Cognition Dissemination: Nintendo Can Start That Switch Budget Line Any Time Now

Nintendo sought to establish the first successful hybrid video game system with the Switch upon launching it on this day six years ago, and it’s tough to argue against the accomplishment of their mission. The system has sold around 122 million units worldwide as of one month ago, securing it as the third best-selling video game console in history. (The PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS are the first and second best-selling platforms, respectively, if you were curious.) All those console buyers, it follows, have purchased plenty of software along with it, around a whopping 994 million. It’s shown Nintendo, and perhaps other hardware manufacturers, a viable way forward.

That’s not what I want to focus on too heavily for this post. If you read the title, and I have several questions if you haven’t, you saw that I’m using this opportunity to ask a simple and reasonable question: Where in the hell is the Switch Nintendo Selects line?

We’re overdue for the budget line recently known as “Nintendo Selects” one and previously known as “Player’s Choice” one. Here, Nintendo reprints select games for half the prices they were previously sold at, around $30 if they were released at $60 or $20 if you remember the bygone halcyon era when new games released for handhelds at $40. Nintendo launched the Selects line for 3DS and Wii U in the United States in March 2016, about five years and a little more than three years after the respective systems launched. The line launched for Wii in May 2011, about four-and-a-half years after that system launched. Considering the Switch’s age, the time to introduce a budget software line is right now.

There are notable reasons for why this line would be very cool for this system. Several years-old games still retail for $60, or an equivalent in other countries, thanks to the power of Nintendo games retaining their value over time. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (which, don’t forget, launched at $10 more than the Wii U version that did hit that platform’s Selects line), and even Yoshi’s Crafted World still go for full price. These games temporarily go on sale, as BotW did shortly after the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was shown on the last Nintendo Direct, and as the other three games will be on March 10th for the cleverly-known “Mar10 Day” next week. But it would be nice if those prices were permanently dropped.

I understand why Nintendo will stubbornly refuse to drop some of them, ostensibly. Games like BotW and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe still occasionally grace monthly top 20 best-selling software lists around six years after both launched. If these games are still selling at $60, why would Nintendo drop their prices to $30? But that’s a slightly close-minded thought. These games will sell even more when their prices drop, compared to those who still buy the game at $60. Nintendo would consider this as taking a minor risk, but there’s a chance of them making even more money and getting the games into more households at cheaper prices.

A budget line would also offer the opportunity to reprint several games with physical copies that have been out of print for years, a topic I’ve harped on before. This could include the likes of Bayonetta 2 (to go with copies of the first game that received a physical release on Switch in western territories just last September), Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Octopath Traveler. I have a more personal stake in this, because all these games were unavailable at most retailers wgeb I purchased the OLED Switch model in October of 2021. But I’m sure I’m not alone. Some of these are occasionally in stock on specialty retailers like Canadian store PNP Games, but having the games generally available again outside the digital market would be the better alternative.

There’s sadly a good possibility that a Switch Nintendo Selects line may never come to pass. Nintendo’s most successful platform before Switch in semi-recent memory was the Nintendo DS, which, what do you know, was the only Nintendo system to not receive any kind of budget line. That could have also been due to most games launching for a comparatively inexpensive $30, but it’s a factor to consider. I also wouldn’t be surprised if this kind of budget line was considered for Switch, but axed due to the need to curb costs thanks to vicious COVID-19 pandemic and inflation combination. But again, consider the potential of them selling more copies to more players with them on a budget line I mentioned above.

The Nintendo Switch is entering its seventh year. The longer Nintendo takes to announce a budget line, the higher the chance that it won’t come to pass. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, because it would be nice to have those physical reprints for a system from the least-trustworthy video game hardware company when it comes to digital ownership.

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Cognition Dissemination: Nintendo’s Unique Strategy for Switch Cognition Dissemination: The Downsides to Nintendo’s Switch Unveil Strategy Cognition Dissemination: A Return to the New Normal for Nintendo at E3 2017 Cognition Dissemination: Are Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101 Really Coming to Switch?