Nintendo Switch 2 Launch Games List and Prices (Mario Kart World MSRP $79.99 USD)
Nintendo Switch 2 – Games
No other prices are currently listed that I can see. Upgrade Pack cost is also not listed. Looks like Switch 2 first party games will be $79.99 USD going forward.
I suppose open world Mario Kart could be interesting, but not worth $80. And having to pay more to "upgrade" games I already have is a no for me. Especially when it seems like the upgrades are just minor graphical improvements.
For me, it depends on how much the upgrade packs add. If you frame it as "We will be releasing select Switch titles as enhanced editions on the Switch 2. If you already have the Switch version, you can buy the enhanced edition at a discount by getting it as an Upgrade Pack."
Doesn't PlayStation have a similar program?
Yeah but isn’t PlayStation sometimes the upgrades included all the controller features and audio features that didn’t exist for ps4. Games like Death Stranding charged for their upgrades ($10 I believe) but it massively changed the feel of the game. Many other games were free. Put the disk in and it automatically installed the ps5 version, or you had to click something on the shop and it upgraded. Other than death stranding every game that I did an upgrade path for was free and there were a lot of them.
I don't know about Sony, but I can play all of my digitally purchased games on my Xbox, regardless of generation. I can play my original xbox, 360, and Xbox one games on my Series X without any additional charges.
The fact that I have to upgrade my Switch games to play them on the Switch 2 is annoying. Especially for a game like Breath of the Wild, which has already released at full price on 2 other consoles.
You can still play switch 1 games on the 2. The upcharge is for the enhanced versions.
Fair, I didn't see that it was optional. Even so, having to pay more just for better frame rates and faster load times is a little silly considering it's a new console and that should be expected. I could understand if there were new higher res textures or quality of life improvements, but it doesn't seem to be that.
For Mario Party Jamboree, and Kirby and the Forgotten Land they are including additional content (a bit like adding Bowser's Fury or Lanky Kong). For the Zeldas they are adding second screen features.
I don't like the up sell but it is offering something, I can see them feeling they have a justification for the fee there.
Really I'm surprised they are offering the upgrade licences as cards they can sell in 3rd party stores, hopefully we see some competition there.
Edit:
The Nintendo published games receiving free updates are listed here:
Many backwards compatible games on Xbox automatically get upgrades like increased frame rate, higher resolution, and HDR. They don’t charge for these, it’s just a feature.
It remains to be seen whether Nintendo adds enough new value to justify paid upgrades, and we don’t even know how much they’ll cost, but on the face of it it’s a worse value proposition than what the competition has been offering for years.
When you consider that Mario Kart 64 cost $120 in 2025 money, it seems much more reasonable.
Not necessarily. You can’t just say games should cost more because of inflation.
You’d have to take into account the cost to produce the game and the size of the market.
Right, but production cost has also increased steeply. Game scope has increased across the board, every asset is much more detailed (expensive) to produce and every developer is now more expensive than in the 00's.
Ocarina of time reportedly cost ~12 million. Breath of the wild is estimated closer to 120 million, not counting marketing budgets for either.
Now games have gotten more popular but they haven't gotten 10x more popular.
That's a good point, but there are also significantly lower costs for digital downloads compared to a plastic cartridges that have to be shipped.
