I wasn’t very fortunate growing up when it came to gaming-based technology. I was always a generation behind, and I never got games when they were released – I’d wait to get them second-hand further down the line. When I caught up with Abubakar Salim at the BAFTA Games Awards, he echoed that with a similar sentiment – when he was young, it was one or two games a year, tops.
That’s partly why he posted a bold statement on social media when the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 console (and, by association, the games) was revealed a few days ago. He stressed that there was a good reason why he ‘fought’ to get Tales of Kenzera: Zau, the first game from his Surgent Studios, on the market with a $20 price tag.
Check out the full video interview here before jumping in:
‘Why Make it Harder?’
The price of the Nintendo Switch 2 shocked some fans when it was revealed last week – and the price of software left more than a few folks with slack jaws. It’s a world away from the Nintendo Switch and much more than you’d expect to pay for a console that is known far and wide as the family platform.
But don’t worry – Nintendo has advised that if you can’t afford the Switch 2, just opt for the first console that was released back in 2017.
Don’t even get me started about GTA 6 and the $100 base price tag…
As I caught up with Abubakar at the BAFTA Games Awards in London, we got onto the topic of his post on social media and took a trip down memory lane together:
I kind of look back to myself as a kid and what I was allowed to play, and you know, I had like my one or two games that I got a year, right?
I’m now in a position where I’m able to play more, but I think about the kids of today and what they’re able to play and what they have access to, and I think, you know, the reason why we made Zau $20 was because it was like, ‘What’s the price of pizza? What’s the price of something that you’ll get mates around and enjoy and have an experience with’, and that was essentially where that mentality was.
It’s a phenomenal point, and it’s at the forefront of the minds of everyone trying to pre-order a Nintendo Switch 2 as I write this. We’ve already seen the scalpers selling their pre-orders on eBay for exorbitant sums, as if it wasn’t hard enough to get one already.
We then started discussing Nintendo’s position in the wider industry:
People kind of forget that accessibility also accounts to socio-economics – money, man.
We’re in a very tough time at the moment, so why make it harder and have that bar eventually so high?
Yeah, I was a bit upset about the price changes, because Nintendo is a family game, Nintendo is a family genre. It’s a family platform.
Looking to the future and what we dubbed ‘the next generation’, Abubakar explained: “I know that there’s going to be a kid out there that’s going to be inspired to play games and do what I do.”
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