Full Games on the eShop

Nintendo has started offering more full retail games on the eShop. On Thursday, they added Ocarina of Time 3D, Super Mario 3D Land, Star Fox 64 3D and Mario Kart 7 to their eShop offerings. They're all being sold for $39.99 apiece.

I'm not sure this pricing is going to work. I would absolutely love to have these games installed on my 3DS so that I could change between them without having to change out cartridges, but that's kind of pricey.

I know that this is what they're selling these games for via regular retail channels, but let's be real: The additional packaging, fabrication and shipping of the games adds extra overhead, which pushes the price higher. For the eShop, the only cost that Nintendo needs to pay is the server infrastructure, which is considerably less than physical shipping. For that reason, Nintendo should sell these games for far less on the eShop than in stores.

Now, I know this is coming from the guy who bought New Super Mario Bros. 2 via the eShop, but I really, really hope that Nintendo does something about those prices. It would be nice if they followed in the footsteps of Steam and do some specials deals during the holiday season, for example.

That, however, could be a double-edged sword. For example, I don't buy many games from services like Steam or GOG without them actually being on sale. I can't bring myself to pay full price for something I know that they're going to drop the price on.

Still, it would be nice if Nintendo would throw eShop users a bone. I know they want to move a large portion of their users to digital distribution. Lowering the prices would be a nice way to start.