Nintendo's Huge Switch Sale Ends This Weekend, More Than 1,000 Games Discounted

Is Mario and rabbids going to be on sale again for 15 dollars. Is it going to be the same sale we got over the last four years. Are we gonna get upto 80% off on indie games again. Indie games that came out in 2017 are gonna go on sale again. I predict snake pass will be 50% off that’s what I paid in 2018.
Thanks nintendo.

I went into Switch totally on board with owning games digitally, but ever since the pandemic started I value physical games more. Just the idea of having a collection and knowing it’s not going anywhere.

Perfect timing for the eshop cards?
I'm sure that's a coincidence. Just with the Xmas sales

But i'll take two please!

No NA just like always.

Once the sale starts if you guys wanted to post some of the notable games on sale that'd be greatly appreciated...

While this is good news, I have a feeling this is a way to distract from the fact we’re not getting a Direct anytime soon. I hope I’m wrong.

That's nothing. Over 2000 games were discounted at the eShop in December.

Do those cards transfer to USD ammounts? Or are they only usable on the UK eshop?

@JokerCK NA gets a bunch of discounts, game trials and games that Europe doesn’t.

Got my hopes up for a second...

Hold up - How long have NintendoLife had a store?

@Fizza I remember the long wait for a Celeste discount. It’s totally worth it!

@Ooccoo_Jr I was about to say the same, I think its just codes.

It says there are games and consoles, but cant find any on there

Are we buying pounds or euros? Every link I click takes me to a page for euros. Am I doing something wrong?

@ryancraddock Nice, free money for us and a little commission for yourselves. Happy to oblige!

Come on NoA, follow suit!

@ryancraddock Ah, okay! Thanks!

I wish there was a way in the eShop to hide all the garbage discount/shovelware releases so I could see some of the great games. Too many get buried quickly.

Always could use a monster sale in NA. I still have not seen The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Everything go on sale YET. And while I'm soft ranting, I wish the Arcade Archives would go on sale--So so many $8 purchases...

I should've known to read the article first before clicking on the link. Nintendo of Europe Announced Huge Switch Sale, More Than 1,000 Games To Be Discounted.

Here's hoping something similar comes to North America.

Before I even look, I'm 100% certain its going to be the exact same games that go on sales over and over. 95% will be terrible mobile ports, 2% will will be the same Nintendo games that always go on sale and 3% will be 3rd party devs that always go on sale.

guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuyyyyyyyyyyys. its a sale, why is that bad? All the reasoning is purely hypothetical. So much cynicism for cheaper games, it doesn't make any sense. And yeah, its a europe only sale. But we get sales so often in the US, so im sure we wont have to wait long.

@Medic_Alert Correct, Only Nintendo sales could be negatively received. Because their sales are a massive joke. It's always the same mobile port games, a few of the exact same 3rd party devs, Like Ubi and then the exact same 1st party games.

@kingbk Dekudeals is the way to go, pretty good site. Shows sales not just on eshop, but on all other platforms to (target, walmart, gamestop, ect). So you can find 1st party nintendo games half off on a daily basis. Like botw and odyessy 1st party. Its really cool.

@earthinheritor Im not so sure thats true. Yeah, if you only play big-name games youre gonna be dissapointed b/c its nintendo we're talking here. All games are sold equally but arent equal. But so many cute, fun little indie experiences always go on sale. Im sure if you branced out a little more, youd find something awesome! Also, if you do do this, sorry. your comment didnt really reflect that if so.

Probably the usual line up of Ubisoft 💩 reduced 80% off.

@Mattock1987 why’s that?

I misread that then as "More than 1000 games to be discontinued." 😆
Well, hope there's actually some good games that'll be discounted.

Praying for my Vote for GOTY 2021 to go on sale: Calculator

Never thought I'd feel nostalgic for the lean days of the Wii U eShop yet here I am

@Medic_Alert sales need to cater to what I want to buy. God forbid I pay full price for a game because the publisher's price didn't meet my completely subjective standards for a game's value. Ditto for sale prices, side scrollers are all $10 and games two years old are all $20. Anything more is wrong. Also I want things for free.

