Because of the shortage, Amazon is selling Pokemon Pokopia for $80. Is GTA 6 at $120 getting closer?

Pokemon Pokopia, released on March 5, 2026, exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2, is one of the biggest hits of early spring. The new entry in the franchise combines catching pocket monsters with a cozy life sim in the spirit of Animal Crossing. Demand for the game in the U.S. turned out to be so high that physical copies quickly sold out at every major retailer. Against the backdrop of the shortage, Amazon raised the price of Pokemon Pokopia to $79.99 — $10 above the suggested retail price. The price hike naturally sparked anger and confusion among players: the relevant Reddit thread collected nearly 800 comments. Especially since the box for Pokemon Pokopia does not contain a full game cartridge, but only a key to download it from the internet.

Many gamers and journalists are convinced that Nintendo is deliberately creating a shortage of physical copies. Combined with the replacement of cartridges by download keys, this looks like part of the company’s strategy to gradually push its audience toward buying exclusively digital versions of games. That way, the platform holder can save on manufacturing and distribution, while most importantly gaining full control over pricing and the secondary market.

Notably, $80 price tags for Nintendo games no longer seem like an anomaly. Back in 2025, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser explained in an interview with The Washington Post that the company would set different prices for its games depending on their scale, replayability, development costs, and so on. The first game from the Japanese company to officially cost $79.99 was Mario Kart World for Switch 2.

Still, Bowser is far from the only executive talking about higher prices: in one way or another, the issue has been raised by the heads of nearly every major publisher. A lot will depend on GTA 6. So far, Take-Two has not revealed how much the game will cost, with company CEO Strauss Zelnick only saying in interviews that the publisher’s goal is to give players “more than what they paid for.” At the same time, speculation that GTA 6 could become the first $100 — or even $120 — game has been around for a long time.

In any case, the Pokemon Pokopia story shows that the market is gradually preparing players for price increases and testing how much they are willing to pay for games.

Meanwhile, Nintendo is suing the U.S. government over tariffs, while the White House, in turn, is using footage from Pokemon Pokopia in political memes.

How much would you be willing to pay for GTA 6?