Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
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While the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom might just be the most highly-anticipated video game of all time, the announcement that the title would cost $70 on release opened up the conversation about how much we are all willing to pay for a game in 2023.

Doug Bowser, the head of Nintendo USA, has recently defended the price point of the Breath of the Wild follow-up in an interview with AP News, in which he reaffirmed the company's stance that this is not Nintendo's standard pricing going forward and all games will be judged on an individual basis.

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Talking specifically about Tears of the Kingdom, Bowser seemed certain that the game would be worthy of such a price point:

We look at what the game has to offer. I think fans will find this is an incredibly full, deeply immersive experience. The price point reflects the type of experience that fans can expect when it comes to playing this particular game. This isn’t a price point that we’ll necessarily have on all our titles. It’s actually a fairly common pricing model either here or in Europe or other parts of the world, where the pricing may vary depending on the game itself.

Of course, Bowser's defence of the company's most hotly-anticipated game in recent memory should come as no surprise, but it is nice to receive the confirmation that the game is stacking up to be just as expansive as its predecessor.

Elsewhere in the interview, when asked about what we might see from the Switch's successor, Bowser was typically coy with his response, focusing instead on the success of Nintendo's current console which he is "still feeling very bullish about" as he hinted towards "a very very strong lineup" coming to the Switch in the future.

Seems like a pretty standard response, right? Well the NOA president followed it up by commenting on the uniqueness of the Switch, potentially hinting that its successor may take a similarly unique approach:

one of the reasons that even going into year seven we feel very confident that the Switch can have a strong performance over the next few years is that it is still truly that unique device that you can play in a variety of ways, at home, on the go. One of the things we look at always is how can we surprise and delight. How can we introduce new unique ways of playing. That’s always in front of our mind.

It's those final two sentences that got us thinking for a moment there. Is this a hint that Nintendo's next console will bring a unique way to play too? What could this possibly be? We suppose that Nintendo has often been about mixing things up when it comes to finding new ways to play (even outside of the Switch, the Wii and DS had this idea at the forefront of their design) so could Nintendo be looking to carry this on into future consoles?

The truth is, probably. But that isn't to say that this is what Bowser was referring to in his answer. The head of NOA could just as easily be affirming the Switch's unique design as one of its most appealing aspects, using this as an argument for why Nintendo might want to stay with the console for a while yet. His true intention could go either way!

Be it a hint at the future or a reason for the Switch's success, Bowser is right about Nintendo's consistent innovation (even if that does mean that we are going to be seeing more $70 games in the years to come). We recommend checking out AP News' full interview for even more insights from Bowser himself.

Do you think this was a hint at the next console or nothing more than a comment on the Switch? Let us know down below.

[source apnews.com]