Nintendo boss defends Tears of the Kingdom’s price tag

Link and Zelda are gearing up to tackle the open-world genre once again, as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom continues the journey we saw unfold in Breath of the Wild.

But one thing between the first title and its sequel has changed rather significantly... the price. Breath of the Wild launched as a $60/£50 game in 2017, but six years later and a few upgrades down the line, Nintendo has ramped up the price for Tears of the Kingdom to $70/£60.

Considering Nintendo is usually behind Microsoft and Sony in terms of pricing due to the lack of grunt its consoles packs, gamers are feeling a little bit hard done by that we're truly in the era of new-gen gaming pricing. 

Nintendo President defends $70 price tag for Zelda

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Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser has now claimed that the inflated price tag is actually common for a game like Zelda now, but this isn't a common theme for the company who will be pulling out all of the stops to make Tears of the Kingdom a blockbuster hit. 

"The price point reflects the type of experience that fans can expect when it comes to playing this particular game. This isn't a price point that we'll necessarily have on all our titles," he told AP.

"It's actually a fairly common pricing model either here or in Europe or other parts of the world, where the pricing may vary depending on the game itself."

Nintendo promises a 'full, deeply immersive experience' 

In a bid to further justify Tears of the Kingdom's price increase, Bowser has made some stark promises about the Breath of the Wild sequel, declaring that it will be one of their deepest games yet.

"We look at what the game has to offer. I think fans will find this is an incredibly full, deeply immersive experience," Bowser added. 

Of course, fans might not always agree with Bowser and this pricier Zelda. It will all come down to the public's perception to see if this beefier price tag is really justifiable against other not-as-expensive games like Pokemon: Arceus.