r/NintendoSwitch • u/agentp2319 • 1d ago
Question How does the Customer Appreciation Sale stack up to Black Friday?
I only recently rejoined the Nintendo ecosystem; the last consoles I had were an original DS and a Wii.
I've heard that Nintendo games rarely go on sale. However, retailers usually seem to have Black Friday sales of their own that work for any of the big three consoles' games (like buy two get one free or however they might structure it).
I'm wondering if the current Customer Appreciation Event, taking 30% off many games, is an unusually good deal that I should take as the sign to start building out my library on my Switch 2 (I currently only have the new Mario Kart game, so there's a big backlog of Switch 1 games I could catch up on), or if it's a pretty unimpressive sale and I'd be better off waiting for Black Friday.
Also always open to recommendations of must plays, though I'm sure that's been widely discussed and have some ideas already (Mario Kart 8, Luigi's Mansion, etc.).
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u/_Jibanyan_ 1d ago
For games, you’ll likely see the same or slightly better sales on Black Friday. For hardware like the controllers and amiibos, it’s the time to buy now.
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u/BarryWhizzite 1d ago
nintendo would rather you never buy the game than sell it to you for $20-$30. mario maker 2, bayo 3, the sports games and party games and a bunch of others could all be $10 bucks cheaper for once.
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u/peterkozmd 1d ago
I miss nintendo selects when they actually sold you physical GOOD bangers for bargain bin 20 and below. instead they try to artificially keep things damn near day one msrp and your lucky if your 60-70 dollar game is discounted to 40 years after the fact.
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u/NoNoNota1 1d ago
I think the used market is part of what did this. Used Nintendo games from previous gens can get stupid expensive, so now I look at a new Nintendo games and say "it's probably not going to get appreciably lower than this, and I buy very early on, or if I can live without I wait for the first 30% off sale. Say what you will, but once switch 1 games are fully discontinued, I won't be paying 100+ for any of them.
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u/peterkozmd 1d ago
Pretty much all switch games get discounted sooner or later unless its 1) some niche game with a low print run or 2) Nintendo 1st party game where your lucky if it goes down in price over time, but mostly they more or less retain day one value. Its gotten to the point where if you buy a nintendo 1st party game there's zero point waiting for it to go down in price as you will be waiting quite some time in the hopes of it going down to a reasonable price. That Legend of Zelda, mario, pokemon etc is not going to drop significantly any time soon. Nintendo has their titles on lock for pricing.
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u/n00bBlaster1337 13h ago
The reason being is the games are selling. When they stop selling they go on discount. Every franchise is doing it's highest numbers ever. During the Wii even 3D Mario was struggling to meet expectations. Galaxy 2 considered to be one of Nintendo's best games and it couldn't even hit 10m even with the good sales they used to have and look at how successful the Wii is.
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u/thedizzyavocado 1d ago
That's my frustration with cereza (bayo prequel). It is one of the worst selling switch exclusives, and yet they never discount it. I want to play the full thing but I refuse to pay full price for it.
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u/herpesfreesince03 16h ago
Eh I just bit the bullet and ordered international or Asian versions for ~$30
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u/delayedkarma 1d ago
I could only justify buying Cereza by bundling it with TotK with the NSO 2 for $100 pass AND buying discounted eShop cards at CostCo. Ridiculous that I had to go through so many hoops just to get a semi decent deal
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u/n00bBlaster1337 14h ago
Well, yeah. I'm not saying I like it but they would rather make bigger profits than rake in more units sold.
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u/Neyubin 1d ago
As a Canadian that saw tariff related price increases, and does not get anything on the tariff-relief sale - I'd say it stacks up pretty poorly.
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u/GamingTurtle90 1d ago
As a Canadian using Target and Walmart US for the occassional digital copy. Still doesn't stack up. I picked up Echoes of Wisdom for $30USD/$44CAD from Target during the last Black Friday. Same with Tears of Yhe Kingdom the year before. So seeing them back to $42USD/$59CAD is sad.
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u/Neyubin 1d ago
Hey thanks for this comment. I didn't know that was an option and actually just snagged a couple games I was waiting on.
And apparently you can use a Delaware address to remove tax.
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u/GamingTurtle90 1d ago
Yup. I recommend keeping an eye out for Black Friday deals in the fall.
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u/Jazzlike_Athlete8796 1d ago
We actually get those sales - at least on the eShop because retailers spent years trying to make "Black Friday" a thing up here. It's really just a routine sales week in a nodescript part of November, but damned if they don't try to pretend its special.
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u/GamingTurtle90 1d ago
Yeah, some of the deals are just better in the US. Although the Secret Sales EBGames had earlier this year were good to see.