@Ewaldus I’m being pessimistic here but I think that Nintendo are distracting us with this big sale, because it’s good news, so we’re not constantly enquiring about the next Direct.

@Fizza It wont. Hope you enjoy Mario Vs Rabbids going on sale with its 100th time.

Thanks for the 10% off but 7 months old famehype isn't exactly filling me w/ confidence. 🤷

https://www.bizapedia.com/de/famehype-llc.html

Come on Fire Emblem warriors ☆☆☆☆

If Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 goes on sale, I’ll bite.

@IronMan30

I’m not holding my breath, didn’t we just have a sale that ended in mid January? Would be sweet if we got in on the action but seems almost too soon for another major sale by Nintendo’s standards. Been noticing Nintendo Europe and NA really are on their own schedules when it comes to these sales. Let’s be honest though …do our backlogs really need a sale right now? Of course they do! 😏

Let me guess... 33% on nintendo games 😂

This is like a weekly event. Lego games will be discounted and Ubisoft games will be five dollars. Along with every trash mobile cash grab. With like three decent indies.

@MeloMan

There’s always a game to buy! Pretty crazy how I somehow keep finding games to add and keep complaining about backlog. This is the way! I wouldn’t mind a sale on REBEL GALAXY OUTLAW or a proper sale on MARVEL ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 3 would be welcome. I’d be shocked if we saw any big Nintendo discounts other than the typical 33% max. Olli Olli World launch discount would be nice look too!

@Medic_Alert and @nowthisisepic, thank you! That helps. There are so many games on the Switch and so many great ones, but it's so annoying because everyday about 5-10 shovelware/low budget crap titles gets released and because of that, decent new good releases get pushed down and are much harder to find unless they are a top seller. Like seriously, if the eShop had filters and brought back that charming Wii shop music while you browse, it would be such a better experience. At this point, I have to look on sites like Nintendolife , or SwitchUp on YouTube, to figure out what good games are out that got buried by numerous garbage titles coming out every week, pushing them out of sight.

Skyrim for 10?

Only in Europe? Too bad, because in the USA, eShop cards are BOGO 15% off plus 5% off both on top of that, at Target.

What? How long have you had your own shop. This is the first I have heard of it.

Anyway regarding the sale. I would love for Ultimate Alliance 3 Expansion Pass to go on sale (wishful thinking as it hasn't been on sale).

Don't tell me. First-party games are going to be up to 30% off.

Yeah it's just going to be the usual shovelware with some ubisoft games probably nothing special

There are two prices of games on eshop. Normal price and discount price. The discount price is available for approximately 1/3 time of the year on and off.

@ryancraddock
I see it noted to include various countries and to stay tuned for additional countries to come. Is Canada an upcoming destination?

Thanks in advance

@Rainz lol, they don't but they do...

@1UP_MARIO Nintendo doesn’t set the prices on games that are not theirs.

@Kiyata it’s buy one get on 15% off which is only 7 1/2 %. Extra 5% is only if you have and use their credit card.

I already spent it backing Mina the hollower

@Dirty0814 the extra 5% off is for the target debit card and credit card. Pretty much everyone has one or the other

I need octopath to go on sale

NA gets all the same sales that UK does they just happen a week or so later.

I might get something when the sale goes live in the U.S., but I'll try and hold off unless it's a huge discount(like THQ discounting a couple of their games recently to $2-4). My backlog is too big right now.

Curses, out the window goes my new year's resolution to hoard fewer digital goodies...

If Big Brain or Warioware are on sale I'll be in

@Kiyata not really. That’s like saying everyone has a Kroger/Gerbes card. Some people it may be worth signing up for others it won’t.

About 900+ of those games will likely be trash.

Seriously, I just hopped on the store last night, even the majority of the coming soon section was filled with shovelware.

