Reminder: Pokémon Sword And Shield's Physical DLC Bundles Are Available Starting Today

At that price I think I’ll still pass. If this bundle ever hits $60 then I’ll probability bite.

I mean... Oof. I tend not to think about DLC and base game costs combined for whatever reasons, but when you put it all out like that it does seem utterly insane. I'm still salty over the NatDex too, so a Pokémon game without Chikorita or Turtwig remains a hard pass for me, physical DLC bundle or not.

People are actually surprised by this news.

@noobish_hat It's awful lol.

Its not worth it XD

Generally games tend to drop in price when the ''complete'' edition comes out with all the DLC bundled in, usually for the price of what the base game used to be, or less. But this is the Nintendo tax I guess. There's literally no point in buying this when the base game + DLC is probably cheaper at this point. I can currently find a copy of Sword/Shield for around €50 with ease.

If you look on Facebook marketplace you can find copies of Sword and Shield for £25.

Pokemon itself doesn't interest me, but as a collector this seems to be a good thing, as the box art points out; everything including DLC is on the cartridge. Might buy these down the line when/if they get cheaper.

@Octane Well, some die hard fan who wants everything to be on cart will buy it.

It is expensive now, but I imagine an unopened copy of this will sell for a pretty penny in 30 years time when the DLC is no longer available.

(Although, the end of the world will probably happen long before then based on the events of this year...)

They really are testing how crazy Pokemon fans are willing to pay for a Pokémon game charging that insane amount, but if this was EA or other company everyone will be losing their minds and yeah I know that it has new DLC but this is more like what the vanilla game was missing to begin with not something that it’s adding real value to a complete game since the game was lacking content since the beginning, well best thing to do is buy a used copy for a good price or get lucky for a new one at regular price, only insane people will pay this amount for a PS2 looking game that finally got completed after a year lol

>$89.99 USD

...So basically, translating it to CAD...

$119.75?! No thanks! That's absolutely way too much! Even though I did used to buy Steam cards for $100 once in a while when I needed it, so I'll just- I'm gonna disappear into some corner.

I realise I’m in the minority here, but this is still tempting to me - mainly because it makes the DLC physical, and thus added trade-in value.

I personally always feel begrudged with the idea of trading in a physical game that I’ve spent additional money on DLC for. Like I’m getting some cash back on the cart/disc, but the DLC is a purely digital thing with no resell value. Of course if I later repurchased the cart then I still have the DLC, so there’s that I guess?

I mean... It makes sense to stop people just buying the older version and downloading the DLC separately, but still that's a little much.
I was going to get the other version with all DLC for Xmas but now I'm thinking I'll wait a bit and see if the price drops a bit later on.

Fail. Nobody will pay that much for that.

@GKO900 Pokemon fans let Game Freak and the Pokemon Company get away with it, they could make the worst game ever made but if it has Pokemon in it doesn't matter to Pokemon fans

I just don't get who they want to appeall with that? If they would sell it for 60-70$ many people who didn't buy SwSh (yet) because for example they think that SwSh has too little content would maybe buy it. But who, who doesn't own the game yet, would buy that bundle for the same price aus the main game + ex (or even more expensive since you often can find SwSh for 40$ and +30$ for the EX that would be 70$)

I think it should have been just a wee bit cheaper, but this is exactly what I have wanted all year, so I will definitely be grabbing both versions.

At least I can sell my base versions, and I have all three steelbook variants as I'm really not digging these cases.

Am wondering if this release will drive down the value of the base games so it ends up cheaper to buy the game and expansion pass separately.
I purchased a download code for the expansion pass which cost me £20.

@Zuljaras That was one year ago.

You can get game for 40 pounds off Amazon atm so they really should be 60 most to show some kinda value of buying both together. Surely most big fans have at least base games at this stage so it's more the maybe I might crowd

I probably won't because I hate the covers, but it's good that people who buy games used will have a complete option.

@Jacob1092
Chikorita, I feel for you
You deal with things, that you don't have to

So the bundle isn't really a deal after all, then. Lol.

goodness that boxart lol

People here were wanting it to be $90 so I guess they got it.

