Nintendo briefly listed Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for $70 on the eShop

Nintendo briefly listed The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for $69.99 on the US eShop.

As noted by numerous sources including Wario64, the eShop was listing the game for $69.99 for a period of time.

The price is now no longer visible on the eShop page, with only the message ‘releasing in 2023’ visible.

If this is to be the game’s price, it will mark the first time Nintendo has charged more than $59.99 for a standard edition of a digital Switch game.

Best Buy's internal system shows that Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is $69.99 pic.twitter.com/iEINcd6QF4
— Wario64 (@Wario64) February 8, 2023

It would also be notable, considering Nintendo’s president told investors this week that the company had “done our best to maintain both the value and price of hardware and software within our long term business strategy”, and that it does “not believe that any changes to this policy are necessary at this stage”.

Twitter game sales analyst Benji-Sales also noted that GameStop, Best Buy and Amazon have all stopped taking pre-orders for the game. All three stores had been charging $59.99 for pre-orders before they were pulled.

Should the $69.99 price be accurate, it’s not yet clear whether these online stores will honour existing $59.99 pre-orders, though Amazon tends to honour the lowest price a product reaches during its pre-order period.

Nintendo will host its next Nintendo Direct stream later today, which will feature “roughly 40 minutes of information mostly focused on Nintendo Switch games launching in the first half of 2023″.

Tears of the Kingdom is expected to feature in the Direct, but it remains to be seen if Nintendo will announce a price increase for the game during this part of the presentation.

Nintendo published its latest financial results on Tuesday, in which it said fluctuations in foreign exchange markets had contributed to a decline in sales and profits, despite strong sales of Switch games and hardware.

Further reading

1

Images claim to show special Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom OLED Switch

UPDATE: Nintendo has officially announced the special edition Zelda console

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa reportedly said in an earnings briefing that the company does not plan to raise software or game console prices in response to market conditions in Japan, but would consider doing so if circumstances demanded it.

In June 2021, following two years without any meaningful updates, Nintendo released a trailer for the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and announced plans to release the game in 2022.

It was later delayed to Spring 2023, before being given its official title, Tears of the Kingdom, along with a May 12, 2023 release date.