I'm so sick of the eShop and Nintendo’s complete inability to do anything meaningful about curating games, sales, and the over abundance of shovelware. I dont even know why I bother to look at the eShop or any articles regarding eShop sales anymore. /rant

@MeloMan arcade archives games do go on sale with some regularity. I can't recall which ones as i think some don't get discounted that often. I suggest setting an alert through dekudeals

@SilentHunter382 DLC rarely goes on sale for many publishers. I remember Mass Effect DLC pretty much never being on sale for many many years. On the other hand, 2K does discount their DLCs regularly (I'm thinking of Civ 6). Nintendo is in the almost never category for discounting DLCs I'm afraid. May depend on which franchise because the BotW DLC does get discounted once or twice each year.

@Would_you_kindly Ubisoft is already having a sale right now. No doubt they'll be included in the 1000+ number though.

Big fat in your dreams but Dragon Quest XI for 10 bucks on the eshop on Thursday would be kind of nice or Trails of Cold Steel IV for 14 bucks which is better than paying 39.99

@Kiyata In US you often have bigger sales, no need to have similar sale right now there.

Oh great.. scroll through the eShop at the rate of 5 games per hour.. if I don’t see something interesting by the end, I’ll have no choice but to go into a fit of self loathing..

Will the nlife10 code still be valid on Thursday? Not going to buy e-shop cards till I know what Nintendo put on sale the time. These days I prefer paying the exact amount — I had points left on the DS and Wii shops when they folded!

Get ready for browsing Nintendo's games, the ones really worth owning on Switch, and be disappointed.

@ryancraddock Thank you, that's awesome!

How does these eshop cards work? Are they physical cards that are sent to you or do you get the code digitally immediately? I have never used these.

Only need 1 more board on discount for Pinball FX3 and the collection is complete.

In the last sale I noticed Mario Golf was only 20% off. I hope Nintendo don't plan on making discounts even smaller until the game is really old.

If lots of people still bought it at this tiny discount, I guess they will.

@nowthisisepic OH i have a massive collection of games across every system. AAA, lowest budget and Indie games. Some of my favorite games have been indie. My issue is the eshop sales are almost always the same. they also have a "massive sale" but the majority of those games are the awful mobile game ports that are just copy an pasted code, that for some reason, Nintendo seems to let on the eshop, my guess is so they can boast about title numbers.

But due to the way the eshop is poorly design, even indie devs have said this, good titles get buried under $0.01 games that have no right to be at the front of the store and always are.

So itll be the same games that are always on sale and anything good will be buried under a mountain of terrible mobile ports.

@nowthisisepic Oh an my main issue is the Nintendo first party games. I get Nintendo has always had terrible sales deals on its games, but they pick the exact same games every sale and its very frustrating.

Even for every black friday an boxing week deals. Its always: Mario Maker, Breath of the Wild, maybe Splatoon and thats about it. and its always the same price. Its just frustrating when Nintendo is the ONLY dev/publisher than doesn't put its games on sale then boasts about having a massive sale.

@Mattock1987 Well, there’s one tomorrow

@Ewaldus I know! 😀 I’m happy to be wrong and in my defence I don’t think anyone saw it coming so soon.

I tried to buy eShop cards here but the system doesn't want my login credentials (triple checked if they're right).
Is it possible you don't sell to Germany?
(It's a bit strange anyways because I'm already logged in when asked to log in again...)

@Coxula Same here. Credential server is mush. I even managed to create 2 different accounts using the same email. It doesnt know which one I wanna log into.

@Coxula

I had similar (or same) issue. I think the shop site uses new details not the ones we use here to do comments and stuff.

I used Register Now and started a new account there at the shop site. Had my eShop card code within a minute in my email.

Saved $5 not bad considering any eShop game I buy will be deep discounts too.

@NinChocolate Use Dekudeals. Only way to find the good stuff.

Bayonetta on sale mayhaps?

@Joriss nope

Disappointing sale. Nothing to get from wishlist.

Hey guys, I've just registered — though have been following this site and community for a few years now — to ask this: if I buy credits in pounds, will I be able to spend them in my home country store, Russian one? Or if I won't, are there credits like this with a discount code, but for Russian market?

Thanks for helping in advance.

and the great nintendo serves crash again. Farce frace farce. But muppets will still defend them time and time again

It's frustrating that the maximum discount that Nintendo games get is 33%. It used to be 50% back in the day, for physical copies that are much more expensive to make.