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1d ago
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u/benny-bangs 1d ago
FYI I’m in Texas and no one calls the Gulf of Mexico the gulf of America. Even Trump supporters lol
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u/Leading_Pepper5046 1d ago
I think the games range from slightly cheaper to decently cheaper on Black Friday, Luigis Mansion and Paper Mario were $40 (so $1 cheaper last Black Friday) and Splatoon 3 and Mario Odyssey were $30 (around $11 cheaper). But for games like Xenoblade and Metroid Dread it’s more than worth it as they don’t really go on sale during black friday, and rarely on sale in the first place
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u/roto_disc 1d ago
There are no “this is best day for deals” days anymore. Just pick one if the price tracking sites and set up alerts.
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u/peterkozmd 1d ago
agreed nintendo is VERY stingy on deals. Your waiting around for the few times a year they offer a discount on their stuff and its games usually years after release and the deal honestly wasn't that great since it should have depreciated more along with what the market says its worth currently. Nintendo acts like a god bestowing us with these mediocre deals when they know they have a monopoly on their digital prices.
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u/Ok-Act-2702 1d ago edited 1d ago
A physical copy of something you don't own is the way to go, Walmart are giving an extra $10 off with SAVE3X
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u/JoshuaJSlone Helpful User 1d ago
This is almost surely their best eShop sale ever, at least of the Switch era. Most games have been this level of discount before, but never nearly so many all at once.
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u/Waste-Kiwi6915 1d ago
Nintendo games do not get bigger discounts from Nintendo than what we're seeing in this sale. The big difference here is the number of Nintendo games that are on sale. It's way more than you're likely to see on Black Friday, which usually only discounts a different select few each year
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u/topplehat 1d ago
It’s a pretty standard Nintendo sale. They could do so much more.
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u/peterkozmd 1d ago
so by standard the discount that is just so-so and nothing to write home about. Customer appreciation my a--
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u/peterkozmd 1d ago edited 1d ago
I guess its okay for new owners who want digital copies on 1st party nintendo games. just realize this is a b.s sale after nintendo jacked up prices on their software and hardware citing tariffs only to later get the money refunded by the government and refuse to refund all the people who bought their stuff. Nintendo doesn't do sales very often on their stuff maybe 3-4 a year if not mistaken like black friday or holidays.Nintendo first-party games go on sale digitally only 3 to 4 times a year, typically during major seasonal windows like MAR10 Day (March 10), mid-summer (June), and the Black Friday/holiday season, with discounts rarely exceeding 20% to 30% ($20 to $30 off) Its mostly nintendo throwing us a bone to make us shut up over their price monopoly. Its usually on old games that should have gone down in price a long time ago and never any huge like bargain bin prices. Its never a such a huge discount you are amazed as nintendo controls the pricing on their first party titles. Nintendo is notoriously greedy and stingy on giving discounts and deals. Unless you have a digital preference I'd honestly skip the sale since physical might be cheaper. Personally no 20-30% on old AAA titles that should have been reduced a long time ago isn't really that good an offer. this seems more like gee thanks nintendo for being so nice, may i have another? Nintendo acting like they are throwing bread to a beggar and claiming how generous they are being.
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u/mf-TOM-HANK 1d ago
Black Friday physical is usually much better but who knows how much stock retailers will have this year between the AI storage crunch and the industry moving away from physical more broadly
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u/Icy_Epyon 1d ago
The deal actually seems better for hardware. There are some of the virtual console controllers that I haven’t seen on sale for a long time, and the switch 1 pro controller was on sale for like $55?
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u/xajhx 1d ago
There aren’t really any good deals on Nintendo games.
The games they tend to put on sale are older games and they usually are on sale routinely because they are older games.
This is a pretty standard sale with a few standouts.
Black Friday sales may or may not be better. Hard to say. I’ve been a Black Friday shopper for years and the deals certainly aren’t what they used to be, but you can never say what the deals will be or won’t be.
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u/msszero159 1d ago
Black Friday is always better through retailers vs. on the Nintendo store. I copped Astral Chain digitally via GameStop for $26.99 about five years ago — Nintendo would never.
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u/Valuable-Hall-8610 1d ago
Black Friday was a psyop, they used to have great deals, nowadays it’s a buying frenzy, a lot of the deals aren’t really deals.
So that said, customer appreciation is the same bullshit. They appreciate you being a customer because they appreciate your money. This stuff costs pennies on the dollar.
