Nintendo of America President and Chief Executive Officer Reggie Fils-Aime has made it clear that in order to keep the Switch's price official tag at below $300, Nintendo was forced not to include a pack-in game. While the Wii experienced some huge success by including Wii Sports as part of the package, Nintendo has raised eyebrows by not doing the same for its new hybrid console with the comparatively similar Switch.
Nintendo's bold move
Fils-Aime explained in a recent interview with GameSpot that the decision came out of wanting to appeal towards every potential buyer, while not being financially irresponsible at the same time:
"The first decision that we make", Fils-Aime explained, "is where do we want to position ourselves in terms of the hardware price point that's going to be reasonably approachable and will definitely hit the marketplace we want? And from a U.S. price point, we wanted to be at $299 so we start there."
"And then it's all about, what's going to be included?" Fils-Aime continued with saying the obvious inclusion which is the two Joy-Cons, in which he dubbed as 'critically important.'
"All the right cables, the dock, are critically important. We also have to do all of this from an agreed financial perspective as well. Once we got to that bundle, we all agreed that it really needed to be at $299 without any piece of software whatsoever, and we'll let the consumer decide what games they want to buy."
Nintendo's decision paying off
Somehow, it has been a decision that appears to be, in some way, paying off for now. GameStop has sold out of Switch pre-orders, with the U.K. retailers also reporting similar situations.
Right now, Fils-Aime and the rest of Nintendo can rest assure that despite all the debate, they still manage to make the right decision in the end and the price of $300 for the Switch was all worth it. Right now, everyone is cautiously enthusiastic about the Nintendo Switch and are more than excited to be able to try Nintendo's newest console for the very first time.
