Nintendo: Publishers 'divided' on digital/retail pricing

May 2nd, 2012, 01:52 Posted By: wraggster

Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata has said that game publishers are divided in their opinions over how digital software should be priced versus their packaged retail counterparts.
Iwata said as much in a recent discussion with investors regarding the recent announcement that Nintendo will sell all first party Wii U and 3DS titles (beyond New Super Mario Bros. 2 in August) in both packaged retail and digital download form (as Sony does with Vita)."We do not hold such a premise that digitally distributed software has less value [than packaged versions]," said Iwata decisively, reaffirming that Nintendo plans to sell both versions of the software at the same price.
He believes that some consumers, like himself, "find the value in being able to store a number of software titles in a hardware system and being able to bring them with me wherever I go".
Nintendo has sought the opinions of publishers but this has apparently proved indecisive. "as we have discussed this with a number of software publishers around the world, we have found that their opinions are completely divided on the topic of the price points of the digital distribution of packaged software. Some publishers believe that the digital versions should be cheaper while others insist that both versions must be set at exactly the same price," he said.
The unnamed attendee who's question Iwata was addressing during the financial briefing suggested that "consumers might consider the value of the digitally purchased software lower than packaged software because the digital software can run on the purchasers' gaming systems only".
Vita games offered via the PS Store are usually priced $5 lower than their retail equivalents. Has Sony got it right, or is Nintendo's philosophy more on the mark?

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...etail-pricing/

There are 0 comments - Join In and Discuss Here