Thread by @ZhugeEX

There seems to be a bit of confusion around this tweet. So I'll quickly clarify it by answering some of the questions I got.

A publisher doesn't see all $60 of a game sale.

There is a retailer cut, cost of the disc/cart, platform fees, packaging fees etc...

So companies like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft charge a certain amount for the disc/cart, a platform fee & packaging fees.

What the 1st tweet above is saying is that the cart cost + platform fee + packaging cost is 60% more with a 32GB cart than with 50GB Blu-Ray

Those costs actually add up a lot. I'm not simply talking about a disc cost (which is relatively cheap tbh) like many were thinking.

Platform fees on Sony/MS games is basically the reason why PC games are $10 cheaper.

No publisher pays a platform fee to release on PC.

So in this case the issue is that the cart fee + platform fee + packaging fee for Switch is more expensive with higher capacity carts.

So that's why you're not going to see many games, that use a 32GB cart for example, priced under $40.

Margin is too low.

As above, it only really starts making sense for a publisher when they use 8GB carts or less as they cost similar to PS4/XB1 costs.

Are there publishers who will jack up the price anyway?

Probably.

Should publishers eat the cost?

Sure.

But remember, it's a business

I'm aware there are some games that use <8GB carts that still have that $10 hike.

I imagine that's due to the dev-pub-platform relation.