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We are firmly in the era of $80 video games, and Nintendo has had a significant hand in ushering it in. Mario Kart World debuted at $80 when it released alongside the Switch 2 over a year ago, and Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave will now be the second exclusive to bear that price tag.
Grand Theft Auto 6 starting at $80 feels like the tipping point for more publishers to release games at that price point, but it has so far been surprising to see Nintendo – a company notorious for selling even its dated games at a premium – not default to this new standard for its exclusives. In fact, Nintendo's next major Switch 2 exclusive is releasing at a reasonable price, but the company oddly refuses to acknowledge it.
Splatoon Raiders Is Only $50
Splatoon Raiders key art showing the Mechanic posing with the three members of Deep Cut.
Splatoon Raiders is a single-player-focused spin-off of the third-person shooter series, which, despite featuring a campaign in all three mainline entries, is typically focused around its PvP multiplayer experience. The only caveat to Splatoon Raiders' $50 price is that physical copies go for $10 more (totaling $60), adhering to Nintendo's new pricing policies that see every game more expensive when on a cartridge.
For comparison's sake, the most recent Switch 2 exclusive, Star Fox, is also $50 digitally. The rail shooter is a remake of Star Fox 64, which originally released on the Nintendo 64 in 1997. $50 is not an uncommon price point for remakes, even if they bring new content like the Switch 2's Star Fox. But it feels like a noteworthy price tag for a brand-new exclusive like Splatoon Raiders, and Nintendo hasn't really deemed it mentionable, even in the recent Direct dedicated to the game.
This Price For A Switch 2 Exclusive Is A StealCalling Splatoon Raiders a spin-off feels like a disservice. It may not have the persistent replayability of PvP multiplayer, but it seems to have a wealth of content. It's all the more strange that Splatoon Raiders isn't full price when considering how popular the series is. All three existing Splatoon titles sold incredibly well, especially in Japan. The first game even managed to sell 4.95 million copies on the Wii U, a console that only managed to move 13.56 million units.
This is to say, from the outside looking in, it feels like Nintendo is leaving money on the table. I'm not going to complain about Splatoon Raiders being $50, but it's a definite selling point that Nintendo is neglecting to advertise. Gaming is only growing more expensive as a hobby – you can thank AI companies for all the recent increases to hardware prices. Any first-party game coming in under full price immediately catches the attention of money-conscious consumers, but Nintendo is oddly not making it clear that this is the case for Splatoon Raiders, the newest entry in one of its most popular franchises.