The Switch 2’s controversial price tag didn’t stop it from becoming the fastest-selling console at launch ever. Will it stay $450 or break the $500 barrier due to tariffs and inflation? In what should come as some small relief, Nintendo recently signaled that fans don’t have to worry about a price hike in the near future.
“We believe that we’ll be able to maintain the current level of profitability for hardware for the time being unless there are significant changes in external factors, such as a shift in tariff assumptions, or other unexpected events,” Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa told investors in a recent Q&A. “While we are aware that the costs of various materials are rising, we also anticipate some areas where cost reduction may be achieved for Nintendo Switch 2 through ongoing mass production efforts.”
He continued, “Therefore, currently we do not expect the recent rise in material costs to greatly impact profitability. We will continue our efforts to maintain the same level of profitability as we currently have.”
Good news, right?
While fans flooded Nintendo livestream chats with demands that the company lower its prices, $450 ended up being squarely in the middle of what experts had predicted. It was higher than the aggressively low end of $400 and under the worst-case scenario of $500. Some analysts also suspected that the price tag included a cushion to absorb some of the blow from Trump’s tariffs on countries where the console is manufactured, like Vietnam.
As a result, while the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and even the original Switch all received unprecedented price hikes earlier this year, the Switch 2 has remained consistent at its launch price. The other bit of good news is that Nintendo actually manufactured enough stock to make sure just about everyone who wanted one could get one. That’s meant zero haggling with scalpers on reseller sites like eBay and Facebook Marketplace, a refreshing change from the early days of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S back during the pandemic.
But I also wouldn’t expect the Switch 2 to come down in price until…well, probably ever. We never saw the original Switch get a price drop, and this one is selling even better. Nintendo has said it’s happy to keep manufacturing that earlier console, too, as long as it keeps selling, which it continues to do.
