Featured Image Credit: Nintendo
Topics: Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
In an unexpected turn of events, Nintendo has revealed a permanent price drop pertaining to first-party games.
Nintendo will soon begin charging less for its first-party games that are launched digitally, beginning with Yoshi and The Mysterious Book which is due to be released on 21 May.
Originally, Nintendo made the error of stating that beginning with Yoshi and The Mysterious Book, digital and physical copies would be priced differently, leading many to assume that meant physical copies would be seeing an increase.
Thankfully, that’s confirmed to not be the case.
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“Beginning in May 2026, and starting with pre-orders for Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, new Nintendo published digital titles exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2 will have an MSRP that is different from physical versions,” the company announced in a blog post.
They continued, “Nintendo games offer the same experiences whether in packaged or digital format, and this change simply reflects the different costs associated with producing and distributing each format and offers players more choice in how they can buy and play Nintendo games.”
The post finished by noting, “As always, retail partners set their own prices for physical and digital games, and pricing for each title may vary.”
As for what this means for pricing, on the US Nintendo Store, Yoshi and The Mysterious Book can now be pre-ordered physically for $69.99 or digitally for $59.99.
This brings pricing more in line with what we’ve seen in previous console generations.
To clarify this change, Nintendo released the following follow-up statement: “The cost of physical games is not going up. This means that when Nintendo sells digital versions of Nintendo published games exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2 to consumers in the U.S., those prices will have an MSRP that is lower than their physical counterparts.”
As you may have noticed, this statement specifies that it’s related to pricing within the US.
However, this seems to be reflected in other territories too.
For example, on the UK Nintendo Store, Yoshi and The Mysterious Book can be physically pre-ordered for £58.99 or digitally pre-ordered for £49.99.
It’s great to see Nintendo making such a consumer-friendly move, especially while Nintendo Switch 2 consoles are selling like hotcakes thanks to the immense success of Pokémon Pokopia.
Nintendo is yet to confirm any major first-party release dates beyond that of Yoshi and The Mysterious Book.
The latter half of the year is likely to bring us Splatoon Raiders and The Duskbloods but it’s clear a new Nintendo Direct is needed to fill out the schedule.