Mario Tennis retailing for $49.99 when Rocket League was only $19.99

Mario Tennis offers so much less in content for more than double the price. Rocket League gave us exhibition mode, split screen co op, online partying, chat options, as well as many courses and tweaks/customizations for your vehicle. I'm not going into super detail because most of you already probably know what the game is and what it offered for a decently competitive price.

But Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash for 50 bucks? How? HOW? You have 12 characters to start off with and 4 to unlock (much smaller roster than Mario Power Tennis), only 4 game modes, 3 course options to choose from, and 25 "medals" to unlock. It's unbelievable this game is on disc at retail.

But wait, there's more. The online is not only laggy and barebones, but they've gone one step back than they normally do. I played a few singles matches, which was okay besides the lag. The options here are okay for what the game is offering (match type, play type, etc). Then, I wanted to do doubles. So, okay. I click doubles and wonder how long it's going to take to be paired with a partner and then find our opponents. WRONG.

You can only play doubles online if you have someone sitting next to you on the couch. There's no online pairing. Or wait, yes, you can buy an Amiibo (which I own none, so theoretically let' say I buy this game for 50 bucks (I rented it) and then buy an Amiibo for another 10 or whatever it is they cost, you're looking at a full priced title here) that will play alongside you. WTF. How is this possible? Doubles ONLINE is only exclusive to people playing LOCALLY?

I rest my case with Nintendo games. Zelda U is my last hope for them.

Nintendo sucks.

I prefer Mario Tennis over Rocket League, even though it costs triple what how it should be priced.

Why do you compare both game?

Next step: comparing full 70$ releases with free games.

@MonsieurX: Because they're both recent sports titles that offer less content than what we would usually expect or say we will expect from a full priced title. The comparison comes from the price of Mario Tennis, and how it offers a smaller content base than a similar title that retailed digitally for way, way less.

this is pretty common on PC, eg. R6 Siege will have less content than Insurgency or CS:GO despite costing four times as much.

or, Evolve vs. Natural Selection 2

Major publishers just charge more for their games regardless of whether they are worth the money. Because they can. I suspect in many cases (Evolve for example) the high cost ultimately hurts sales and cripples the game's ability to foster a decent community.

I think for multiplayer only games, the smart move is to reduce the cost so that the game develops a larger playerbase who will be willing to spend money on expansions.

Yeah the game is a cash grab, you shouldnt have bought it.

@with_teeth26: true, but I don't think Mario Tennis was expected to have the same impact as a big multiplayer game.

Shoot, even giving away Rocket League for free has not helped that game. Its sad. They should drop Rocket League to $9.99.

Would help it sell more maybe, or maybe not. Maybe just make it f2p and just bank off all the microtranactions it has.

What the **** are you talking about?

Rocket League has over six million units sold.

Muahahahaha! You complete me Jayson.

this is something nintendo will have to look at i think.

charging full whack for a 3d mario platformer, xenoblade or zelda wiiu? yea fair enough. they are big games. hell even something like animal crossing i can accept the price because its a game that will last a long long time.

charging full whack for starfox? no. im not paying it..simple as. even if it is good at what it does its not a 50 quid game...it just isn't. you can clear it quickly and all thats left afterwards is high scores. thats a 20-30 quid game. mabe starfox u will be more fleshed out, i dont know. but if its like lylat wars or starwing then no. im not paying 50...simple as.

i didn't buy captain toad for the same reason. its not worth its current asking price. i would prefer half the price for half the game to be honest. its a puzzle game....you cant charge 50 quid for a puzzle game. i can find better elsewhere.

even mario kart is pushing it now. if its 50 quid and its as big as MK8 and all its expansions currently then ok. they are very re playable and good fun. but 50 quid (the next one could be more expensive again) for 32 tracks and a few modes...thats starting to grate.nintendo will have to looks at the prices of some of their content. i mean if starfox zero is like 64 and its 50 quid then nintendo are sending it out to die frankly. 29.99 is "ah sure ill take a punt" territory and thats a better place to have starfox right now imho.