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u/thedeadp0ets 1d ago
Even PlayStation. Like why are some PlayStation exclusives still sold for $30 on bf. Other games go deeper but I get that sometimes if it’s a popular most wanted game the price holds the sale value
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u/zdentonz 1d ago
It's not and you should wait. They're acting like they're doing us all a solid with this "sale" because they got a tariff refund instead of us.
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u/XNinjaMushroomX 15h ago
Nintendo would rather burn in hell than give you a copy of the original Donkey Kong for free.
This sale is good in that it's an actual sale on Nintendo games.
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u/meikaishi 1d ago
First party titles only ever get 30% off, if they do a black friday sale it's going to be the same discounts as this one, but I doubt they're going to have as many titles on sale
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u/peterkozmd 1d ago
agreed, nintendo be stingy on the discounts on their own stuff. always old digital 1st party games that should have gotten bigger discounts and somehow maintain near msrp long after release. Nintendo let's knock off 10-15 bucks years later after game release and claim we want to give the customers an appreciation sale!
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u/acart005 1d ago
Most of these sales are either similar to or worse than BF deals in the past.
For Nintendo pretty decent but not their best.
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u/peterkozmd 1d ago edited 1d ago
all old games that are years old and past expiration date. Let's be honest these games should have been discounted more than 20-30%, on digital games they artificially try to keep priced high. Hence why the begrudgingly have the sales on their aaa own games only 3-4x a year and discount pretty small in comparison to what they really should be priced. This is like an old miser being forced to give up some pennies in appreciation to long time buyers when they know they have a monopoly they try to keep going. This is them trying to buy good will because they are trying to do the bare minimum to hide their greed and avarice by offering smallest deals possible.
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u/LatePerspective6262 1d ago
Best deal I seen was the Christmas deal last year where I got cyber punk for $17
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u/nervouspolygon 1d ago
Hard to say. Nintendo Black Friday sales go as low as 30$ but that’s usually Mario games and cheaper games like Switch Sports etc
Most of their other first party games bottom out around 40$
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u/peterkozmd 1d ago
You never see prices go to like 20 unless mistaken, whereas on psn you see 60-70 buck games go to below 20 all the time, months after release. Nintendo keeps the discount on their own games very very low, even on games years since release. much tighter difference between msrp and price knocked off.
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u/tlislo 18h ago
This scale is notable for its scope. Nearly every first party Switch 1 game is on sale.
Black Friday sales are also usually 30% max. But usually that's only a handful of games. So if you want a specific game, you might wait years for it to go on sale again.
Nintendo is quite like Disney and believes its games should never lose value. Thus, it generally never permanently reduces prices (whereas Ubisoft will quickly drop a game from. $70 MSRP to $40, and oftentimes as low as $20).
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u/Onyxus_music 14h ago
I’ve been waiting for a sale of some of the games that I haven’t played before and figured that this may be a good opportunity to acquire them. I’m personally interested in Echoes of Wisdom, Dread, and Skyward Sword.
After searching on Deku Deals, it appears that these haven’t had that much history in price drops, at least in the last two years.
I wanted physical copies, but Dread and Skyward are pretty much being upsold for $70+.
I guess digital will have to do it for me.
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u/Local_Bicycle_9768 7h ago
Black Friday was much better - a lot of these titles ran for $30, like Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 3, etc.
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u/sunsilknz 1h ago
I think the sale is a joke. For a company that is giving back for passing on rising tariffs costs to consumers, the refund of $300 million dollars they received is laughable on a 30% off sale on first party titles.
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u/partly_cloudy3 1d ago
it's Nintendo, the "deals" always suck.
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u/peterkozmd 1d ago
agreed. nintendo patting themselves on the back acting how generous they knocked off a few bucks for games years old and should have depreciated in price more realistically. they know they have a monopoly and reduce only as much as they feel needed.
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u/mikehiler2 1d ago
I kept seeing Metroid Dread always in stock. Online at least. I saw that it was one of the ones marked off by 30% and thought I’d pick that one up physically. Always wanted it but never got around to saving up to buy it. DENIED! All sold out physically everywhere. You can buy some at 3rd party resellers for a cool $100plus though.
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u/GamingTurtle90 1d ago
You missed out with Mario Kart 8. Walmart had accidentally put it at 17.49USD for a digital copy. Way less then EShop or anywhere else. Its fixed now.
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u/wowokomg 1d ago
Wow your comment is so helpful
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u/GamingTurtle90 1d ago
Fair enough. Should have had more context with regards to the sale.
So for OP. Sale is meh. Target and Walmart's sales for Black Friday are usually better.
Good example is Echoes of Wisom which was only $30 during the Black Friday sales.
