Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2 (opens in new tab)

I bought a Steam Deck earlier this year and haven’t touched my Switch since. Nintendo hardware and games were already obscenely overpriced imo, so this is essentially a nail in the coffin for folks who were already questioning Nintendo’s prices and value proposition.

Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? In the past this was more the case, but with the Switch 2 the hardware bill of materials is actually more costly relative to previous products like the Switch 1.

Poor timing of market forces (Sam Altman spending VC money to purchase all the world’s memory chips). Ouch.

The Switch 2 price bump isn't too surprising, but increasing the price of the old Switch models this late is pretty wild...

Switch 1 still has more games than I have time to play, plenty of them around to get.

  > Effective Date of MSRP Revisions in Japan: May 25, 2026

  > Effective Date of Price Revisions in the United States, Canada, and Europe: September 1, 2026

interesting, i wonder what the cause of such time lag in us vs japan is for... maybe the super low japan price is hurting them badly so they need to up the price there sooner?

The value of the yen compared to other currencies has fallen through the floor since 2022, so this isn't unexpected - Nintendo had to do something to equalize prices somewhat. The dollar's global value has also weakened noticeably since (checks notes) April 2, 2025 and Canada has had currency struggles as well the last few years.

I’m waiting for a special edition and some games that make the upgrade worthwhile.

The price increases aren't massive though, I think I'll still wait for a mainline Mario game.

So all electronics are doomed? This does not seem to good for the global economy .

Has this ever happened before?

£385 in argos and smyths at the mo for any UK folk!

Probably related to RAM and storage prices going up just like with the PS5.

And new prices for playing cards not even set yet... TIL nintendo still makes cards in japan.

I know Nintendo is the slowest game company to ever lower prices, but raising them! Not something you see every day.

Never buy a switch later. Nintendo prices don't fall and if, it takes ages.

I wish I have the means to travel to Japan right now because prices never been cheaper, especially food. Feels like missing out on a great opportunity

The Switch 2 also released right in the midst of the tariff mayhem, Nintendo really couldn't catch a break with this generation.

Funny the European and US models have the same price. effectively a 20% discount buying it in europe.

TBH would be nice if AI crunch kills Nintendo hardware business model.

I'll buy it once Winds and Waves comes out. The increase isn't THAT much.

Does this exclude Australia?

I bought a Switch 2 about 6 months ago. My biggest disappointment with it so far has been the lack of first-party games.

Is Mario Kart on the switch 1 still $70?

Yeah, okay, "market conditions", RAM more expensive, hardware more expensive, fine...

But then why are they also increasing the price of their online services? The games run locally!

Fuck you, Nintendo.

Friendly reminder: The pennies are going to be used to bring community devs lawsuits.

That is another victim of all hardware being hoovered up by AI fraudsters.

People need to go to the classic class warfare methods:

- Do not buy anything new, especially graphics cards. Buy on Ebay but avoid bidding wars.

- Use adblockers and do not pay for any company's services if the company promotes AI.

- If it is true that Nintendo is lobbying against AI in Japan, still buy Nintendo of course.

The AI people think they don't need us, let their stocks crash.