We now know a price for the Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which acts as a user tutorial for the various new features of the Nintendo Switch 2. According to IGN, the game will cost $10. A representative for Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The console’s specs were mostly unveiled during a Nintendo Treehouse event on April 3. That event also featured the announcement of a new game called Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which acts as a user tutorial for the various new features of the Switch 2. It quickly became controversial, with fans posting online that they thought the game should be free and included with the new console.
Per Nintendo, the game will feature “tech demos, minigames, and quizzes” for players to complete. The primary subject matter is the various new features on the Switch 2, like using the controller as a mouse and the upgraded HD Rumble feature. The game shows off some of the design elements of the Joy-Con controllers. For example, the upgraded HD Rumble feature puts the vibration motors “close to where your hands are holding the controllers” to intensify the vibrations. The minigames award medals, which are then used to access new parts of the game until the player has completed everything.
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Nintendo of America’s Vice President of Product and Player Experience, Bill Trinen, told IGN that there’s enough content in the Welcome Tour to justify the $10 price.
“I think it’s going to be a great product,” he said. It’s really for people that want more information about the system rather than necessarily a quick intro to everything it does. And for that reason and just the amount of care and work that the team put into it, I think it was decided that, ‘Yeah, this feels like $9.99 is not an exorbitant price. It feels like a good value for what you’re getting out of the product.’ “
Should a tutorial game cost money?
Fans have already been criticizing the gaming giant for the prices of its release titles. Mario Kart World is set to go on sale for $80 around the same time the Switch 2 is launched, making it one of the most expensive games Nintendo has ever released.
The fact that the tutorial game doesn’t come included with the console — as was the case with Astro’s Playroom on the PlayStation 5 — displeased many Nintendo fans, who had something to say about it.
“That’s definitely a…choice? Not sure I understand the idea of making it paid when it should be a built-in app in every system,” Reddit user Rudy69 said.
“The audacity to make a game that helps you learn about the Nintendo Switch 2 and make it PAID,” argued X user CanadianZar. “No one is buying this game. Hell… Astro’s Playroom walks all over this and IT WAS FREE.”
Other people expressed interest in learning about the new controls but don’t want to shell out for the tutorial. Instead, their plan is to wait for gaming YouTubers to post Let’s Play videos about the game and watch it from there.
Read more: I Played the Nintendo Switch 2: Is It Worth It?
Just because people complain doesn’t mean that the game won’t sell well. Per Guide Strats, Breath of the Wild had a huge number of complaints on social media. The game would go on to outsell its own console when it and the original Nintendo Switch launched together in March 2017.
The game is set to launch on June 5, the same day as the Nintendo Switch 2 console. Preorders for the console have been delayed due to the new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, but the launch date is unchanged.