@KBuckley27 Totally agree with you but if they succeed with this price then they are gonna keep doing it more often and maybe more companies will try the same

America got ripped off there
It's cheaper by literally a cent to buy the two things separately I'm pretty sure
But the UK saves about £7

Why would not be $90? I really have no idea why anyone thought it would cost less? The DLC is NEW. It’s not even out yet. Did people REALLY think they’d get it “free”? Maybe a year from now, this could be $60 (but probably not).

Buy the game and DLC separately and save one cent. You're welcome. Just funny to me that the bundle is technically a worse deal.

Because of course it does.

@Supadav03 Do most GOTY versions cost the same as the full priced game plus the full price of the DLC/Expansions? I know Oblivion GOTY didn't cost $120 ($60 for the game, $30 for Knights of the Nine and another $30 for Shivering Isles). I only paid $60 for the GOTY edition. Same with Skyrim.

Bundles are supposed to be cheaper and any other publisher would be raked over the coals for this but as usual, it's ok when Nintendo does it.

Still a maybe from me, thinking about biting.

@Zuljaras Yes, but with Pokemon is not like that. Sun/Moon, for example, was release for 50, I think, and a year later Ultra Sun/Moon came out, with a lot of extra content, and didn't cost more than that.
It's always the same. If you can wait a year, you get the best version of the game for the same price. That's why I wouldn't understand the price of this, if true...

@Supadav03 I don't remember Ultra Sun/Moon cost more than 50, even though all the content was new and it came out only a year later. That's why XD

Oh phew. I thought it was $90CAD, which would mean you get the Expansion Pass for $10 instead of $40. Phew!

@the_beaver The thing about Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon... it’s not necessarily a DX game. It’s a new game, and I know people who like the original SM better than USUM.

@Zuljaras Yeah... it’s still a great game. They’re not just going to give everyone the DLC for free.

@GKO900 Well, correct me if I’m wrong, the DLC is $30 on the US eShop? So this is the same price for if you bought them separately. Why are we surprised the DLC isn’t free?

I remember when the initial article announcing this release went out, there was a boatload of comments from people saying "they better not charge $60!! I'm going to feel ripped off!" or "I bought the DLC already! I would've waited for this release since it will be less expensive!" Now those same people are upset that Nintendo is charging the base cost for the game as well as the base cost of the DLC. You lot are genuinely insatiable. These things take years to develop, and as a business, they need to make their earnings for the product they provide. It's not rocket science. Nintendo fans are never happy. Complain if they charge full price, complain if they sell at a discount.

@the_beaver Yeah, SwSh has already broke from convention. A simple look at the way Nintendo has handled DLC on Switch should have told you this wasn’t happening. Always funny when people have these “pie in the sky” dreams and get mad when they don’t happen. This was never a realistic expectation.

Excuse me while I laugh myself into a coma, and have an existential crisis about how my favorite gaming franchise has devolved to a state this loathsome...

That's about what I figured the pricing would be, to be honest. Walmart has been good at knocking off about 17% of the price on physical games. I'd prefer to have the game and DLC all on one cart, but I'll have to do price comparisons when the time comes to buy the game to see which method will be cheaper then.

The base game wasn't worth full price to begin with.

60+30=90

The only issue here are the entitled folks who want something for nothing.

Not surprised in the least. Hard pass for me, then, at least until I can find a better deal. Even €60 is too much for this junk tbh. I'd pay €40 maximum, if even that. Pokémon no longer stands for quality unfortunately so no premium price from me.

God the crying on here, remember when you're expected to buy a 3rd game to get everything at full price? End of the day if they charged $60 for this they would be screwing over those who already got the DLC earlier this year, this way they are giving everyone the same deal. I expect most of you on here moaning about this were never buying it regardless anyway.

@Crono1973 most GotY editions come out a year after the final DLC is released. As was pointed out this bundle launches around the same time as the final DLC drops. Also this is nintendo, BotW and its DLC are both still regularly priced at their original full retail price. Yes, you can find both on flash sales periodically but anyone who thought this was gonna be less than $90 was just fooling themselves.

Does this DEFINITELY include the DLC on the physical cartridge (ala Torna) and not as a download code? If so I'll need to buy these for work to swap for our regular versions of the games, if not I can't.

Makes sense, although for a hit game like a new main Pokémon game, I doubt you’ll find a retail copy of the base game for a reduced price any time soon unless they hold a sale.

So are the expansion pack included on the cartridges or do you still download them? If they are on the cart then I could just sold away the old base Sword and Shield, if the expansion packs are just download codes that comes with the game then there's no point in rebuying the physical games again.

