Complaining about the price of video games is an American pastime. It gives people great joy to grumble incessantly about a luxury product that requires the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars and the blood, sweat, and tears of technicians, artists—and yes, even…businesspeople—only for those same complainers to purchase said item and wind up having the time of their lives.
This week, Nintendo released a new trailer for the upcoming Zelda game. They also revealed the price tag. Seventy smacks. Can you believe it?
Let’s check in with Twitter. I’m sure people are approaching the announcement in a reasonable and normal way.
General grumbling is one thing, but the multiple criticisms with regard to the outdated technology in an Nintendo Switch is nonsensical. They have to invent a whole new console to raise the price of the game? How does that work?
Moving on, I find this criticism particularly revealing:
What is meant by this? I don’t want to wade too deeply into the Breath of the Wild weapon durability debate (god forgive me for even writing such a phrase) but I think this sentiment, as expressed, has nothing to do with price.
The weapon durability system in Breath of the Wild was not implemented as the result of some sort of arbitrary or slapdash decision making. It is a highly intentional and effective aspect of the game, something that makes it unique. Struggling with it is the whole point. If the player feels any stress or tension in the moments before or during a weapon breaking, then they are experiencing the exact feeling that the designers of the game intended for them to feel.
If the designers were to remove this system from the game (a decision they have already made one way or the other), would this make a $70 price point legitimate?
The tweet above is not 100% serious, but it does exemplify the deranged entitlement of a certain video game consumer set.
If the game were designed to my exact specifications, it would be worth the price tag!
I could justify the purchase of the game if it caused me less stress!
Why won’t Nintendo do what I tell them?!
Weapon durability in Breath of the Wild is not a system that exists outside of Breath of the Wild. Indeed, it is intrinsic to the game. It cannot simply be removed without affecting the game as a whole. We now live in a world in which some consumers expect every little aspect of a game to be modifiable, toggleable, or outright removable based on their very own hyper-specific phobias, conditions, and maladies. As if this endeavor costs nothing, requires no planning, and can be carried out with a flick of a magic wand.
When someone demands that Hidetaka Miyazaki personally add an “easy mode” to Elden Ring, they are demanding that an entirely new product be conjured from thin air. This is not how game development works. It’s not how physics works.
Here’s the real kicker:
Is it necessary?
What does necessary even mean in this context?
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is, without a doubt, one of the greatest video games of all time. It is a master work of design, of art direction, of sound and music, and of player-driven storytelling. It looks and plays better than just about anything that’s come out on next-gen consoles or anything that currently has people installing liquid cooling mechanisms in their high end PCs.
But Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is not necessary.
Twitter is not necessary.
Candy is not necessary.
These are products that we enjoy or use. They do not feed us, they do not house us, they are not nationalized enterprises meant for the benefit of society.
Nintendo is a business. They will continue to make games for as long as they are able to turn a profit. Part of making that profit will require them to modify the prices of their product based on the expenses that come with making games.
For dozens if not hundreds of hours of entertainment? For something that takes years to make? For something that requires hundreds of people working in harmony? Are we really prepared to say that $70 is too expensive? For a sequel to one of the greatest games ever made?
Try this:
There are few things on this planet that are worth as much that cost as little as a good video game.
Maybe gasoline. Maybe.
For a video game? $70 is a steal.