While Nintendo revealed a host of details about the Switch 2 during its recent Direct, the company was quiet about how much the console and its games would cost. Instead, the price would be later discovered through updates made to the official Switch 2 website. Notable about the pricing was the fact that, with Mario Kart World costing $79.99, it will be the first AAA game at that price without being a premium edition.
According to former PR employees for the company, Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang, the company might be quite surprised at the outcry it has gotten during its Treehouse streams. For context, during the streams where Nintendo showcased the gameplay for titles like Mario Kart World, the live chat was flooded with messages asking the company to lower the price of the console and its games.
Yang and Ellis believe that Nintendo “is probably surprised by the reaction.” In a recent video, the duo spoke about the console’s announcement. However, the fact that Nintendo didn’t reveal pricing during the Direct itself was described by Ellis as showing “disrespect to the consumer.” Yang said that “it’s a little bit degrading, almost, to the intelligence of the consumer.”
The duo also spoke about members of Nintendo’s PR departments likely discussing the matter in a “War Room” that it usually has for livestreamed events like the recent Treehouse streams.
“One of the things that we were joking about is this thing called the war room that Nintendo usually has at these types of events and for these big sort of moments,” said Yang. “We were joking around and saying things like ‘Oh gosh, this is the worst place possibly to be,’ but there actually is a purpose to the war room, is that their job is to look at what is happening out there, what are people saying, what are people thinking, what is the reaction? And come up with any solutions to any issues. They’re basically not doing their jobs at all right now.”
Yang also believes that Nintendo was likely caught off guard by the reaction to its games pricing. She went on to talk about how Nintendo hasn’t had to do any crisis communication for quite some time now owing to the success of the Switch, and as such, its current teams might not have the experience required to handle this kind of situation.
“I do think that they are a bit surprised by how severe this reaction is,” said Yang. “The problem is, now they are kind of like, bad at doing this now, because they haven’t had a need to do a lot of crisis communication for eight years.”
The Nintendo Switch 2 is currently priced at $449.99. There is also a bundle announced that includes a copy of Mario Kart World, priced at $499.99. This would make the bundle the cheapest way to actually get the game, since on its own, it is priced at $79.99 for a digital copy, and $89.99 for a physical copy.
