“I think fans will find this is an incredibly full, deeply immersive experience,” says Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser.
Nintendo announced last month that when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Realm launches in May, it will retail for $70, making it the first party Nintendo title ever to be released at that price point. Although an increasing number of companies have adopted that pricing model for their games in recent years, given the fact that Nintendo is still running on older hardware, the announcement came as a surprise to many.
However, the company says that the game is going to justify its higher price. Speaking in a recent interview with The Associated PressNintendo of America president Doug Bowser said the open-world title’s higher price point reflects the kind of game it will be, which he describes as “an incredibly full, incredibly immersive experience.”
“We’re looking at what the game has to offer,” Bowser said when asked how Nintendo came to the decision to release the upcoming Zelda game at a higher price. “I think fans will find this to be a very full, very immersive experience. The price point reflects the kind of experience fans can expect when it comes to playing this particular game.”
He went on to reiterate that the $70 price won’t become standard for all future Nintendo first-party releases, and that the company will instead decide things on a case-by-case basis.
“This is not a price point that we will necessarily have on all of 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 prices can vary depending on the game itself.”
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Realm due out for the Nintendo Switch on May 12.
