I had wondered if the Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers would apply to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom when they were rolled out of retirement last week. It turns out they do, and with it being Nintendo’s first $70 game, the timing couldn’t be better.
Nintendo accidently revealed Zelda’s new price point last night and quickly deleted it from its website. Some wondered if it was a glitch or data entry error, but then pre-order pages for Tears of the Kingdom started disappearing all over the internet. Some players rushed to order the game while it was still priced at $60. Today that’s no longer an option, but the Switch Vouchers provide one almost-as-good alternative.
Nintendo’s voucher program lets you give Nintendo $100 in exchange for two vouchers, each of which you can redeem for a game from a specific list. That list now includes Tear of the Kingdom, meaning you can effectively get one of the most anticipated games of 2023 for just $40 if you’re willing to effectively buy another game at full price.
The list of qualifying games includes lots of old stuff that’s frequently on sale, but also plenty of more recent hits like Splatoon 3, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Splatoon 3, and Fire Emblem Engage. What was a maximum savings of $20 is now $30 with Tears of the Kingdom in the mix. The vouchers last up to 12 months, though it’s not exactly clear when Nintendo will stop selling them.
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Alternatively, you could just pay the full $70 price. If any game is worth that much, and maybe even more, it could well be the sequel to Breath of the Wild, 2017’s game of the year and easily one of the best of the last decade.
