Nintendo’s Doug Bowser recently stated that the tariffs newly introduced by Donald John Trump were not a factor in the $449.99 USD price of the Switch 2 system (nor the game prices). Conversely, he implies that the price might be adjusted (read: increased) due to these new tariffs. Yikes.
NintendoUp’s Take
To be honest, $449.99 USD is around what I expected for the system. I thought Nintendo would aim for $399.99 USD, but $50 more isn’t too crazy. After all, the OLED Steam Deck is quite expensive and it’s arguably less powerful than the Switch 2.
Game prices being higher was unexpected, however, but if you look at inflation it’s not that shocking. Yet, despite the reality of inflation, it’s obvious that wages haven’t increased to match inflation, so fans are understandably angry.
Will Nintendo Increase the Price?
In my view, Nintendo would be foolish to increase the price, even considering tariffs hurting their profits by 20-40%. Nintendo will make money on game sales, so they can afford to take a hit in console profitability. And, in the future, tariffs may be reduced or eliminated.
It’s a tough situation. If they increase the price, they lose less money, but they also sell fewer units. And if the system flops, that’s a much worse situation than if they lose some money. Nintendo is among the richest companies in Japan, with billions of dollars in cash on hand. They can afford to take a loss, even if they don’t want to.
Ultimately, it’ll be the right decision not to raise the price and find a way to communicate to fans that they should raise the price, but they won’t as a gesture of goodwill.
I give it a 30% chance that Nintendo raises the price in the USA. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!