ago.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE That brings back memories!

Unbelievable. They might as well ask Nintendo gamers to not buy it.

The thing is no one has clearly defined WHY? WHY?
Is the cost of the game card pushing prices up like on the N64?? But then digital??

Why??

People that accept this and buy these games are only encouraging this outrage.

What is it about the economic climate of the game industry that makes developers believe that owning a Nintendo system also means we're not savvy consumers?

I won't be penalized in price just because of a developers dislike of the system. The extra cost for physical I can kinda understand, but having that same price for digital? Eff off!

Will no longer purchase this title

@gatorboi352
There are plenty of games that cost the same across all platforms, regardless of physical format. Rime is not some kind of massive open world game that would require a specialized, significantly more expensive cart. Besides, Rime is also available digitally across all platforms, yet it is still more expensive on the Switch.

This is Tequila Works sabotaging themselves for no good reason. Nobody, not Nintendo or their fans, asked for this.

And so it begins ...

Very strange move! If I feel the urge to buy, it will be on PS4.

Well I was interested in this. I don't have enough money to get whatever I want, and other games may have just taken priority.

@telecaster24 Oh I'm not surprised, definitely. Simultaneously, this sort of thing will remove me as a customer of the game for now. It is what it is, and my reaction gets to be non-surprised but firm.

Agreed £30 is too expensive for the amount of game time this offers . £20 maybe and then adding an extra £10 for switch .... no thanks

@ThanosReXXX That was my thought too. A blu-ray disc is dirt cheap and a cartridge, while maybe not $10 more expensive, has to add some expense to the production cost.

This is hilarious and incredibly sad at the same time.

...yeah, I might just go to PS4 for this one if there's nothing that justifies the extra $10.

Square-Enix did this with Deus Ex on the Wii U, but luckily most retailers (at least Amazon UK) released it discounted to same price as PS3 and 360. If see RiME get same discount I'll bite, but otherwise won't bother with it at full premium price.

I'd guess that the price is higher because the install base is lower and the title is coming out fairly early in the console's lifespan.

1. You have only a very small window where the title is "new". After that, interest drops off a cliff. RiME will not be selling well even a month after it's released because there will be newer titles and more competition.

2. The cost of porting the title. My guess is that they figure that very few Switch owners will actually buy the title versus on another platform so they will need to recoup their money from a smaller number of users.

3. Cynically, captive audience might also come into play. They know the Switch has a low number of available titles so perhaps they're betting that players will be desperate enough for something to play, at least until Mario arrives, that they'll swallow the price difference.

We'll see how it works out for them.

@CptFalcon Fair doose, though honestly the majority of people will not really see it this way. Of course this could all be an elaborate scheme so that when the price drops to match the other platforms as part of a "sale" the second wave of sales will come.

As long as people haven't bought it already on other platforms.

Honestly, I wonder if they even care about sales on the Switch as they stand to develop negative views from part of the audience.

Well we can only wait and see the outcome.

Well, that didn't take long.

Yikes, £10 difference could well mean I am no long buying it. Sad really as this did interest me!

That's funny, they'll have to wait longer for me to purchase it, and when I find it at a cheaper price.

Perhaps Nintendo's licensing fees are higher or the cost of manufacturing the cartridges adds to the increased price? Maybe a mixture of both? I've noticed indie games have often been priced higher on Nintendo hardware versus the competition.

Almost certainly because the cost of a cartridge is more than a disc and they don't want to charge less for the digital download.

Well that's one less sale. I was going to buy this but now won't out of principle.

Hey, third parties!

If you actually want Nintendo gamers to buy your stuff, actually have some decency and price your stuff right!

Super Bomberman R - Cheap $25 game sold at double the price

Ultimate Street Fighter II - A 25 year old game sold for 40 dollars! 9 years ago, the same thing was sold for $15. No, Evil Ryu is not worth $25. He isn't even worth 25¢!

Binding of Issac: Afterbirth + and Puyo Puyo Tetris - These games are fine because they come with cool goodies and the digital downloads are reasonably priced.

RiME - No RiME or reason for this price drop. Utterly disgraceful.

TL;DR: Don't go crying about not bringing more games to the Switch when you can't treat us with an ounce of respect as gamers.

@JKRiki my sentiments exactly !

