The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is one of Nintendo’s most heavily anticipated games coming out in 2023. As the sequel of one of the highest rated games on the Switch (with IGN giving The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a perfect score), many have been anticipating its May 12th release. However on February 7th, as stated by Distractify, twitter users noticed that the price for Tears of the Kingdom was listed at $69.99 on the Nintendo eShop. This price listing was taken down quickly after being put up, so many speculated that this was a mistake, but it was not. After the Nintendo Direct on February 8th, Nintendo released on their website the official price for the Zelda sequel, which was still listed at $69.99.

According to MakeUseOf, the last time the average price of games jumped like this was in 2005, with the HD era of consoles starting with the Xbox 360. The PlayStation 3 followed suit soon after, as a part of the seventh generation of video game consoles, although Nintendo tried to use this time to undercut the other consoles by keeping their prices at $50. However, by the time the Wii U came out the prices for their games jumped up to match the price of their competitors at $60.

This trend seems to be occurring now as well. According to IGN, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Sony, and Take-Two Interactive have started selling some of their big-name items for $70 as recently as December of 2022, which Nintendo seems to be jumping on quicker than last time. This is the first time a mainline Nintendo exclusive game will be priced at $70, which according to NintendoEverything will only be based on each individual case.

Forbes states that people are mixed in their reactions to this news, with some believing that the sequel to Breath of the Wild being a worthy game to spend the extra $10 on. However, there are others who believe that at the switch’s rendering capacity, the game will not run well enough to warrant matching prices with other companies with more powerful consoles. Whether people are okay with the pricing or put off, with Breath of the Wild selling a collective 27.79 million units as of September 2022 according to Statistica, the popularity and anticipation of the sequel is high, and will only grow as more information is revealed up until its eventual May 12th release date.