Nintendo Explains Why Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour Costs $9.99 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 08 April 2025 / 3,051 Views
Nintendo of America Vice President of Product and Player Experience Bill Trinen in an interview with IGN explains why Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour costs $9.99 rather than being a free pack-in title for the Switch 2.
"It's an interesting product," Trinen said. "We're actually getting ready today, we're going to be doing some Nintendo Treehouse Live segments and covering a lot of games in detail. That's one of them. And I think people will be able to see through Treehouse Live probably a little bit more maybe than you were able to see on the show floor. It's a pretty robust piece of software. There's a lot of great detail in there.
“For some people, I think there are people who are particularly interested in the tech and the specs of the system and things like that, for them I think it's going to be a great product. It's really for people that want more information about the system rather than necessarily a quick intro to everything it does.
"And for that reason and just the amount of care and work that the team put into it, I think it was decided that, 'Yeah, this feels like $9.99 is not an exorbitant price. It feels like a good value for what you're getting out of the product.'"
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour will launch alongside the console on June 5.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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This is so insane.
If you want more information about the hardware you've got to pay extra after already paying $450
Hell, that's assuming it even cost 450$ when it comes out, could be more for all we know now.
Its going to be more now.... Trump is going for 104% tariffs against China. I would not be surprised if it ends up at 600-650$.
I had to take a peek at the gameplay video just to be sure... and insane is exactly the right word for this.
One bad thing after another...
This doesn't look good compared to Astro's Playroom or Wii Sports... I mean, I understand that developing this game wasn't for free, but in the end it's a game which promotes your console, Nintendo!
That's a horrible explanation..... lol.
I miss Iwata and Reggie
I have my disagreements with both on some of their handling of Nintendo but yes.
Reggie argued for Wii Sports as a pack-in game in as many regions as possible.
Putting this as a free pack in title adds value to the console at launch, making it a paid game guarantees almost no one will play it.
I think the price of the hardware and games is… understandable. Even the upgrade charge for last gen games, ok whatever.
Charging for Welcome Tour is just taking the piss.
Charging for your tech DEMO software is certainly a decision.
I don't know why anyone would try to charge for what is basically somewhere between marketing material and an introduction.
Translation: 'It cost money to develop, and we think we can get away with charging for it'.
Astros playroom is free, and Nintendo games rarely drop in price, at least in Brazil which is where I live, Nintendo games continue to cost the same amount Breath of the Wild still costs the equivalent of 70 dollars in Brazilian Eshope and Sony games have several promotions, Nintendo is a mercenary company
Not defending Nintendo here...
But Playroom was more of a marketing demo for Astrobot than anything else
I'd hardly consider it a "free full game" when it was like 3 hours at most lol
SQE literally has 10-hour long demos for several of their games available
It was a little game that showed off all the new features of the PS5 Controller. It would be hard for it to just be a marketing demo for the full Astro Bot game when that came out almost 4 years later.
Comparing it to demo's of paid retail games is disingenuous and I don't see the term "free full game" used in the article or anyone elses comment lol.
Welcome Tour should've been included with the Switch 2 like how Astro's Playroom was included with the PS5.
Astro playroom does what welcome tour does not
The least they could do is add a smaller version to show off the new systemfor free
What Nintendo is saying is that the Nintendo of today would have never packed-in Wii Sports. Now they think every last little thing, even if it is something nobody in their right mind would buy by itself (such as Welcome Tour), must have a price tag. Nintendo of 2025 operating in 2006 would have charged $300 for Wii and charged $60 for Wii Sports, and probably would have sold 20 million fewer systems.
“probably would have sold 20 million fewer systems.” gotta disagree with that. Nintendo of today knows how to maintain legs, unlike Nintendo of 2006-2012. Also, for what it’s worth, iirc Nintendo originally had intended to sell Wii Sports separately, but Reggie was a strong force in convincing higher-ups to do the pack-in.
Even 3DS had Face Raiders, AR Cards to mess with, and StreetPass with some little games and collectables in it.
It's wild to me that pack-in games have died out in the industry so much around the 2000s to present (with some exceptions).
Why even make something so basic like this for $9.99? Make something much more ambitious for $19.99-$29.99 or just have it for free.
So the explanation is that the game cost something developing it. If they want to charge consumers for everything that costs something to make, perhaps only make something consumers are willing to pay for. I don't see this as appealing to anybody. Perhaps there are a lot of cool minigames. But I won't hold my breath.
It's not worth it.
I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with charging for this. After all, it costs money to develop.
Whether it was a good marketing strategy is another matter. It's not a good look in the context of everything else.