@cleveland124 Really? A cartridge costs a few cents more than a disc at most. Don't try to defend this money grubbery.

So digital versions of carts are more expensive too?

Won't buy on any console.

Saw this over at nintendoeverything:

Rime is due out later on Switch than other platforms, and when it does, it’ll be $10 more. Grey Box has since commented on the price increase with Eurogamer.

“We set prices for our products based on the costs of development and publishing for each specific platform,” the publisher said.

Rime on Switch will be the same as other versions, “though with the added freedom to take the adventure anywhere using the Switch’s portable functionality”. Tequila Works and Switch-specific developer Tantalus are “investigating the use of Switch-specific features, but we cannot confirm anything at the moment”.

Well that just sucks, discourages me from the whole thing

Third party support for the Switch is key to its success and I have to say it seems like it's going to be Wii U all over again. There hasn't been much announced that's exclusive to the Switch and the current slew of indies are mostly ports of games that have been out for a year plus in some instances. To say nothing of the total lack of any AAA third party support exclusive or multiplat.

As a day one purchaser of the Switch I'm content with Zelda but I'm not looking to double dip on Mario Kart and Lego City so outside of those games there isn't much announced and the lack of indies has been troubling to say the least.

I understand it doesn't really all tie in to this article but it certainly is worrying and worth watching.

@Mega_Yarn_Poochy

$40 for a puzzle game and an indie game you can get cheaper elsewhere is also ridiculous. Including plastic or paper junk that has no functionality into a 'bundle' adds nothing to me. Would rather spend the money on games rather than crap like a keychain SEGA is trying to push into a Tetris game.

I've really yet to see a single third party or indie physical game give me an equal deal as elsewhere, which is sad.

@CptFalcon The Binding of Issac: Afterbirth + is only available on Steam for $36. The Switch version is only $4 more.

As for Puyo Puyo Tetris, the game's only $30 digital.

Game probably sucks anyway.

@Mega_Yarn_Poochy

Binding of Isaac goes on sale all the time. The base game itself is constantly under $10. Sure, it's a little more expensive with the expansions, but if you wait for a sale you can get them all for a little over $20 on Steam and it's only going to go down.

The physical version of Puyo Puyo Tetris is $30 on PS4. Not to mention it was out in Japan on several systems over THREE years ago.

Not buying any of this garbage. I'm fine with a Nintendo only system, and maybe some outside games Nintendo may get agreements for.

I was really looking forward to this game but charging more for it on one console seems really seedy. It definitely puts me off buying this game, so now my 'day one purchase' will be a 'wait until it's 5 bucks on steam.' Good job, guys.

NINTENDO PLEASE!!! Nip this one in the bud while you still can, before history repeats itself! Don't let loyal gamers jump platform by overpricing games. Cut your royalties if needed!

No thanks...

I thought switch was easy to port over. I thought it'll give devs the same platform for both worlds. Charging extra for a feature that the console does naturally is absurd.

This was one of the games I was looking forward to the most. I was disappointed at the length of the game, I'm disappointed (although not a deal breaker) by the delay and I'm even more disappointed by this arbitrary price increase (by a third!). What was going to be a day one buy, despite the initially high price for a 10 hour game, will now be a when-it's-in-a-half-price-sale buy for me. And I don't actually expect to be waiting that long, since I don't believe many Switch owners will buy it at that price.

So we can expect this to be another case of third parties refusing to port to Nintendo systems because "our games don't sell on Nintendo platforms". I won't hold my breath for a Switch port of the Sexy Brutale, then.

ETA - Concerned Ape, if you're reading this, please don't do something similar for Stardew Valley. I've been waiting for it to come to Switch, because it's ideal for portables and I cannot play it on Steam. I don't mind paying a bit more for a Switch version, but I won't pay %% more than its base Steam price. Just can't do it.

I love how the article doesn't even mention if they attempted to reach of to the developer or publisher.

Switch is expensive in uk.

I went to game today and all I see is "the switch is cheaper when you trade in"

Well, I may have set my eyes elsewhere now, but RiME was apparently long enough on my "earliest Switch purchases" list for me to jinx it hard. XD

Naturally still a Switch purchase for me - it wouldn't make sense to get it elsewhere when it's available here, - but in summer it'll be probably competing with a good many more Switch games at a price like that (not to mention the closer advent of Skyrim at that point). Russian eShop will only google-tax it further, so the purchase queue priority may take quite a hit here.

