Pokémon FireRed And LeafGreen Top Charts Despite $20 Price

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen are getting Switch ports on Friday, February 27. The 22-year-old Game Boy Advance remakes are widely considered the “definitive” editions of the original games thanks to quality-of-life changes and added areas and quest lines. The games aren’t readily available right now, so you’d think this announcement would have been met with universal excitement. But that wasn’t the case, as the $20 ports were deemed too expensive by some. Nevertheless, the games are topping the eShop charts already.

I gotta admit, I do find the pearl clutching about the $20 price tag a bit surprising, but in my experience, it’s impossible to have discussions about video game pricing because everyone’s perception of what a dollar is worth is so different. As the Peak devs explained, video game pricing is all weird, vibes-based psychology that some companies have figured out and others just kind of ignore. 

$20 is what you might pay for a nice meal that you’ll eat and then forget about, and here it gets you a 30+-hour game. But hey, I don’t know your economic situation, so I can’t speak to what $20 in your bank account means. I’m not here to judge anyone’s perception of money, I’m more concerned about how these conversations don’t seem to take that economic disparity into account.

I remember once talking to someone about the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition remasters, and they flatly said the collection’s $60 price point placed it out of their budget…but $50? That could be the sweet spot. A mere $10 could be the difference between them playing some of their favorite games again on modern hardware and not doing so.

FireRed and LeafGreen were $40 when they launched in 2004, but now if they’re anything short of free on Nintendo Switch Online, it’s the type of greed they talk about in the Bible. The irreconcilable way conflicting people talk about video game prices is born from those economic discrepancies, not everyone makes the same money, but also some people will just view any old game that costs money as a ripoff. It’s an unwinnable, unsolvable problem because everyone’s economic background is different, influenced by factors beyond their control, and is all based in a society that is wringing every cent out of all of us at any given moment. But that truth won’t stop the arguments from continuing, with anyone willing to pay $20 for an old game being deemed a shill and anyone unwilling being called poor. Whatever the case, many people are clearly willing to pay $20 to go back to Kanto again.