@osan0: Both Star Fox Zero and Mario Tennis are long lasting games with high replayability. Plus they support online modes for them, online is not free mate, even though Nintendo gives it to us for free.

Captain Toad is well worth the $39.99 asking price, i think your entitlement is showing here. Nobody owes you shat mate. Mario Kart 8 not worth $59.99?

Another Nintendo game I'd love to play but just not at that price, and probably never will as Nintendo doesn't drop prices.

@lamprey263: True, ill wait for the price drop. Im playing too many multiplayer games right now. Plus i got Xenoblade Chronicles X waiting, will be quite busy. Its good for those who want a multiplayer Tennis game vs the world though.

rocket league was a gem this generation. a great indie game. too bad the lack of content and launch issues were there. still well worth 20 bucks, i got it free on PSN+ but haven't played it in months. was fun to play around with though for like a month then it became stale

@lamprey263: too high of a price, too little content.

but Nintendo doesn't drop prices on games :'(

except if they ever finish the Wii U's run with a number of "Nintendo Select" titles that retail for $20, I hope this is one of them

Nintendo has no control on prices. Its retailers who are in charge of dropping prices. And i have only bought one game at retail price so far for Wii U. And that was Splatoon. Im not even paying retail price for Xenoblade Chronicles, im using my 20% Best Buy gamers card.

i'm getting Mario tennis for Christmas.

Yeah this isn't new. Average Nintendo sidescrollers go for 50 euro while Super Meat Boy was on sale for 5 to 10 also.

So long as folks keep buying them, Ninty won't change. Can't really help but admire that they manage to sell an inferior product for 10 times the price.

@locopatho: Bro, i thought you were a programmer, and yet your comparing Super Meat Boy with Yoshi Woolly World? Is you cray cray?

I heard the core tennis is excellent. But I guess people always have to complain about something.

Yes the clear solution is that Rocket League must come to WiiU.

I had a feeling it'd be half-assed.

Yeah, why would people even complain about lack of content? I hope the next Mario Galaxy only has one level so they can completely focus on the great core gameplay.

lol mario games

That's the worst comparison.

Eh, this certainly isn't the first time a game with less content sold for more than one with less one content, and this isn't exactly a Nintendo-exclusive issue. There's probably many games that offer more content for a smaller price than The Order for example.

That being said I do agree that it'd be nice if game prices could actually reflect the amount of content a game has, and not just be like "whelp, every other game goes for this $60, let's make it 60$." Maybe sometimes a game should be priced a bit lower if the game isn't exactly bursting with content. Hell, maybe a game should cost a bit more if it actually does offer quite alot to do and has alot of replay value. Honestly I'm someone that isn't against FE fates pricing model, since to me the idea of getting the equivalent of 3 FE games for the price of 80$ sounds like a damn good deal to me.

@jcrame10: Rocket League is just a souped-up Monster Truck Madness party mode.

It would be fine if it was a quality game like the ones on N64 and GC but the new one supposedly sucks ass.

Which is genius when you think about it.

There's a certain amount of overhead allowed, games drop price at retail when retailers negotiate drops with publishers which usually comes in the form of a partial refund for the retailers remaining inventory, this is also why when one store has something on sale it's been negotiated with publishers too to allow for partial refund to retailer on sale items to drop price, so they're not taking a loss when they have deals, and when one retailer does this the other retailers are given same benefits (hence why big stores price match and even do so on sales, because they can get that partial refund later depending on how many price matches they did). This is also why they have a policy to price match only major retailers with a direct distribution line with the publishers versus third party like internet retailers (because in some cases stores are supposed to destroy inventory if they get a refund from publisher but much of the time that just ends up making it to Amazon and Ebay, because what $9/hour peon is going to be told to destroy 100 games out back on the honor system without succumbing to temptation? Anyhow, Nintendo isn't flexible like other publishers, they have a very Disney approach in how they publish (and not saying that because they have that same wholesome family appeal thing going), Nintendo specifically avoids over-saturating their market forcing price drops on their home media to keep everything at a premium price, refuses to go discount crazy on content, so they can continue to push expensive products of their classic titles. Nintendo is very much in a similar position in doing this.