I just read a article on another site,the devs of Rime interview said,the extra cost is to do with production costs like featuring HD rumble and something to do with extra time developing it to make sure it runs in handheld mode, some BS like that anyway

This actually makes a lot of sense in a way. They did unified development for the other 3 platforms for a singular release, they had to go above and beyond to bring it to the Switch. Extra development costs money. Usually one of two things happen, either the new console version goes on sale at the original price while the older versions become cheaper or the company just eats the extra development costs in hopes of simply garnering more sales.

Raising the price is a 3rd approach I've not seen before, but it's not that strange.

@NintySnesMan

Sounds stupid and ridiculous. Adding any platform is going to cost extra in terms of time and cost, that's the point. You invest your time to introduce your product to a new audience and then the return on that investment. They're acting as if it added extra requirements for their own decision to bring it to a new audience. Then don't bring it over then? Stupid philosophy.

@Anti-Matter I'm pretty positive overcooked is confirmed for Switch. And absolutely Earthlock would compliment I am Setsuna excellently.

Earthlock was one of my favorite rpgs in a long time. Game was excellent from start to finish. I still go back do random fights, wish it had dlc cause first game I 1000/1000 in a while

@CptFalcon
Yeah mate,there is no excuse for this,what I took from the interview and I read between the lines,is they were just trying to soften the blow for the higher price. They know and we all know it won't sell loads,so they hike the price to recuperate some profit

They lost my purchase...in any console, puzzle games like this are a dime a dozen.

I'll get it when it goes on sale if it gets good reviews. No need to reward greedy dev behaviors right now.

I was interested in this title untill I learned it would only take 8 to 10 hours to complete thats not alot of content for a 30 to 40 dollar price tag, if the game offers extras on the Switch that are not on other versions I could understand a price difference yet like I stated I can't justify spending that much for so little content to begin with maybe there is something we dont know yet like online play, leaderboards something to give the game replayability I don't know shame though the game looked promising in the beginning.

oh my sounds like the early wii u ports without dlc.

@Vriess This isn't Nintendo's fault. These overpriced third-party games are the third-parties' fault. I doubt Nintendo could do much outside of bribing the developers.

10 hours?

I wouldn't pay £20, let alone £40.

Do they not know about Breath of the Wild? Why pay 40 quid for this bland tripe when you've got Breath of the Wild?

If it's any good then I'll pick it up when it hits £3.

@Frank90 This early third-party content is reminding me of the things third-parties pulled with the Wii U (remember Mass Effect 3?) and that really worries me.

That is a fail. I will wait a year to play then wait for a discount. Fail

I pay $8.50 to see 2 hour long movies. The price doesn't seem horrible, if the game is good.

???

@bimmy-lee purchase nintendo consoles only to play nintendo games. i.e. NOT 3rd party games.

But you knew that already.

@CptFalcon From my understanding, the Switch physical version of Puyo Puyo Tetris is a collection's edition whereas the PS4 version is a standard version.

It comes with 2 additional keychains, at that point it really depends on how people value getting the additional bonuses.

I'll probably get it digitally anyways since it seems to be something that I would want to keep on me especially for multiplayer.

@Thaswizz It has been confirmed. The Nindie's show case not too long ago actually showed it. We do need an actual date confirmation though.

Lucy, you've got some 'splannin' to do....why would the Switch version cost more?!

Isn't this game like 5-7 hrs long?

@gatorboi352 - So they increased the price of Rime for Switch by $10 to get even less than nobody to buy the game?

@bimmy-lee I suspect the costs of game cards as a factor as well. Disc based systems are dirt cheap to produce retail content for. These cards are more expensive. Think: N64 carts vs. PlayStation discs.

Not paying 5 per hour of gameplay

@JKRiki There's nothing strange here really - the game was already being made for Ps4 etc.. they have to pay extra money to port it to the Switch once that was announced because it wasn't already in development, so they are passing that cost on.

I'm not saying I think it's ok... I'm just saying I know why it's a higher price.

