Elden Ring Switch 2 Launches August 28 With $80 Price Tag Including Shadow of the Erdtree

FromSoftware's beloved RPG Elden Ring arrives on Switch 2 on August 28th bundled with Shadow of the Erdtree, but Bandai Namco's $80 price tag is already drawing criticism.

Elden Ring on the Switch 2 now has an official release date, and you can mark August 28th on your calendar. This has been a long time coming, especially given the early concerns around frame rate performance that surrounded the port from the start. Those concerns were serious enough that the release got delayed to give the developers time to address them, and that was the right move.

This game is far too good to be rushed out in a poor state, and most people would rather wait and get a version that actually runs well than have it land broken on day one. Now that the date is confirmed, there is still plenty being talked about surrounding this release, and it has everything to do with the price. Bandai Namco is charging $80 for Elden Ring on the Switch 2, and that number has already caused a lot of frustration.

This is a game that has been out since 2022, and asking people to pay $80 for it is a difficult ask by any measure. The reasoning behind that price is that the package includes Shadow of the Erdtree alongside the base game. But even if you look at it as $60 for just the base game, you are still talking about a four-year-old title that has gone on sale multiple times.

And that makes the pricing feel like a poor decision, particularly when this is meant to be an introduction to a whole new audience. 

There is a direct comparison worth making here, and it does not reflect well on Bandai Namco. Square Enix brought both Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth to the Switch 2, and they handled the pricing the right way. Remake came in at $40 and Rebirth at $50, and on top of that, both games look great on the hardware. 

Square Enix does not get credit for smart decision-making very often, but with those two releases they got it right; great ports at fair prices. Bandai Namco, on the other hand, is charging $80 for Elden Ring on the Switch 2, and that gap is hard to ignore when you put the two approaches side by side. 

Nintendo fans are not exactly known for their third-party support to begin with, and asking a brand new audience to pay that much for a game this old is not a great way to bring people into your world. The expectation is that it is going to go on sale fairly quickly, because at that price point, it is hard to see this performing the way Bandai Namco is hoping it will.