Thursday, May 8th 2025
Nintendo Will Contemplate Switch 2 Price Hikes - Dependent on Shifts in Tariff Conditions
Nintendo's Switch 2 hybrid console is set to arrive early next month (June 5), complete with promised launch prices. Early last month, the company's basic cost of entry for next-gen access—$450 (US)—seemed to be on tenuous ground. Nintendo and its retail partners decided to postpone their opening of pre-orders—affecting excited customers in the United States, then (days later) in Canada. Thanks to political posturing, a number of big industry players had to restrategize. Late last week, Microsoft announced their implementation of global Xbox Series price increases. In April, Sony revealed similar changes for PlayStation 5; restricted to select market territories. Nintendo has allowed a re-opening of Switch 2 pre-orders; gamers can secure core hardware at original MSRPs. Unfortunately, a compromise was made—first-party Switch 2 accessories will be more expensive, on launch day and beyond.
During a recent call with investors, Nintendo's president—Shuntaro Furukawa—confirmed that their core hardware pricing is subject to change. Launch price tags are safe (for the moment); the company will need to radiate some goodwill during their next-gen design's salad days. Commenting on a shifting political landscape, Furukawa-san stated: "at this time, the top priority is to quickly popularize the Switch 2 hardware...If the assumptions regarding tariffs change significantly, we would like to consider what price adjustments we should make, and implement them after considering various factors." Industry analysis has produced a scary projection; worst case scenarios could send tech prices up by roughly 70%. Considering the vintage of Switch 2's alleged internals, gaming hardware enthusiasts have questioned the value offered by this $450 hybrid handheld.
Sources:
Financial Times, Eurogamer, Nintendo Life, Wccftech, Genki JPN Tweet, Tom's Hardware
During a recent call with investors, Nintendo's president—Shuntaro Furukawa—confirmed that their core hardware pricing is subject to change. Launch price tags are safe (for the moment); the company will need to radiate some goodwill during their next-gen design's salad days. Commenting on a shifting political landscape, Furukawa-san stated: "at this time, the top priority is to quickly popularize the Switch 2 hardware...If the assumptions regarding tariffs change significantly, we would like to consider what price adjustments we should make, and implement them after considering various factors." Industry analysis has produced a scary projection; worst case scenarios could send tech prices up by roughly 70%. Considering the vintage of Switch 2's alleged internals, gaming hardware enthusiasts have questioned the value offered by this $450 hybrid handheld.
20 Comments on Nintendo Will Contemplate Switch 2 Price Hikes - Dependent on Shifts in Tariff Conditions
They are GREEDY, and the best thing people can do is boycott the system and games until prices come back down.Amusing you thought the multi billion dollar corpo ever respected you in the first place. No corporation respects or likes you, you are a wallet with a number attatched. Nothing more.
The US voted for this crap, so if they have to pay double the price or more, then so be it. No way should the rest of the world subsidise the US.
corporations want profit, not your love - everyone is free to boycott whatever they want, but from pre-sale orders worldwide, the S2 is already a success so Nintendo won't really care...Because we live in a globalized market, these BS tariffs are affecting all currencies and causing massive uncertainties globally. The AUD for instance has gone from 1.55 to 1.70 and back to 1.55 in a matter of weeks, how do you expect companies to plan / release products in this environment? the only solution is jacking up prices to be on the safe side
does it suck for us customers? of course, but think from a business perspective for a second and you will understand
it was a royally stupid time for Nintendo to release this console tho, should have released it late last year with Totk for Christmas
www.gov.uk/guidance/tariffs-on-goods-imported-into-the-uk
Frankly, it should be a free trade zone between all countries that want to work together, but this is getting way into the weeds
Nintendo shouldn't even be charging that much for their unit, it makes no sense if the rumors are true that it is using much older generation of hardware than others, but, if people want to pay for it, well, there is your problem
Much like people who pay whatever the price is for a Nvidia card, they don't care, but they make it worse for the rest of us and the companies aren't stupid, they will charge as much as they think people would pay
I read another page and too many will buy it anyway, regardless of the price. I think even 1000€ nintendo would sell well. It'S far too cheap. The p(l)aystations also sold for an insanely high price. Nintendo is not even near the price ranges of smartphones in the first place.
to make it 100% clear. smartphones costs up to 2500€. There is lots, lots of room to set the prices higher. Much, much, much higher. And people will buy it. other companies have their bill of materials calculated for their products which are than sold for 2500€ a piece.
Nintendo should not have advertised in the first place the market sell value.
UK is a very bad example. It was cheaper years ago to buy from UK for myself. Now they want big - extra money. No more purchases for UK for myself. Inside EU = yes buy // Outside EU = no I wont buy anymore goods from them. UK = very, very, very bad example.
They're running a company, not a charity business, if they can make easy money, they'll do it ... and you ?And it's legitimate, as you said, wait, buy later, even boycott, buy 2nd hand ...
Fair game I say.
First we have to remember business is business, sometimes the owner of a company has ethics which makes that company unusual in lower margins, or perhaps even running at a loss, but most of the time the expectation is healthy profit, and the profit growth year on year is to exceed inflation.
This effectively means they cant stand still in terms of their margins, because otherwise these expectations wouldnt be consistently met. So over time things that were acceptable in the past are no longer acceptable, and we see the usual work force cuts, margin increases and so on.
One example of this is it used to be wide spread practice to focus on volume over margin per sale, as it was expected to produce more overall profit, but wide spread practice has now moved to margin over volume. Anti consumer of course, but its the direction we are heading in. There will always be expectations, not every single company is the same, but this is something the tech industry is doing en masse.
This of course applies to companies who make very healthy profits, are loaded with cash, they dont stop becoming profit machines just because they can afford to, they still have shareholders to satisfy.
I do agree with people it is greed in some cases with how expectations have become, but we sadly have to accept it. You can choose to not buy a switch 2 for example, I wont be buying one at the announced prices, but there or there may not be a price reduction because of it, generally sales have to be a disaster before there is a reaction. Its just how it is, we go without on things that we dont find value in.