The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Will Be Worth Its $70 Price Tag, Nintendo President Says

The next big Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, is a first for Nintendo as it’ll be launching with a $70 price tag instead of the usual $60 that the company’s first-party titles sell for. In a new interview, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser explained that the sequel to 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will justify the increase when fans discover how “immersive” the game is.

“We look at what the game has to offer,” Bowser told the Associated Press (via VGC). “I think fans will find this is an incredibly full, deeply immersive experience. The price point reflects the type of experience that fans can expect when it comes to playing this particular game. It’s actually a fairly common pricing model either here or in Europe or other parts of the world, where the pricing may vary depending on the game itself.”

$70 first-party games won’t be the new standard for Nintendo going forward. After the decision was made to price Tears of the Kingdom at $70, a spokesperson added that the company will examine the retail price of its titles on a “case-by-case” basis.

Nintendo follows Sony and Microsoft in the $70 first-party game space, as Sony began pricing PS5 games at $70 when its new console launched and Microsoft says that the higher price for Redfall and Starfield reflects the “content, scale, and technical complexity” of these titles.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches on May 12 for Nintendo Switch and preorders are now live. The game could wind up costing you more than $70, as a $130 Collector’s Edition and a new Link Amiibo will launch alongside the game itself and post-launch DLC is reportedly in development.