The console hardware is cheaper to produce vs other consoles, so it’s not like they are losing on the hardware and aiming to make the money back later - they designed the hardware to meet a specific price point, and to capture a certain market.
Having captured that market though (kid owns a switch and now the kid wants games) they can pretty much set the price of games high and keep them high.
As a gamer buying for yourself, with every purchase you are weighing up the cost of the game against how much you personally want to play it. If the price is too much you will choose something else, or wait for a sale.
As a parent buying for a child, however, if the child says “I really want the new Zelda game for my birthday please!” then they get bought the new Zelda game, no matter how much it costs.
It seems silly to target a demographic that buys games rarely if that’s how you expect to make your money with the games and not the console price.
But I don’t work in sales or marketing, so I am probably wrong.
Imagine you could sell $39.99 shovelware to almost every single kid that watches Jimmy Neutron, because you’re gonna drown that show in ads for it.
The child then grinds down the parents’ resolve and the money is eventually spent.
I totally didn’t witness this first hand when sculpting feces into nickelodeon-shaped games.
The console hardware is cheaper to produce vs other consoles, so it’s not like they are losing on the hardware and aiming to make the money back later - they designed the hardware to meet a specific price point, and to capture a certain market.
Having captured that market though (kid owns a switch and now the kid wants games) they can pretty much set the price of games high and keep them high.
As a gamer buying for yourself, with every purchase you are weighing up the cost of the game against how much you personally want to play it. If the price is too much you will choose something else, or wait for a sale.
As a parent buying for a child, however, if the child says “I really want the new Zelda game for my birthday please!” then they get bought the new Zelda game, no matter how much it costs.