@gatorboi352 - Your suspicions are based off a 20+ year old scenario. I haven't seen anything that states game cards are more expensive to produce than optical media. If it turns out to be so, than I suspect Switch owners will be willing to pay a small tax to take a third party game they desire on the go.

Screw them. If I ever get this, it will be used, but charging more for the same thing its just outright screwing your customers.

The 10 hours factor isn't a problem if they are 10 great hours. Paying more at a later date is an issue, however. We shouldn't have to pay extra for the flexibility of portability - that is a privilege we paid for when we bought the console.

Nah, not paying a 'Switch Tax'

Perhaps they saw what people are willing to pay for 1-2 Switch, and thought, hey why not!

*edited for typo.

Oh for the love of... THE CARTRIDGES ARE NOT WHY THIS GAME COSTS MORE!!!!!!!!!

All of the other companies have price parity on their games on Switch. It's not the cartridges. If it was, there'd be a price hike across the board.

This is Tequila Works price gouging Switch early adopters.

Welp. I want this game a lot, but not $10 extra a lot. I will simply wait for a price drop. Third party games on Nintendo systems don't stay expensive for too long (though certainly longer than they do on other systems). What, two months extra and that $10 fee will be at least $15 down.

It's not like RiME is Zelda and it simply MUST be played DAY ONE. Ffs I payed $130ish for Zelda once shipping was factored in (I bought the Master Edition) and I still feel like I got my money's worth.

The developer made a long response to the criticism on GAF which essentially says nothing new:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=231723468&postcount=616

TL;DR version, just saying vague development, production, and manufacturing costs with no real explanation.

Spend your money elsewhere.

Just reading through comments. The market has spoken.

@ThanosReXXX you'd be absolutely right if it was just this one case. However, I was reading a booklet from Argos today and it mentioned preorders for Lego City Undercover. Well, guess what? Switch version was 10 pounds more expensive than the PS4 and the Xbox One's. That's WB publishing the game, not some small indie. At least Puyo Puyo Tetris ' digital version will be on par with the PS4. Not so with Rime,which is very disappointing

LOL has it truly begun?!
And I was really interested in the Switch version. PS4 version it is. Portability would've been nice, too...
@CptFalcon it does have a use, though. @gatorboi352 can read it and stop acting like he has a crystal ball that tells him all. Oooh, maybe Nintendo's to blame for the imminent robocalypse/zombicalypse/apocalypse!

The delay is not ideal but I can deal with it. The price increase is genuinely making me think I might just get it on PS4 instead. I can understand for physical, but digital should cost the same.

@IceClimbers

It does cost more, that much is obvious to anyone who is used the two formats. The question is if the developer chooses to push that cost to the consumer or if the developer feels they can make enough on the smaller margin offered on the higher cost format. I mean as consumers, we'd love it if the company would eat the higher cost on the Switch and provide an even cost across all platforms. But from the developer perspective you can see why they'd want their profit they make from each game to be consistent no matter the platform purchased on. You see this on Steam. Many developers push the same price out as on platforms, but many charge $10 less for the Steam version since it's a lower cost platform.

Just because there are some examples where the developer has kept cost even, doesn't mean the cost wasn't a big reason they charged $10 more here.

@gortsi

Not to mention Lego City was out on Wii U and has been for years, and shouldn't be a full price game anyway.

Really, the third party scam is just simply publishers seeing there's nothing on the release list, and trying to milk as much profit as possible with as little effort as possible. That's all there is to it.

Well here we go again. Another digital pricing snafu. I am definately getting the physical copy. If a game is 10 hours and its good i dont mind paying retail for a physical copy and if its good even better.

"The puzzle-based title - which takes around 10 hours to finish - will arrive..." Why is the estimated time it takes to complete the main distinguishing factor in that sentence? Yeah, I get that it sucks that Switch owners are being asked to pay more and, out of principle, won't buy it. That's fine. But the ever growing obsession of judging a game by the length of time it takes to finish is ridiculous. Who cares if it takes 4 hours, 10 hours or 50 hours as long as you enjoy it? I paid $20 for Inside, it took me 4 hours to finish and I loved every minute. I also paid $20 for Dragon Quest 7, which took me 75 hours to finish and, although I enjoyed it for the most part, it became a chore by the end. Judging a game by a ratio of currency spent per hour is completely counter-intuitive.

