The digital edition is still at the normal price, though
Companies like Microsoft and Nintendo may have flirted with the $80 game over the past few years. Now third-party retailers are experimenting with the higher price point. As spotted by IGN, Amazon is selling Pokémon Pokopia for $80 right now.
That price, for what it’s worth, is for the physical edition only. The digital edition of Pokémon Pokopia is still listed on Amazon for $70, same as it is on the Nintendo eShop. But physical editions of Pokémon Pokopia, which was released March 5 for the Nintendo Switch 2, have been sold out at places like Target and Walmart. The physical edition is clearly in high demand and in limited supply, which I remember learning something about in some econ class a while ago?
Pokémon Pokopia isn’t the first game to be listed at $80. Nintendo listed Mario Kart World, a launch title for the Switch 2, at $80. The Switch 2 edition of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is also listed at $80. (Its predecessor, Breath of the Wild, is $70.) Many analysts believe the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 will be listed at $80 — or higher. Now that the bar has been set, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes the new normal.
But we’re not there yet. Xbox Game Studios initially planned to sell The Outer Worlds 2 for $80, before reversing course amid backlash and reducing the price to $70. Even Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 — the latest entry in one of the consistently highest-selling series in gaming, and one that could easily command a higher price point — was listed at $70. And other Switch exclusives, like Donkey Kong Bananza, have also been sold at $70.
As of this writing, Best Buy and GameStop have physical copies of Pokopia at $70.