Is it smart for Nintendo to sit out Black Friday?

I’ve been following the black Friday news and have noticed Nintendo is not discounting the Switch. I am a little surprised by this move considering it has now been in the market for roughly 20 months. This is interesting and makes me wonder about their strategy. Is it still just so successful that they don’t feel there is a need to discount at this point? Is it still too expensive to manufacture and distribute at a reduced cost? Are they just being arrogant? Is this a smart move? Does the Switch have the same staying power as Xbox or PS?

I never jumped on the Switch. We did the Wii thing. It was a decent “console” for the kids at the time. I can’t help but remember just how quickly it seemed to fade. Remembering that, and accounting for the fact that our family gaming needs have changed as the kids have gotten older, I felt $300 was just too high for us. I like the idea of the Switch and I like low learning curve family games (think Asteroids or Mario Bros), something I feel is lacking a bit from Xbox and PS. But I guess I’ll wait another year and see where the price, device popularity, and family interest is. $300 is still not the right price for us.

Conversation 12 comments

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    21 November, 2018 - 7:46 am

    <p>Or is Black Friday not what it used to be?</p><p>In Europe, Black Friday became a sort of thing about 15 years ago, although most people don't rush out to the stores before they open. But when you look at the "deals", most of them are pretty poor or there is one deal that is genuine to get people into the store, but everything else is pretty much normal priced.</p><p>There was a study of electronics goods sold in Germany last year; most goods were generally cheaper 1 month before Black Friday than they were on the day, just the prices rose a week before, so it looked like a deal on the day, then they sank back to around the "normal" price on Black Friday – and in many cases, especially with phones and tablets, everything was much cheaper 2 months after Black Friday.</p><p>Given this sort of experience, most people interviewed said they weren't really interested in Black Friday and certainly won't be making their way to stores to hunt for bargains.</p><p>I've certainly never been out to a store for Black Friday. And I think I spent a grand total of 5 minutes looking at Amazon's Cyber Monday week… Most of the really cheap stuff is junk I wouldn't touch with a barge pole and the rest isn't discounted enough to make me jump.</p>

    • jwpear

      Premium Member
      21 November, 2018 - 8:15 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#370557">In reply to wright_is:</a></em></blockquote><p>Agree, it's not. I've noticed this personally. Amazon used to have great Black Friday deals 10 or 15 years ago. I can't really remember anything notable recently.</p><p><br></p><p>I've never been one to go out for Black Friday deals. It's never been worth it to me. I am fortunate to be able to skip that. I understand some may not be able to. I will take a quick glance at what's being offered online and grab things I feel are reasonably priced based on what I've seen leading up to that point.</p><p><br></p><p>I've had my eye on the Xbox One X for a while, but $499 was just too much in my mind, especially considering we already have the One S. But the $399 price is getting more interesting and we have a store in the US that's also offering $120 in-store "cash" on top of that price. That makes it a lot more interesting than it has been. I'm still not willing to go to the store for it, but I will try to purchase online.</p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">I've had pretty good success with throwing things in my Amazon cart and leaving it. That's one of the things I love about shopping at Amazon.&nbsp; I'll watch an item for months, and occassionally up to a year, before I make a purchase.&nbsp; Refriderator water filters and printer ink are consumable examples.&nbsp; I've been in the market for a 4K monitor to replace my 10 year old Dell LCD, so I've had a few sitting in my cart for quite a while. I certainly don't need that right away, so I have time to see how the prices fluctuate and get a feel for the typical sale price.</span></p><p><br></p>

  • Paul Thurrott

    Premium Member
    21 November, 2018 - 8:03 am

    <p>I'm kind of surprised by this as well. But it's possible that retailers might do their own Switch-related deals, I suppose.</p>

    • jwpear

      Premium Member
      21 November, 2018 - 8:23 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#370561">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>I've seen a few that are offering a bundle of a game or a in-store gift card. Surprisingly, those deals are still not as good as the PS and Xbox deals. Understandable, I guess. The Switch hasn't been out as long and seems to be selling well.</p>

    • Bdsrev

      21 November, 2018 - 7:05 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#370561">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Paul if you haven't bought a Switch yet, you've made a mistake. I'm not a huge Nintendo fan but it's just awesome, Your kids will probably take it from you though</p>

  • Bats

    21 November, 2018 - 9:37 am

    <p>Are you only looking to buy from Nintendo directly?</p>

    • jwpear

      Premium Member
      21 November, 2018 - 6:26 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#370642">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p>Not particularly, no. I have thought about ebay or some other used channel. I'm not opposed to that.</p>

  • Polycrastinator

    21 November, 2018 - 9:53 am

    <p>I've seen the Switch discounted to $260, which is not a lot, but it's something, and bundles seem to be getting discounts. They're not <em>big</em> discounts, but Nintendo has always been resistant to reducing prices even on years old games.</p><p>YMMV of course, but my Switch has been one of my favorate tech purchases of the last year, in large part because as well as playing on the big screen, I can just stick it in my bag and keep going or play during my lunchbreak. That, and for my money, Splatoon 2 is one of the best – or at least most fun – multiplayer shooters ever.</p>

    • jwpear

      Premium Member
      21 November, 2018 - 6:23 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#370650">In reply to Polycrastinator:</a></em></blockquote><p>It seems like it could be fun and I really like the idea of its portability/dual modes. I had envisioned it being something we'd take on family trips to play together when we have down time.</p><p><br></p><p>$300 isn't absurd. I'm just not sure we'd get $300 of use out of it with my kids getting older. My son very much prefers first person shooter games on our Xbox. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">He's far more into it than I am though.&nbsp; </span>We play some games together on Xbox. My wife and daughter have no interest in Xbox at all because they feel Xbox games are just too difficult to learn. Mario on the Wii was perfect for them because they could join in at any time without too much to learn.</p><p><br></p><p>I'll keep an eye on it. Appreciate the insight.</p>

  • Daekar

    21 November, 2018 - 12:12 pm

    <p>I wasn't sold on the Switch until I was given one, and then my opinion changed to "Wow… this was totally worth $300, I just didn't know it." If they release an updated version next year with better screen and battery life, I will buy it even though there is nothing wrong with my current one.</p><p><br></p><p>The game library has been a delight after getting burned out on all the dark, angst-filled, hyper-realistic stuff on the other consoles and PC. </p>

    • jwpear

      Premium Member
      21 November, 2018 - 6:27 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#370755">In reply to Daekar:</a></em></blockquote><p>That's good to know. Thanks for this.</p>

  • Bdsrev

    21 November, 2018 - 7:04 pm

    <p>There's a good chance the Switch might be selling out in some areas during Black Friday/Cyber Monday week. I know 3 people that bought a Switch because of its ability to actually play Fornite on the go (the phone versions of Fornite are a joke, they use on screen controls). There's also a new Pokémon game and new Smash bros, too. If they lowered the price of the Switch, they would sell out too early. They still might sell out even at the full price but we'll have to wait and see if they made a mistake by not lowering the price. </p>

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