In an Associated Press interview yesterday, Nintendo America President Doug Bowser said that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom game will justify its heightened $70 cost.
While many AAA games have come out with a $70 price tag, including critically acclaimed titles like God of War: Ragnarok, gamers are still reeling from the gradual spike.
The highly anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild stirred up a frenzy when early price listings showed that the game sold for $69.99 on Nintendo Switch’s eShop. Though most of the AAA scene has adopted the new price tag since mid-2022, Tears of the Kingdom will be the first Nintendo game on the Switch to cost $70.
Tears of the Kingdom’s price tag have since been removed from the eShop, likely because it was revealed too early before the company’s Nintendo Direct event.
However, pre-orders from last summer pegged Tears of the Kingdom at the formerly commonplace $60 price tag. Game retailers have since paused all pre-orders before Nintendo’s event, fearing the influx of fans purchasing the game at a lower price.
Considering the success of Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom seems like an obvious choice to begin a price hike. However, Bowser told The Associated Press that the new cost might not be universally applied to all Nintendo games.
“The price point reflects the type of experience that fans can expect when it comes to playing this particular game. This isn’t a price point that we’ll necessarily have on all our titles,” Bowser said.
“It’s actually a fairly common pricing model either here or in Europe or other parts of the world, where the pricing may vary depending on the game itself.”
Bowser’s comment suggests that the content of the new game is also a major factor in its price tag, leading to speculation that it has even more content than its predecessor. While Breath of the Wild was released back in 2017, the game is still notably loved today for its vast open world, with numerous quests, challenges and settings to explore.
If Nintendo America’s President is to be believed, Tears of the Kingdom may contain the most amount of content the Zelda franchise has released yet. According to its current webpage, the game will release on May 12.
Speculation, expectations, Switch
It has almost been six years since the Nintendo Switch first released alongside Breath of the Wild. Since then, fans have rampantly speculated on the content of the next Zelda game just as much as they have speculated on Nintendo’s next Switch console.
Trailers for Tears of the Kingdom show that the game is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild, though not much else is known about the plot. In terms of tone and aesthetic, however, the game seems to have taken a darker turn from its predecessor, diving deeper into the dungeons of Hyrule. Trailers showcase a resurrected Ganon, spreading decay and chaos across the lands.
As for similarities, current trailers show that the game has expanded on the exploration of Breath of the Wild. Link has a wider variety of weapons and seems to fight numerous new enemies in Tears of the Kingdom. Furthermore, Link now also has a strange green arm, which game journalists have speculated may help the player in future puzzles.
Players will soon be able to discover how the game plays out in the coming May. Unlike Tears of the Kingdom, however, the next Switch is still under heavy wraps.