@bartolomey_wong I think that the only thing that needs to match is the currency so if you set your account to a country (UK) you can use the eShop cards for that market (pounds).

https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/15987/~/how-to-adjust-nintendo-account-profile-settings-%28country%2C-email%2C-etc.%29

Just bought xcom for £3.99, bargain!

@meeto_1 me too thats a steal

I genuinely want a few of these games, too bad my Switch decided to stop reading any SD cards... ):

@Mattock1987 Well this didnt age well. bhahahaaha

@Banjo- thank you!

XCom 2 £3.99!!!! Now that's a bargain!

I will take The Witcher 3 incl the NL 10% discount, I wonder how many gb it is though...

@earthinheritor I know, it’s been an emotional rollercoaster 😅

Where is NA one?

You should watch out for XCOM 2, its price has been discounted by 90%: https://www.nintendo.fr/Jeux/Nintendo-Switch/XCOM-2-Collection-1748331.html

very interest in disco Elysium because of the last patch witch reduced loading time to 3-4 sec and make the game more stable and with better performance, but i am interest in ziggurat 2 (is not discounted) it was silent launched 3 days ago on switch !!

Will the same discounts be available in NA later on?

@Ventilator
Same. I’ve got around 12 indie games on my wish list and only Ori is discounted.
Shame….

@Hurblyburbly I have over 100 on wishlist, and still nothing to get at the right price.

@Ventilator
Blimey that sucks.
I missed the Black Friday sale last year but I heard there were double the amount of games on sale then….

@JokerCK usually yes - or an almost identical list

@moodycat don't think mua3 DLC will ever get discounted

@Ventilator Get GODS remastered and Xcom2 - both are crazy cheap at the moment...!

@jsty3105 Thank you, but i already own Gods Remaster on Switch, PC and Xbox One. I originally played it on Amiga when it were brand new.
I also own Xcom 2 on PC.

@FroZtedFlakerZz use dekudeals.com, or watch switchup on YouTube

Excellent!! Now it's the time to buy all these 3ds digital exclusives Nintendo games like nes 3d classics, kirby blowout blasters/fighters dx, and some others third party games that never gets a discount!

@ryancraddock The 10% discount will be valid all the month as Nintendo eshop sale? I have bought already a code but I want a ton of games, so I need to know when this 10% discount is over on your site.
Edit: I have just got a reply from your service. Until the end of the month!! Great news!!

@FroZtedFlakerZz I just bought Lost In Random, and despite some repetitive combat, the game design is flawless. Totally advised for fans of Tim Burton, Malice in Wonderland and Little Nightmares. And the graphics, for the Switch, are really quite impressive.

@Ventilator true. I have 105 games on my wishlist and at the moment, only 5 of them are discounted. I still cannot understand why Hellblade never seems to go on sale...

@1UP_MARIO Do you think Nintendo decides how much third party games are going on sale for?

@BTB20 no they don’t. It’s upto the third party publishers. Take it more as a joke. Same sale for the last 4 years repeated

I picked up Resident Evil Revelations on a whim as I generally am too much of a scardy cat to play resident evil. I’m really enjoying it so far and for a 3ds game it looks amazing in the Switch OLED. The NLife 10% discount was a nice bonus on top of the sale, but I think I’ll save my eshop credit for a sale that has more JRPGs or something like Chrono Cross remaster.

So some basic simple math...

I can now exchange 45,00 euro's for 45,01 euro's digital store credit, and get XCOM collection, an actual port of a massive game when not discounted is still a 50 euro's download, for free, actually having it on the Switch, not in some cloud (DRM aside)...

...

We have a deal.

In the future can you please indicate the region in the title somewhere? Differentiate between EU and US please.

@Discokuningas If you buy them online you get a code, no actual card.

Taken a break from games for a couple of months, I’d be a fool not to have a rummage. The news regarding Mario Kart has definitely made me look again at picking it up while it’s on discount and bumping up my online account.

@CarlosM87 It's not the only one.
There is games all the way back to 2017 that never once had a discount ever.

