In addition to a new console and lineup of games, Nintendo also revealed some sticker shock at its Switch 2 event last week. The console will cost $449.99 a€" a big jump from the original Switch, which debuted at $299.99 in 2017. Some have speculated that the price hike was at least partly due to the ongoing confusion around President Donald Trumpa€™s planned tariffs. The timing was certainly awkward; Trump announced a fresh, wide-ranging wave of global tariffs the same day as Nintendoa€™s event.
But Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser says that tariffs did not directly impact the consolea€™s original price tag. a€oePut [the April 2nd announcement] aside. Any previous tariffs were not factored into the price itself,a€oe he explained, speaking to me the day after the event.
That may be true, but the impact of the April 2nd tariff announcement is already being felt. Just two days after its event, Nintendo announced that it was delaying Switch 2 preorders, which were originally slated to begin on April 9th, in order to a€oeassess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions.a€ Therea€™s currently no new preorder date, and whether the price of the console will …
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The reason is not tariffs, it’s greed. Always has been. And games at 90€ each are not a result of tariffs either, it’s just greed. Nothing else.
I don’t think you can immediately call it greed until we see a breakdown of the device and get an estimate of the part costs. The price for video games has not adjusted with inflation, or rise in development costs. Games in 1990 were 50 to 60 dollars a game. That would be 120 ish dollars today if adjusted for inflation. That said, the market will determine if the price point is too high.
On the contrary, I can immediately call it greed because that’s what it is. What was the development cost of mario kart 8 deluxe? Still, it cost 60$/€. With no development cost (or almost none). No. It’s greed. Nintendo is greedy, and I reaaaaally hope they crash as hard as possible, because they are becoming what they (said) they hated. A greed driven company.