This is the first in a guest column series from Nintendo Life, the world’s most-visited independent Nintendo website. It covers the world of Nintendo from all angles: the games, hardware, and history with in-depth reviews and features, and also the fan community, culture, and conversation that’s formed around gaming’s most beloved company and characters.
The negative reaction to the long-awaited PS5 Pro’s staggering price point – $699 / £699 / €799 – is something Sony must have anticipated. Anybody working at the company old enough to remember 2006’s PS3 price reveal and its rich bounty of “$599 USD” meme material must still lie awake at night, dripping in sweat, muttering about weak points and damage.
The backlash to Mark Cerny’s Pro presentation is a topic we’ve been discussing recently on Nintendo Life. The reveal itself wasn’t bad: presented in an unflattering 1080p compressed YouTube video, PS5's lead architect did a fair job of showcasing the slightly-better-looking, slightly-smoother-moving updates the latest half-step console will offer. It’s hard to imagine PlayStation owners getting too excited for marginally more attractive background crowds in 2021’s already-impressive-looking Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, but improvements to Sony’s existing catalogue are there if you zoom in enough. For the hardcore crowd Sony is targeting with this upgraded system, that might be sufficient.
The enormously negative reaction to PS5 Pro mostly comes down to just one thing: the eye-watering price. Sony wants $250 more than the standard digital-only PS5, and a disc drive and stand will cost you more on top. Regardless of the target audience, Sony has failed to make an attractive value proposition to anyone but its most affluent aficionados.
So why are we talking about PS5 Pro in a column that focusses on Nintendo? Because the PS5 Pro pricing fallout brings into sharp relief the pitfalls Nintendo must negotiate with its own soon-to-be-announced hardware, Switch 2.
Let me make it clear, I'm not expecting anywhere near PS5 performance from the Switch successor – we Switch owners have gotten very good at keeping our tech expectations in check over the last seven-and-a-half years. But given the increased cost of squeezing decent components, cooling solutions, and a screen into a tablet-sided system, Nintendo has its work cut out to deliver a meaningful upgrade to the current console while striking that essential balance between price and performance.
The sums involved in developing and manufacturing these things have never been higher, but breaking the $599 barrier feels like a calculated move on Sony’s part, preparing players to dip deeper into their pockets than ever before in the years ahead. And let’s spare a thought for the Japanese PlayStation fans, already at the mercy of the weak yen, who have recently taken a hit with a ~$90 price hike for the base PS5. Sony won’t say it but the signal is clear: it’s ‘second-job time’ once more.
When Switch fans over on Nintendo Life were asked if $499 would be too much to pay for ‘Switch 2’, 20% said they’d pay it while around 30% felt that 500 notes would be too much. The remainder took a sensible ‘wait and see’ approach depending on what the new Switch offered – beyond access to new Nintendo games, that is.
Of course, an enticing, exclusive first-party lineup is the backbone of any Nintendo’s console and a brand-new 3D Mario adventure is a far easier sell than, say, the prettier AI-uprezzed foliage in the Last of Us sequel you already platinumed. Even with ageing mobile hardware from the middle of last decade, Nintendo has done a spectacular job with its value proposition this gen. $500 for the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Switch OLED bundle with Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing, and maybe a Zelda? If you can stomach the jaggy foliage, that sounds like great value.
Now Sony has boldly busted through the door nailed shut for 18 years with a sign saying “$599 USD – DO NOT OPEN”, it’s possible that, in a couple of years’ time, a PlayStation 6 launching at $700 might seem reasonable for a true generational leap, with software to match. Geoff Keighley helpfully highlighted on Twitter the adjusted-for-inflation cost of previous Sony home consoles, with PS5 Pro second only to PS3 ($778) on the list - although the 2006 machine came with a disc drive.
What Keighley’s round-up fails to factor in is the cost-of-living squeeze that’s been eating away at our disposable income for years now. Despite video games’ impressive resistance to inflation from a consumer standpoint, $70 for the latest releases still feels like a lot, even for those of us who understand the costs involved in producing triple-A titles these days. For the majority of people, $700 is an enormous amount to spend on a video game console.
It's easy to think that the reduced specs of Nintendo’s hardware make competitive pricing a breeze compared to Sony and Microsoft’s under-the-telly behemoths, but again, squeezing even PS4 Pro-level tech into a handheld not much bigger than a game case is a big ask, especially at a consumer-friendly price point. Rumours that Switch 2 will not have a sexy OLED display like the current premium offering but instead an 8-inch LCD screen, raised many an eyebrow at Nintendo Life. After three years of enjoying per-pixel illumination, it seems like an odd decision the release a new machine with screen tech that's not as desirable as the machine we're already using.
But hey, perhaps it will have an OLED screen. Every week the rumour mill churns up something new about the next Switch, and it has done for years at this point. It’s launching this year! No, next year! It’s a Pro in ‘2’ clothing! It’s a doughnut or something! We’ll know soon enough. Whatever Switch 2 turns out to be, the PS5 Pro pricing backlash demonstrates how thin Nintendo’s tightrope will be when it finally pulls back the curtain before the fiscal year is up.
Gavin Lane is the Editor at Nintendo Life. He’s been flying the Nintendo flag since the 8-bit days. You can find him in the usual places as @dartmonkey.
