A new Nintendo Switch report is bad news for your wallet. Gaming on Nintendo Switch is already more expensive than gaming on PC, PlayStation and Xbox for several reasons. First, sales on the Nintendo eShop aren’t as abundant or charitable as sales on Steam or the PlayStation Store. Meanwhile, many of the console’s biggest and best games rarely get significant discounts, especially when released by Nintendo. And finally, while it’s not as common as it used to be, a Nintendo Switch tax still exists, which refers to a game that makes more money on Switch compared to other platforms. That said, it sounds like gaming on Switch, and Switch Lite is about to get even more expensive.
Then on Reddit, SMG Studio – the developer behind it Death squared, a popular indie puzzle game – claims the Nintendo eShop has a new rule that will prevent games from costing less than $ 1.99. Of course, free games remain free, but the developer claims that the days when games are on sale at $ 0.99 and below are coming to an end.
Now, contrary to this report, two games – Plague Road and HoPiko –– are currently on sale for $ 0.99, making them the cheapest games on the platform right now. There are plenty of other games for sale, but none of them break the aforementioned price of $ 1.99.
At first glance, this seems to take away from SMG Studio’s claim, but as the developer points out, their game also recently cost $ 0.99, but that’s because they already scheduled the sale in August. In other words, these two games can be in a similar boat. The fact that these are the only two games for sale under $ 0.99 suggests this is the case. There are still plenty of other games listed for $ 0.99, but this is their regular price, and again, they’re probably grandfathered.
All that said, take everything here with a grain of salt for now. Nothing here is official, and so far Nintendo has not provided any comment or clarification. If this changes, we will definitely update the story. Why Nintendo would do this, who knows. It could have something to do with the eShop’s top seller page, which is littered with games that have fallen to dirt-cheap prices, but for now this is just speculation.