Even Amazon who does a great job dropping prices doesn't get much Nintendo published stuff at a discount. Even the oldest Wii U games still go for near full price there because they don't have this kind of flexibility with publishers.

This is why games like DK Tropic Freeze still go for $50.

@lamprey263: Its a tricky business buy sales work as bundles, retailers order and buy a certain amount of games from Nintendo, they then have so much room to adjust pricing. There is not price adjustments, if a retailer wants to match or discount a game thats on them, Nintendo will not refund them any money. This is why some games cant get price drops or refunds. Example would be The Metroid Other M situation.

That game was hyped big among gamers, so retailers bought super large amounts of the game. But what happened was unexpected, Metroid Other M could not sell and the price could not be dropped. Sure, they would have loved to drop that price super low to move all them copies, but they couldnt and Nintendo would not give refund, the deal was done. The price it would take to get them out the store would bring them a lost, so what do they do? Just keep it on the shelve and hope for the best, keep price high to make it worth while.

Only reason retailers price drop games is for two reasons, one, to get it out of the store and put a better seller in its place, or two, to sell more copies so they can order a new set of copies from Nintendo for a good deal.

@Bread_or_Decide: it's really not though, many games get flack for having lack of content. Why should a Nintendo game be treated differently

@mesome713: ha, that explains why I still see Metroid Other M still listed as $50 at Target and Walmart

yeah, when a retailer wants to cut it's losses and liquidates their inventory, they can choose whatever price they want

Do not buy Mario Tennis at that price.

Another month goes by, another long drought with no games of any great note for the "best ever console with the greatest library full of hidden gems".

Here we have another lacklustre game completely lacking in features. Nothing new. There is absolutely nothing to it that hasn't been done a million times before and the pad is once again unnecessary. More calamity.

And it's selling.

@foxhound_fox: I went to two stores and it was sold out on day 1, but i couldnt see how many copies. Have you seen it selling yet? I was guessing Nintendo didnt stock too many.

Mario tennis or Rocket league ? Oooo, that's a tough one, nah it's not, Mario Tennis without thinking too much.

I was in EB Games two days ago and someone was buying a copy.

Nintendo games are usually like that, you can always find comparable games with the same content or more but will be cheaper.

I actually got Rocket League free on ps plus.

Strange how manny Tennis games came out last gen, with minigames, character creation and other stuff - no one cared - but when Nintendo makes one - it's a subject to all...

@NathanDrakeSwag: The game itself was fine, the problem is that the content is barely bone marrow thin. Everyone and their mother is giving shit to Nintendo for charging 50 bucks for a game that you could fully unlock content in half an hour.

I'm sorry, but the game frankly isn't worth 50 bucks. Free DLC to address it would be nice to reward the fans who did buy it at full price.

If Rocket League's developer had as much invested in their property, had as much brand power, had as much cultural significance, they'd be charging that too, and they be very happy to.

Yup, they really fucked us Mario Tennis fans in the ass with this one. Very sad, it's a really really fun series. But when the fucking GBA game from 2005 has shitloads of more content than a console game in 2015, something is terribly wrong, and I'll sure as hell not support it.

When I bought two brand new copies of the game it was priced by Best Buy at $4.99. I can not believe the chain would drop it so low and lose a great deal of money w/o some type of compensation by Nintendo.

@Solaryellow: Thats a used price mate, you can buy it for $8.99 at Gamestop right now. Can get it cheap used bout anywhere cause its resell value is so low.