Wait, what?
Nintendo will effectively raise the cost of physical versions of upcoming first-party titles, at least in comparison to digital versions of the same game.
First, Nintendo of America issued a statement that stated, “[b]eginning in May 2026, and starting with preorders 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.”
Specifically in the case of the upcoming Yoshi title, digital versions will retail at $59.99 USD, while physical copies will set players back $10 USD more, totalling $69.99 USD.
“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 original statement continued. “As always, retail partners set their own prices for physical and digital games, and pricing for each title may vary.”
Nintendo then took offense to reports it had increased the price of physical versions of games, issuing a later statement to IGN which began with, “[t]he 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,” Nintendo continued.
We’ll let you know what this means for Australian pricing when confirmed by local representatives.
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