@Ventilator seems weird, actually. I suppose they get away due to no competition, differently to Steam and Epic, where there's usually massive sales. And BOTW still costing as much it does, with the second right next door, it's proof of that.

@CarlosM87 Nintendo said once they don't believe in devaluing games and is why their discounts is bad. In reality they force people to pay higher prices on old games, because they know people buy them anyway. As you say, there is no competition anyway.

@Ventilator true. Hence why Nintendo always seemed to me like the grandfather who refuses to accept that the times have changed and we no longer need to ride horses to reach where we need to. I've always wondered how do they still exist, with such a retrograde thinking.

@CarlosM87 Yeah. I wonder how long Nintendo will last with their 1990's thinking and old hardware.
Sony isn't much better and they are not even considered a Xbox competitor anymore according to Microsoft themselves.
Both Nintendo and Sony is left behind. Must be a Japanese thing.
Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Tencent is the top 5 Microsoft competitors.

@Ventilator fortunately, for these companies, numbers kept adding up. Look at Sony, selling millions in the middle of a global pandemic and recession. As for Nintendo, and as you said, they're stuck in the 80s,90s, and were literally saved by a nich most companies thought wouldn't sell anymore: portable gaming. A lot of people might not like it, but the Deck will for sure change the panorama of the gaming industry.

@CarlosM87 Yeah. In fact neither Sony or Nintendo is thinking big, because they are so obsessed with closed eco systems which decreases the market size a lot.
Switch were the most powerful handheld while it lasted.

Steam Deck is a portable gaming PC. Unlike consoles, PC is timeless and have no generations as specs is different on every PC unless it's pre-built.
Steam Deck itself won't get sales nowhere close to Switch, but it sure is welcome. I will buy Deck or a clone of it, but it isn't a Switch replacement for several reasons.

Since Deck is a PC, it doesn't have a set lifespan like consoles do. PC handhelds is here to stay. Lenovo and Asus is probably already working on their own versions.
The problem with Deck is that it's only available in a few countries. Lenovo and Asus is selling globally.
Anyway. Valve hope Deck sells a few millions, but it's lucky if it ever reaches 10 millions.

Steam Deck still probably affects how they make next Nintendo console if it's also a portable. "Switch 2" will for sure be compared with PC Handhelds and it can hurt some of the sales if it have lower specs than Deck.

BTW: A Top game on Switch i didn't own is 90% off. "Inside". From same dev as Limbo.
I own it on PC, but bought it on Switch as it's a great portable game.

@jsty3105 "Inside" is 90% off on Switch. I bought that.
A top rated Indie.

@Ventilator it is a very good game, although I didn't understood the ending and I finished it 3 times, especial ending included. Makes me wonder if they were being cryptic to follow with Little Nightmares trend back then, or if they simply didn't had much of a history to begin with.

@Ventilator and I totally agree with you regarding the Deck. I'm pretty sure it won't sell as much as the Switch, if at all, but if successful, might show other companies that there is a market for affordable portable consoles, since the Aya Neo's and companie are all but affordable for the average consumers.

@CarlosM87 Thanks. Specs never mass sold a console ever. Specific exclusive games did usually.

If specs mattered, Atari Lynx for example would outsell Gameboy 1990. N64 would outsell PS1. Xbox+Gamecube would outsell PS2. 360 and PS3 sold less than Wii. Switch outsold Xbox One by far, and will probably outsell PS4 too. It's only 6 millions behind.

Steam Deck have no exclusives to sell it. To be fair there is 1000's of older games on Steam which doesn't exist on any console, but they won't sell Deck.
As i mentioned, it will have a life because it runs PC games natively. It's also mainly aimed at people who already own lots of games on Steam as Gaben said. That means me too.

Aya Neo and OneXplorer is too expensive for mass market, because they are made in limited amount and isn't sold many places.
Aya Neo will have the credit for being the first powerful PC handheld, paving the way for a new handheld market.

