The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom price hike leaked on the eShop

Seems like both Link and the game's price soar upwards

A listing on the Nintendo Switch eShop, which was quickly taken down, seems to indicate that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom might cost more than most titles for the console.

Noticed by Twitter user Wario64, the price for Tears of the Kingdom, which had previously been blank, was updated to $69.99. However, Nintendo quickly reversed the shop update, so it seems like the listing came a bit prematurely. The Nintendo Direct show on February 8, 2023, is likely going to be the stage for the official price announcement.

Preorders for the game at retailers like Amazon and GameStop were hitherto listed for $59.99, but have now been taken down, which indicates that the price hike may well be correct.

If the leak turns out to be right, Tears of the Kingdom will cost around $10 more than most of the Nintendo Switch’s other big games – in fact, Nintendo has not sold a game for more than $60 in the US since the days of the GameCube.

Tears of the Kingdom is the highly anticipated sequel to 2017’s critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The game was first announced at E3 in 2021, and has since been given a release date of May 21, 2023.

In recent years, many PS5 games have also been sold for around $70, so it’s possible that Nintendo feels confident it can command a similar price for top titles – which might well be true, considering the hype behind Tears of the Kingdom.

While fans are obviously unhappy with this potential price increase, they are especially concerned about the general lack of discounts for Nintendo games after their release – while titles on other platforms may cost $70 as well, they are regularly offered at discounted prices during special sales. This is a very rare occurrence for Switch titles, though, which are often sold at their original price for the entirety of their lifespan.

Nintendo has not yet made a statement on the commotion, but with the Nintendo Direct coming up in a few hours anyways, any open questions will probably be answered there and then.