Estoico Prometeo
Member
Pokémon is a famous and lucrative franchise, but it is not a first party game. Nintendo doesn't develop it, Game Freak does.
Regarding the price, not every Nintendo Switch game is 60 dolars nor it should be. Mega Man is a famous franchise aswell and they just released a new exclusive game for the Switch that costs less than 60 dolars. They were able to recognize that the game didn't have enough content to justify that price and while that may seem like a stupid move i have no doubts it made more people interested in buying the game despite not being content heavy.
Now whether these new games are worth 60 dolars or not that is entirely personal, but saying it should be 60 dolars simply because of the console it was made for seems a bit irrational to me at least.
The technology and the content go hand in hand. At a fundamental economic level, the price is supposed to balance the cost it takes to produce the game and how much the consumers want the game. $60 doesn't seem appropriate with that in mind, especially not in terms of the latter. The content makes it less desirable than other Switch games, so it feels like a ripoff to the consumer. Hell, even in terms of the former, it's doubtful whether or not $60 is appropriate since they're probably not spending as much on a linear region with minimal content as say, BotW or Odyssey. Console games aren't just $60 because of the graphics, they're also $60 because they have larger game world and more extra content, which takes the developers longer to make and consumers value more because they can get more out of the game. LGPE has none of this, that's why it's seen as not worth full price.
Actually, videogames are kind of hard to "price". Traditional products balance the cost of production (direct, indirect, workhand (i don't know if this is the term in english)) of the production + the gain/profit, that after all is the value that the consumer sees in the product, is "easy" to determinate the cost and the value of one unit. Videogame work with software, that has a cost of production, but you you can't "divide" that cost in a number of produced unit, but you can fix a price, according to the market, an determinate how much you need to proffit (That is the bussines perspective), after launch you can keep the sales at he same price (Nintendo way), or drop the price to stimulate sales. This is why huge game and some medium games cost the same, a two $60 dolars game can an abissmal diference of conten, but you can't sell that game for $80-90, so you need to sell more, at a standar price, and, for good or bad, consoles games are priced $50-60 since years, that is the standar, what people (the more relevant sales) have been willing to pay for years (And they haven't suffer a lot the inflation, games are actually more accesible nowdays).
For the consume sales, you pay for the experience that the game give you, you don't see the technology, the devepment effort, the desing proces, just value the joy of the hours of game base that that game can give you: 2 game of 20 hours can give you diferent experiencies, , and one worth it more than the other.
Furthermore detailed, complex game is not allways the best if is boring. You can buy Mariokart, 1-2 Switch, Just dance for the same price and end up playing more the laters because friends; You can play 300+ hrs of Fortnite, but play 10 of the new $60 ubisoft openwold.
The key is the Target audience, parents are going to buy Pokemon for their kids, is a $60 dolar (Second party) NS game, where the rest of Big Francise on NS and other PS/XB games, so they see no diference.
If the price is to much, the game will just not meet expectations, if it's, it will profit, that's bussines. If you don't see it worthy of the price, don't but, you are not forced to, just as the company is not forced to sell the game at $40-50.
(Sorry for my non native english)