I see almost everyone here agrees that the higher price for the Switch version is a real concern. Does anyone from NL know if people close to Nintendo or Nintendo themselves actually read comments on sites like this one and on Reddit?

I'm considering the Steam version now. Or maybe the Switch retail version and resell it as soon as I finish it. Because that's what Nintendo wants me to do apparently.

@gortsi I only added that extra bit concerning smaller parties because this IS a smaller developer, but that was not my main point, so it doesn't rule out the general issue of higher cost of cartridges, which is more than a few cents like some people seem to think (differences can vary depending on the amount of storage, but overall it would be realistic to say that where an empty disc/Blu-ray costs around 30 cents to make, an empty cartridge will easily cost at least double, but more than likely triple that amount) and the same goes for the target audience, which is of course ridiculously small compared to the other platforms.

Prices will more than likely drop when return on investments can be made more easily by third parties, but for that to happen, Nintendo needs to sell quite a few more consoles and they also need to show that they are prepared to invest in that third party support, and not just with indie games...

If the game is good I'll probably get it eventually, as I don't have my PS4 anymore.

Fortunately, there are 60+ other independent games coming to Switch, most of which are fairly priced. When I buy a Switch, I'll be looking forward to those games, and not this late, unnecessarily overpriced port.

@ThanosReXXX

You forgot to add the cost of the bitter tasting agent.

@cleveland124 Ah yes, very true. I stand corrected. That adds at least another 2 cents per cartridge...

BS like this just means i won't buy the game, even though i could just get it on PC.

I definitely don't want multi-plat/third party Switch games to cost more than other consoles, but I've thought about it as a possibility. I can imagine some of the greedier publishers sitting around a table saying, "Well, we were never going to port this title to a portable, but now that Nintendo has taken away the option; we'll just charge more for it on Switch." I understand that the 3DS still exists, but I can't imagine most third parties consider it a viable market as of 3/3/17.

Well since this looks like a smaller and less interesting version of Breath of the Wild anyway, PASS! Dumb move on their part.

We are here on a Nintendo only website comments section, and us Nintendo fans are almost all universally angry with this. This doesn't bode well for Nintendo, especially with the games not running near as good as they probably will on ps4. Yes, you can take it with you, I get that... But higher price for same game? That is not good at all.

I have memories of GameCube games being more expensive than the PS2 and Xbox versions (or at least the price did not drop as quickly). Which always made me a little bit mad, because I only had the GameCube at the time.

Wait what? The GameStop promo displays suggested $29.99........Crap.

I'm in the "not gonna buy it at all then" camp. The Switch is supposed to make game development EASIER for devs so we DONT HAVE TO take this kind of crap. I'll stick with games that arrive on time with an equally decent price thanks.

@gatorboi352 Each card is mere pennies more than discs nowadays. It's not like the NES/SNES/N64 days.

And this is purely the dev doing this scheme, as it's not happening across the board with every 3rd-party game. You want to know why many folks who by Nintendo don't buy 3rd-party games? Because of tricks like this. Does anyone honestly think it was right for EA to release ME3 on Wii U, and then come out with the trilogy on other platforms for the same price?

As it is, people are being smart and not buying any version of this game because if they were to buy into it, it can lead to it happening more, possibly with other platforms.

I detest being treated worse than owners of other consoles like 3rd parties LOVED doing on Wii U and these guys WILL feel this.

I'll put this one on my "I'll get it dirt cheap and used a couple of years from now if it gets good reviews" list and perhaps I won't have forgotten about the game by then...

Here we go all over again.... again!

Here we go again...

The haters and whiners will no doubt try to blame this on Nintendo and "fanboys" or "NDF", then promptly forget about this when asked why some third party games fail on Nintendo hardware.

Unless there is some serious "special feature" justification, this is paying more to wait longer for something, and you can't possibly blame anyone who has access to other versions of this game for purchasing them on those platforms...no matter how desperate you are to paint Nintendo and fans as the bad guy.

I think we are also paying the "Tantalus bonus" here. I wonder how much more Sonic mania will cost...

It's tricky to dock a Rime, to dock a Rime that's not quite on time, it's tricky. Tricky tricky tricky...

