The Nintendo Switch 2 and Mario Kart World may be the stuff of dreams, but a large portion of the public is concerned about the price tag for the console, its games, and its entire ecosystem, and rightly so. Nintendo is catching up with competing handhelds in terms of power and therefore in terms of price. While you currently have to pay €349.99 for a Nintendo Switch OLED or €219.99 for a Switch Lite, the Switch 2 will hit shelves on June 5th with a price tag set at €469.99 (or €509.99 for the Mario Kart bundle). While this price is nothing to write home about in a market where the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally, among many other machines, can easily exceed the €650 mark, this pricing represents a new, difficult step for one of Nintendo's target audiences: families.
For seasoned gamers, the reservations are more likely to be found with Mario Kart World and its minimum recommended price of €89.99. Are grand ambitions and inflation enough to justify the move to a higher price for the most demanding titles? Regardless of the position on this debate, the prices are set and players will have to pay... But be careful, it's not impossible that the situation will become even more tense in the coming months. An article published by Yahoo Japan (and translated by Genki on X) reveals statements from Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, who explains to investors that a price change for the console is already possible.
Towards an increase shortly after the release?
“For now, our main priority is to popularize the Nintendo Switch 2,” Furukawa said. The manufacturer is well aware that part of the public will need to adjust to this console, which is more powerful but also more expensive. This does not prevent Nintendo from being confident about the first months of marketing. All indicators seem to be green for pre-orders, so much so that the company's latest financial report predicts a better launch than for the original Switch, with a target of 15 million units sold by the end of the fiscal year.
Shuntaro Furukawa nevertheless remains cautious and discusses the possible impact of customs duties on the Switch 2's more or less near future: "If the predictions regarding customs duties change significantly, we will have to consider various price adjustments that we will implement after taking various factors into account."
This therefore means that a price increase for the Switch 2 could come much sooner than expected if export conditions were to worsen in the coming months. At the time of writing, the customs duties imposed by Donald Trump are still on hold, a 90-day reprieve that will end in July.
On American soil, players will (for now) enjoy the console at the same price as the rest of the world, but will have to pay a little more for the various accessories. This is the compromise found by Nintendo to limit damage in this uncertain context. The majority of inventory sold in the United States will also be imported from Vietnam rather than China in order to benefit from the best possible rate.
However, a more pronounced deterioration in the United States could also impact the price of Nintendo Switch 2 consoles around the world, in an attempt to balance the situation. While Sony and Microsoft have never directly mentioned the new tariffs, the PlayStation 5 price increase attributed to "an increasingly challenging economic environment" and the Xbox ecosystem's increase justified by "current market conditions" cannot be solely a reference to inflation. Suffice it to say that 2025 promises to shake up the video game industry and affect gamers' wallets.
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