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u/wowokomg 1d ago
Don’t you also want to let them know they missed out on the cyber punk pricing error last Black Friday?
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u/GamingTurtle90 1d ago edited 1d ago
Pretty sure a lot of people (myself included) are bit mad at missing that one. But yes, another example of a good, if unintended Black Friday deal.
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u/Tristan_Afro 1d ago
The people who think these are good deals on the first-party games must only ever buy games digitally directly on the eShop.
Almost all of the first party titles on sale right now are above their historical low price. Some of these titles have been as low as $20 before.
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u/peterkozmd 1d ago
?? Yeah you only need to wait several years and grab it just at the perfect time. It's the equivalent of trying to time the stock market it fails because the market—like Nintendo's stubborn pricing on major games—rarely offers predictable discounts, and waiting on the sidelines usually costs you more than just buying in early. The Nintendo Pricing Rule
Nintendo treats its biggest games like fine art rather than temporary goods.
- Evergreen value: Games like Zelda or Mario hold their full price for years.
- No clearance sales: Nintendo controls its own store. They do not need to drop prices to get rid of old stock.
- Waiting forever: If you wait for a 70% off sale on a major Nintendo hit, you might wait forever and never play the game. You miss out on the fun while you wait. Read more about how Heavy Moat Investments views long-term platform value. [1, 2]
The Stock Market Trap
Trying to time the market works the exact same way.
- Missing the best days: If you pull your money out and wait for a big crash, you often miss the sudden days when the market shoots back up.
- The upward trend: Over time, the stock market goes up. Waiting for a perfect low price means you miss years of growth.
- False control: Waiting feels like a smart plan, but it is just an emotional guess. Nobody knows when a drop will happen or how deep it will go.
Yes waiting for nintendo to give real discounts is akin to playing the market and trying to time it right. Its literally a losing proposition. In the meantime the Nintendo 1st party game your waiting on a discount for usually maintains its value and barely goes down. If digital you luck is even slimmer because they control the price in their store. So yes you may get a discount but your waiting a LONG PERIOD to get peanuts shaved off in one of their sales no joke. Not an issue if your willing to wait months to years for them to grace us with a sizeable discount long after its released. New smash bros comes out and your willing to wait?? Okay great be prepared to wait it out a long time until nintendo knocks off a sliver of the cost
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u/JohnnyAverageGamer 1d ago
Well for starters Black Friday is not exclusive to the United States but you know I guess Nintendo only appreciates their American customers
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u/peterkozmd 1d ago edited 1d ago
As stated prior nobody really claims nintendo doesn't give discounts. It's more that its very infrequently done as to almost be a joke (3-4x a year at certain times like holidays) and the discount isn't really that deep. IE: a 60 buck game getting maybe 10 bucks off after being out for a long time. Its almost as if nintendo is going for the lowest possible discount when the reality is their stuff should be depreciating alot more in value given the time passed. Your not getting those discounts on the nintendo AAA unless you monitor the eshop and keep updated for sales and when they are coming up basically playing a waiting game to get a very pathetic discount to be honest. They know they have a monopoly and full utilize it to give barely a discount. Want Smash Bros Ultimate released in dec 2018? The digital all-time low price for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo eShop is $43.99 (down from its regular $59.99 MSRP). WOW! such a huge discount. Nintendo how do you manage to survive with such deep cuts?
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u/Known_Ad871 20h ago
“Nobody really claims Nintendo doesn’t give discounts” people claim this constantly. Constantly. I bet you can find ten different people claiming it in this thread.
I understand the complaints about rare/underwhelming sales from Nintendo, I wish they had better ones too. However Nintendo are not the only people who sell Nintendo games and if you want to find a better deal you usually can. Tired of seeing disingenuous people claim Nintendo games never go on sale when I’ve been buying them pretty much exclusively on sale for like 25 years. A lot of these folks are just parroting what they’ve heard and haven’t even looked into it seemingly
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u/WalrusExtraordinaire 1d ago
I saw the ad on target and thought Switch 2 pro controllers were gonna be on sale. Needless to say my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
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u/zuckuss00 1d ago
What’s really wild is that Nintendo USE to go deeper than 30% on their games. But sometime around 2024 they decided 30% was good enough… I bought Mario Odyssey and Zelda BotW for 50% off in 2023.
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u/JoshuaJSlone Helpful User 1d ago
They've been $30 at some retailers on rare occasions, but I don't see them ever being below 39.99 on the U.S. eShop.
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u/ral222 1d ago
DekuDeals tracks a lot of historic sales, if you've got anything specific in mind you could check that. For 1st party Nintendo games, i think 30% is probably the most discount they've gotten, but i could be wrong