I was thinking of buying it day-one, but now I've reconsidered - there's no way I'm paying £40 (the same price I paid for Zelda BotW, which is going to keep me busy for months!) for a game that is only 10 hours long. Will wait for a sale, or buy a preowned physical copy later in the year. Very disappointed though, charging more than on other platforms for no real reason is definitely not what I would call good business practice.

@JaxonH Most games with the Atlus tax are much longer experiences than 10 hours. And there's a PC version, so technically it can be played on portable Android devices.

Well, it's cheaper to press a disc than it is to mold a PCB card with flash memory. So yes, the NS is chronically going to face the awkward position of having more expensive prices than the competition for the same games, even though it's primarily a portable console. Welcome back to the N64 style of pricing.

@ThanosReXXX It could be just that yes, but they do have the choice of releasing it digital only.

@Vee_Flames I think you forgot the alligatornadopocalypse.

@Anti-Matter Overcooked is already confirmed for Switch and since Earthlock has been ported to everything including Wii U, it's close to guaranteed too
EDIT: Sorry read it wrong and didn't realise you meant physical. Think both are a bit small games for that.

@PlywoodStick That should only be temporary though until manufacturing gets cheaper right? Especially with indie games like Rime as they can be on smaller cartridges. 3DS games are on cartridges and these days are pathetically cheap.

@PorllM In theory, it should only be temporary... However, according to this:

http://wccftech.com/nintendo-switch-cartridge-16gb-launch/

Most NS game cards right now will likely hold up to around 16GB tops, far more than most 3DS game cards. (BotW without DLC or patches takes up about 13.4 GB, for example.) With that much potential data space available on the initial game card specification, regardless of who commissions them, it is flat out cheaper to press a 25GB single layer Blu-ray disc (or even a 50GB+ dual layer one) at this point than to create an NS game card.

On the other hand, NS game cards are apparently non-writable, since they save data onto the NS console instead of the game card itself, like DS and 3DS cards do. This should skew the price downward, but that doesn't seem to be reflected in retail pricing right now. So it may be that consumers are being footed with a bill that isn't quite copacetic with the format that the physical NS versions are on.

If it's confirmed that the Switch version offers the same content than the other versions but is 10€ more expensive... Then that will be a "no go" for me... even though I initially planned on getting this game.

@ThePoochyKid The Mass Effect port was just sad, it was the worst, even more than Sniper Elite without dlc and multiplayer.

This sounds ridiculous.. Switch owners get the game later and have to pay more as well..? I certainly won't be buying this on Switch now.

How is a 6-10 hour long digital version of an indie game 45 Euros? That's ludicrously insane. The physical version of BOTW is 60 Euros and besides how much better it is and how infinitely larger its development costs were - I've spent over 50 hours on that so far, and have done/seen maybe 5-10% of the game.

This game will most definitely fail terribly. Ah well, too bad for them. You reap what you sow.

UGH, really guys, you need to mention game length to justify your gripes? You really need to stop this.

Yeah it really does suck that it's going to cost more, especially for a digital version, and thats not cool because it reminds me of the Wii U launch when we got "new" versions of old games while paying out the nose for them.

If the game in general was "10 hour game costs $39.99" which you are essentially implying, and you had gripes with that, then that's just sad, because the merits of a game way outstrip it's length.

My issue with this is this game costs ALL around have gone up yet game prices have been rather stable. Games on consoles have been sixty bucks for at least two gens now. Even though it costs the dev more. It sucks to eat a cost that is true but this game is too barebones (Atlus tax usually nets you some extras) to justify this at all. Saying you are recouping costs when the industry in general has just adjusted to accommodate the extra costs is not going to fly with a fresh faced dev. Better to eat the costs and recoup on sales rather than hedge your bets with a higher cost but discourage sales. Gamers have long memories and as consumers we have a TON of choices. I have no issue with the delay. But the tax...yeah no sale.

@Henmii I had the exact same thought.

Ok then,.....Surely something MUST be done to compensate for the bumped up price tag for us Nintendo fans especially that RIME gets the normal price tag on other systems. An overseas package deal isn't gonna cut it.

If not .......then I hope this game fails and fails miserably just to give a message that Nintendo fans are not to roll with excuses and half hearted third party ports and expect things to be peachy-keen. We had enough of that in the Wii Era and ESPICALLY the WiiU Era.

Amazon is saying June 27