@BabyYoshi12 Well usually any other game that releases with the full content a year later it’s basically the definitive edition (the finally complete game) of the game not matters if the DLC is new or not and sometimes even cheaper than the vanilla version but since this is Pokemon they know how crazy people are that are willing to pay 90, which to me it’s insane since it cost basically what a collector edition like MH Rise cost and that game probably like older titles offers hundreds of hours an Amiibo and other stuff

Welp thank god I did not wait for this bundle.

@GKO900 But it wouldn’t make sense to just give you the DLC for free. It’s not free on the eShop, so why should it be here?

@BabyYoshi12 When have you seen a game cost 90 because they released it complete? In other words this game wasn’t complete before, it was barebones and shouldn’t cost what a collector item cost

@Chowdaire Like I said, it's ok when Nintendo does it.

@BabyYoshi12 Even after Skyrim GOTY was released, the DLC wasn't free (or even discounted) on the digital stores.

I am just happy to have physical version of the whole game!!

Honestly I would have expected it to have a price cut of $10-$15 savings for buying it all at once though.

I am pre-ordering now. I was waiting on S&S to get this whole version anyway

@msvt No need to pre-order, at that price they won't be flying off the shelves.

knew it, this doesn't surprise me.

I'm thinking about trading in my normal sword for the complete version, but I also want to wait for a hopeful price drop. My only concern is whether or not this will be limited stocks/scalpers going nuts.

Makes me getting the DLC for under €25 pretty good right now

Sounds to me like the best idea is to buy a used copy and then the DLC.

$90 for less content and barely more Pokémon than you got 10+ years ago with games like Platinum & HGSS...

@Crono1973
No doubt, so true!

Well, at least now I don't feel like I made a poor investment by buying the game early!

@GKO900 people are losing their minds over this, as well. Are you not reading the comments? Lol

So... it's just the price of the base game and the DLC combined. Honestly, it's not a good deal for a bundle, but you're not losing more than a few cents for purchasing.

Honestly, I know why it's annoying, but one good thing about Nintendo's prices always staying the same is that I almost never feel like it was better to wait for a sale. GOTY editions stopped feeling like prestige rereleases and more like 3rd party cash grabs. Still annoying, just something I don't mind as much.

Good thing I purchased the DLC beforehand. I don't think my wallet could handle this.

@ALinkttPresent
A week after your comment, it went down and it still is down to $40

£77?

...

Don't mind me, just slowly backing away.

@RupeeClock wait £70 damn. I looked on the gamestop Ireland store and they are selling the bundle for €70 (which is surprising as Gamestop is always the more expensive options compared too argos or smyths (which is selling it for €80).

Im just gonna buy the DLC on the eShop

A little late for posting that..

Naaah, I'm good.

@GKO900 What are people talking about.

Before they released remasters for full retail price (omega ruby/alpha saphire) or a third "complete" game in the series also for full retail.

Or what about the Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon games? Just some minor improvements and extras, yet another full retail price!

So looking at the Sun/Moon games, that is 120 bucks for both Sun and Ultra Sun (or Moon and Ultra Moon), etc.

Now you pay 90 bucks for the Base game + two DLC packs that actually added substantial content to the base game.
That is 30 bucks cheaper than what they did with Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon for example.

So I actually like this DLC approach a lot better. I can actually continue playing the same character in the base game, keep my progress and continue my adventure in the new DLC areas, without having to start over in a new Retail game, like was the case with Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon!

Since a new Main game will be at least another year away, I hope they actually come with another Season Pass with two more DLC packs for Sword and Shield.
We a really enjoying these games in my household and love to continue a while longer, before having to start over again in a new main game series.

@Jeronan Lol... First, sun and moon are 3DS games which cost $40 (USA) don’t know is they were 60 where you live, but considering that they are cheaper but have a lot of content (full Pokédex) and while they look the same they do have a lot of differences Ultra having the most content and more polished gameplay but not the best story, compared to Sword and Shield which are barebones and lacking content (full Pokédex) because of the graphics which turn out to be lies, surely you can understand why this game is a disappointment to a lot of people even with the DLC which is making up for the lackluster content considering this is a $90 game, so in the end buying two 3DS games was better and cheaper either sun/moon and later ultra sun/moon for $80

@GKO900

My bad, with the pricing. Haven't bought a 3DS game in years, after getting the Switch.
But I played pretty much all the Pokemon games on the 3DS.