Aya Neo were the first console for me with WOW factor since Dreamcast launched in 1998 (Japan). Dreamcast were a huge leap over N64 and PS1 during their prime time.
To me, Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4, Wii U etc. is Dreamcast on steroids. Dreamcast is what started modern consoles we still have today in my opinion. Just look at Soul Calibur 1, NFL ??? and some of the other major games on it.

@Ventilator oh, I remember Dreamcast, and a game that I was really impressed by, especially, and I barely hear mention of it now: Headhunter. I thought back then it was amazing. And Shenmue nearly made me cry, stupid as it sounds, when I realised what games could actually be and do, to tell a history. And not mentioning that I always thought DC was the best way to experience my favourite game: Soul Reaver.
Dreamcast was lightyears away from the competition and they managed to pave way to on-line gaming as well. An amazing feat of tech, indeed. 😀
And I'm mostly excited with the Deck because of the horror games, since, let's face it, it's very lacking in the console world. 😂 Hopefully, Scorn will come out in my lifetime and I can play it on the go...

@CarlosM87 Headhunter were great. Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia and lots of other games were great. Quality over quantity of games like on N64. Crazy Taxi were best on Dreamcast. Something looks wrong on all ports. It's like those versions is too dark. In 1990's, same game on different GPU brands didn't always have exact same colors. Probably why.
There will never be a new Dreamcast in console market.

I remember Dreamcast also ran PS1 games better than PS1, so Sony sued Bleem to get rid of it from sale. Just shows the power of Dreamcast.
During same time PC, could emulate N64 full speed.

Deck can even run Forza Horizon 5 at lower settings, but still looks good because of the smaller screen.
No one have tried Flight Simulator 2020 and Halo Infinite on it so far.
There isn't many newer PC games that won't work on it.
Deck is actually also a Xbox handheld, since as good as all Xbox games on PC runs on it.

As for game genres. PC probably have like 1000 +/- games in any genre. There is no genres missing on PC like on consoles.
Scorn have a release date of 22 October 2022 if it's not getting delayed. Will probably run on Deck too.
I'm curious if it's possible to use finger on touch screen as a mouse in RTS Games on it.

@ryancraddock

Ryan, do you know how to "change currency"... I bought a gift card code in US currency but when I went in was trying to (and seemed to be working -until after it was too late) for United Kingdom region to buy game on UK eShop.

Another example, is if I wanted to buy a code for a friend over in the UK -how could I do this? Thank you for any assistance.

@ryancraddock

ahhhh. hmm..

Seems I have a bit more work to do on this then.
Thank you for the reply!

Just need to scroll the extensive wishlist

@msvt for the first part of your question, the solution is to go into your account settings and change your country region to the US and then do the same steps on the US eshop.

Out of gaming funds for this sale, alas, with the payday naturally due the very damn day after.😆 I do have some in the eShop wallet, but that's the RF5 preorder money (the system isn't charging it until a week before release), and I'm reluctant to draw from it because the next two paydays' potential income fluctuations coupled with the next few weeks' extra expenses might beget the risk of failing to have the proper sum in time. So I have invested a tangible amount in the earlier discounted RemiLore (it and Umihara Kawase Fresh went on sale for the first time in a year and might just wait as long for next drop), but given up my plans for Ancestors Legacy among other things.

That said, time will tell - MAAAAYBE I'll pull the trigger on XCOM 2 after all since its indubitably low current price is within my current gold coin capacity.😄

Still no NA sales announce? I want that Xenoblade and Mario discount so bad.

Wow.
Was overpriced
Now same price as physical copy. 😁

A really great sale. I would love XCOM2, but my SD Card is already full and these games are crazy large.

Forgot to say European sales* there I think..

Would be a great time to do a 3DS and Wii u eShop massive sale, but of course they won't. They know we will all pay full price for games that are going to disappear.

Did they actually fix the long load times in XCOM? I heard they last 40 - 60 seconds which seems way too long for me.

Bought both Limbo and Inside last night. I bet they both look incredible on the OLED model.

@AmplifyMJ

Both are great games. I finished INSIDE a few months ago, you are in for an absolute treat!

@Rainz enjoyed what I’ve played so far! Going through Limbo first. Maybe enjoyed is not quite the right word, but I guess you know just what I mean 😅