Elden Ring on Nintendo Switch 2 will set you back $80, and the bad news doesn’t stop there
We’ve been waiting for Elden Ring’s Nintendo Switch 2 edition for a long time over here at Pocket Tactics, and while there still isn’t yet a release date, more details are emerging now that pre-orders are opening up. The price and format of the game are now clearly available, and unfortunately, it’s not good news. Not only will the game cost a whopping $80, but it will also only be available via the controversial game-key card.
While many had guessed that Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition would be available by game-key card only, it’s still a blow to those of us who like to possess games fully in their physical formats. We know why this is happening, thanks to the insights of other game developers, like Ubisoft dev Rob Bantin, who, as quoted in our piece on the Nintendo Switch Star Wars: Outlaws version, said that game-key cards allow for higher quality and speeds.
What’s more, because of the rising costs of hardware, physical gaming feels premium now. For 80 bucks, we’d hope for a premium experience. Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition does come with more content than just the base game, including the game’s DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, but we’re not sure if that really justifies an $80 price tag for a game that’s now four years old.
Personally, I think it would have been more appropriate to release a cheaper version consisting of just the base game alongside the Tarnished Edition – as we know, gaming costs are rising, and to make it more accessible, a standard Steam-price-matched $60 version would have been welcomed. Instead, Switch 2 gamers are forced to purchase the DLC if they want to play the base game.
Hopefully, the game looks good and plays well enough to justify the move to a game-key card, but we won’t know yet. Let’s just start by getting an Elden Ring Switch release date first. In the meantime, pre-order the game now, or, since Elden Ring is an absolute banger of a Steam Deck game, you can always pick it up there instead.
