Mobile gaming is cheaper than console gaming, but that’s not the whole story. I recently bought a Nintendo Switch 2, and I’m spending around the same price for games on the eShop as I have on Android. What’s going on here?
Mobile Games Do Have a Lower Sticker Price
Mobile games tend to have a lower price than console games, even if you’re paying for the same game. I discovered Morphite in the Play Store, where it goes for $8. On the Nintendo eShop, the game costs $15. I’m not picking on Nintendo here. The eShop price tends to match the Steam price. Morphite costs $15 for PCs as well.
That’s just one game, sure, but the story is the same whether you’re looking at Coromon (Play Store, eShop, Steam), The Wreck (Play Store, eShop, Steam), or Dead Cells (Play Store, eShop, Steam).
It’s a well-known tale by now—most people aren’t willing to spend a high upfront price on a mobile game, which is what has led to the free-to-play model and rampant in-app purchases. Even when a game is a mobile-exclusive premium title that wouldn’t look out of place on consoles, like Ex Astris, it still often only costs $10.
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Games like SaGa Emerald Beyond, which hit the Play Store at $50 (but is now $25), are pretty rare.
But Digital Console and PC Games Regularly Go on Sale
Sticker prices rarely tell the whole story. I know this. I’m writing these words on a Galaxy Z Fold 6, which those in the know think of as a $2000 phone. I paid half that—for a 512GB model in mint condition. Foldables don’t hold their value that well, and they quickly go for close to half their value in open box and used “like new” deals.
Like with a foldable phone, the sticker prices in console and PC game marketplaces are just suggestions. Most games eventually go on sale. When they do, those games that are available across consoles, PC, and mobile tend to drop to similar prices. In my first month of owning a Switch 2, I’ve bought around two dozen indie games off the eShop. Most have cost me under five dollars.
Consider the first games I bought from the mobile Epic Games Store. I decided I wanted to play the Switch versions of those same titles. I snagged Figment 1 & 2 as a bundle on sale on the eShop for $2.37, beating by one cent the sale price of $1.19 I originally bought each one for on Android.
I bought The Forest Quartet on sale for $1 on the Switch. I paid $6 for the Android port, which I got at full price. That means, thanks to sales, I actually paid less to own these games on my Switch 2 than on my phone!
It’s AA and AAA Games That Cost More
Whether you’re shopping in the Play Store, for consoles, or on PC, you can snag indie games for just a few bucks if you’re patient. It’s the games that don’t make their way to mobile that typically cost more. These are the AA and AAA titles that most people think of when they picture gaming on a PlayStation 5 and a custom-built desktop gaming rig. Stardew Valley may be avilable for all these platforms, but that’s not what people drop hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars to be able to play.
My Switch 2 came with Mario Kart World. That’s an $80 game, a price many of us have already balked at. My favorite Switch 2 game at the moment, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, cost $40. I’m excited for Donkey Kong Banaza, which will cost $70. These three games alone will have cost me more than the dozens of Android games I own. It’s that math that originally made me view mobile gaming as cheaper.
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The reality is somewhere in between.
It’s Not Where You Play, But What You Play That Saves Money
I didn’t miss out on AA and AAA as a mobile gamer. I bought those for PC and streamed them via NVIDIA GeForce NOW. I bought Life Is Strange: Double Exposure shortly after launch, not bothering to wait for a sale. That cost me $50. Lost Records: Bloom & Rage cost me another $40. There was the amount I spent on mobile games, most of which were smaller cross-platform titles, and then there was the money I spent on PC releases that I would stream.
Now I spend roughly the same amount of money on a similar proportion of games, just on one console where I currently do most of my gaming. For every Metroid Prime 4, I will have snagged a half-dozen games like The Last Campfire, Planet of Lana, and Far: Lone Sails when they’re on sale.
I’ve bought so much this month because my last console was the Wii U, and I have ten years of back catalog calling my name. That excitement will taper back down, and when it does, I’ll continue to snag games like Dros on the eShop for $3.
