---
title: Mario Kart World costing $80 is not the issue
image:
  src: https://img.sebin-nyshkim.net/i/273d250e-177c-4054-a20b-f9f3e83bb7b2
  alt: Mario Kart World Key Art
  credit: © Nintendo
  width: 1200
  height: 630
  type: 'image/png'
tags: ["games"]
---

The Switch 2 was revealed and alongside it the new Mario Kart World which will be a launch title for the upcoming Nintendo console. The reveal certainly has been the talk of the town for a while now, but aren't raving on about how good they think the new console is or how good games on it look.

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The Switch 2 will see a 50% price increase over its predecessor, from around $300 to around $450. This already upset people during the reveal live stream. The chat was flooded with messages for pretty much the entire stream with a single message:

***"DROP THE PRICE"***

And while console games in general have started to go from $60 to $70 since the PlayStation 5 launched, Nintendo has steadily kept their prices locked in at $60 for their original Switch games (a notable exception to this being *The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom*, which also came in at $70).

Mario Kart World for the Switch 2 will cost **$80.**

People were ***aghast.***

Now, with Mario Kart also going open world with this newest installment, one *could* argue that that's a bit more involved of a design process to have the tracks all interconnect and fill it with stuff to explore off-road. One *could* argue since it's on a more advanced piece of hardware, it's more involved technologically.

However, I think the issue with the complaints lies entirely elsewhere.

## It's about literally every other game

On a surface level, it doesn't seem too unreasonable to get worked up about a Nintendo game costing $80. Framing the whole discussion around a single game, however, is missing the point. People aren't really mad that Nintendo games, which come out without egregious bugs and day one patches and are generally very polished on release, will cost between $70 and $80 going forward.

What made people fall into a frenzy, was the fear that Nintendo will set a precedent with pricing games this high[^gta6] and that a lot of people will be priced out of their favorite hobby. Because if Nintendo can do it and people still buy the game at that price point, anybody else can charge this much, too.

[^gta6]: There's already rumors that Rockstar Games is [considering charging $100](https://www.ign.com/articles/gta-6-price-many-in-the-video-game-industry-hope-for-80-if-not-100-analyst-says) for their upcoming GTA 6. Whether *that's* justified will be a debate for when it launches. But I have no doubt people well be up in arms about that once more when that time actually comes.

That's what I think this is actually about.

The games industry has seen better days, to be honest, with most AAA games making headlines for their unpolished state teetering on the unplayable and big publishers seemingly thinking "release now, patch later" is a viable long-term business strategy.

People have made it very clear they think AAA games aren't worth their asking price anymore. They're [grossly over-budgeted][callofduty], [samey and uninspired][bethesda], [rushed to market with tons of bugs][cp2077], [do not perform well, even on powerful and expensive hardware][mohuwilds], [chock-full of predatory micro transactions][lootboxes] and even if they're lauded, [their developers still get laid off][insomniaclayoffs][^votewallet].

[callofduty]: https://www.gamefile.news/p/call-of-duty-budgets-development-costs-black-ops-modern-warfare
[bethesda]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS2emKDlGmE
[cp2077]: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55359568
[mohuwilds]: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/it-runs-awful-it-looks-awful-monster-hunter-wilds-performance-issues-put-a-dampener-on-its-record-breaking-concurrents-as-it-settles-into-an-early-mixed-rating-on-steam/
[lootboxes]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S-DGTBZU14
[insomniaclayoffs]: https://sonyinteractive.com/en/news/blog/difficult-news-about-our-workforce/

[^votewallet]: And don't give me any of that "Vote with your wallet" bullshit! People *are* voting with their wallets, but sadly, they're voting for the exact opposite of what you're trying to invoke with that idiom.

## Video games? In *this* economy?!

Also, [ongoing](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-12/donald-trump-tariff-trade-war-week-roils-americans/105164924) [economic](https://www.newsweek.com/2025-eggs-prices-per-dozen-economy-donald-trump-2044401) [uncertainty](https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-pause-businesses-reaction-a61a1adcaf6332f6188ae1d70664b898) is certainly contributing to the outrage.

So getting anxious about getting priced out of a hobby to tune that shitshow out I feel is pretty justified.

But I think focusing that on a single game is misguided. This has been brooding for years and Nintendo just had the misfortune to be, well, their usual disconnected selves, not read the room ahead of time and go ahead with their announcements anyway. So them getting a shitstorm of their own doesn't surprise me.

I also think [arguing why the price of the Switch 2 "makes sense"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=953iQVQ9lYE) for a number of reasons that are pretty much irrelevant to the majority of people is pretty tone deaf and misses the point of what their actual pain points are. People aren't arguing for Nintendo to price an obviously more capable device the same as its 8 year old predecessor.

On the other hand, I also think people aren't exactly arguing their point very concisely right now. Because I believe neither the price of the Switch 2 nor the price of Mario Kart World is at the core of the issue here. It's just getting over the initial sticker shock. The actual issue is people's financial realities clashing with the expectations of companies that people will keep spending money as they've been for years, when they're still reeling from an inflation caused by a global pandemic and an economy that has become reliant on people going into debt for literally *anything.*

[The top 10% of earners in the US carry nearly half of the entire country's economy](https://qz.com/us-economy-consumer-spending-wealthy-1851766072). Everyone else is feeling the squeeze of inflation, everything's getting more expensive, yet everybody's paycheck stays the same. At some point, something's got to give.

Friggin' [Door Dash and Klarna started partnering](https://about.doordash.com/en-us/news/doordash-partners-with-klarna) in the US, so people can buy their takeout now and pay it later. If that's not the sign of an economy about to fail, I don't know what is.

So, yeah, people are rightfully angry at a Mario Kart game costing $80. But that anger is better directed at the games industry and policy makers of their countries as a whole. Nintendo's latest announcements were just the straw the broke the camel's back — and something tells me it won't be the last either.