A full pokedex doesn't make for more content. Only that you can catch and import more Pokemon. That's it.
It also didn't mean jack sh@t, since people ran the same Pokemon teams over and over again in every game in Online battles. Hence, I never bothered with those. It's just plain boring.

If I hated one thing about the old Pokemon games, was the excessive RNG in catching pokemon. It was one of the things I burned out on the quickest.
I always stopped playing when I finished the story, as I could not stomach running the same patch of grass back and forth over and over for hours on end, just for the chance to catch that one Pokemon I was looking for.

In fact, Sword and Shield are the first Pokemon games I kept playing after I finished the story. The wild areas and how Pokemon are actually visible, are a much better and more fun way searching and catching Pokemon.

I really enjoyed the DLCs as well. In fact, I am still enjoying Crown Tundra, since I am far from finished yet with the missions.

I actually don't mind a restricted Pokedex, where they roulate a specific set of Pokemon with each new Mainline game, with each region having a unique set of Pokemon and a handful of random recurring Pokemon.
It would keep the games fresh and forces people to form new strategies with different kind of Pokemon, instead of endlessly importing the same set of Pokemon over and over again, like they did in the past.

£65 on thegamecollection. I'd get it if the box art wasn't so atrocious.

@Jeronan Glad you enjoyed the game, but the Pokémon do matter after you finish the game all that’s left is breeding and battling and that goes for sword and shield limiting your options for teams and just because some use the same team doesn’t mean everyone does the same, as for the RNG easy you don’t like to hunt for the Pokémon then trade online simple, I do agree that the only good new feature but not new in this game since it’s from Pokémon go pikachu is the ability to see the Pokémon roaming other than that this game offers nothing new the giant thing is just a gimmick, hell even the variant Pokémon version is a copy from sun/moon which is the other good thing.

And normally I don’t care what people do or think but in this case thanks to people supporting this anti consumer practices it affects the others since now you’ll end up paying double for less content

If you REALLY want the full Sword or Shield experience, just buy a used copy and DLC for it. Much cheaper.

Or just wait that this bundle gets cheaper... yeah, right.

Cart tax.

Pretty sure at this point you can find the original game on cart for less than $59.99 w/o much effort here in the US where things tend to stay at one MSRP across the board so I'd have to think in the EU area finding it cheaper would be no problem.

I mean yeah all on 1 cart would have bene great 12 months ago, but now? Guess we'll see. Expecting to me wrong, can't stop the fans.

My main concern is will the game get more DLC after this release? I don't want to pay for this then they decide to release more DLC, making this release useless...🤨 Anyone heard anything?

@Fearful-Octopus word on the streets is that they probably won't launch more paid DLC to this game. The fact that this physical version exists is a good indicator. All points to Sword/Shield being done, they'll probably announce and release a new game next year.

Nintentax is definitely showing with this pack.
GotY editions usually drop for a discounted price to encourage people who hadn't picked it up to try it out (I got nier automata game of the yorha edition for less than the base game without DLC).
Everyone saying saying its worth paying the price to have the full game and DLC on a cart are going to be upset when they announce the next expansion pass and have to buy that digitally anyway.

@Tulio517 I will wait, and hope for a Black Friday deal.

90€/$ for just a game, what a terrible idea!

Demons Souls, a remake pushing system limits, is $70. With how low-quality Pokémon is, it should not be this expensive.

Had this been pokemon ultra sword and shield it would be 60 not 90$

As much as I think this is a bummer as a lot of people used to wait for the second game instead of the first, which ended up being a better deal, I am curious to see how this sells

Something that I need to update too as well.

This either means no further DLC or that a lot of people who buy this are going to be pretty angry when there is.

$90 for a mediocre game? No thanks.

just clicked to see if you put affiliate links

Just so expensive, crazy price.

Nice, I'll snipe it on eBay at some point, when I can win it for less than $60, so I can experience the DLC without directly giving money to Gamefreak, because I don't really feel they deserve any of my money for how they've handled literally everything about this generation.

I'll probably get this game in a few months, I've wanted a mainline Pokemon game made for consoles for too long and am not invested enough to care about Nat dex to skip this game.