Officially?
Yup. To be clear the release date hasn’t changed yet. But the preorder date is tbd.
4 Likes
They were already pretty fucked because of the massive backlash concerning the pricing. People are really upset about the greed thing 
HAHAHAHAHAHA
We are so fucked.
4 Likes
I don’t get the backlash on price at all other than people thinking that it has to be cheap because it’s Nintendo.
But you compare it to a steam deck… a device no one complained about the cost of, and it was (when it was supposed to be $450) in line with that and it’s a more powerful console.
Steam deck has a lower resolution and lower refresh rate screen. Same amount of memory. Doesn’t have a dock which, the official one costs $80 (I know there’s cheaper ones) but the Switch dock has a fan and stuff.
$450 seemed good to me.
But now we’re fucked. I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes to $600 or maybe even $700 at this point and now we’re out of reach. The $450 number definitely had a tariff price built in but they didn’t realize Cambodia and Vietnam were gonna get slapped with 50% tariffs.
1 Like
It’s only USA … perhaps more units heading to everywhere else to make it easier to get one. I don’t know how/if digital purchases of games would be impacted. …
It is interesting to compare with steam deck especially if it really is 10x switch power wise. Many might think those cartoon visuals don’t need power and expected to pay less.
If I were choosing I’d probably go steamdeck as it’s not a closed system ( can do emulators and other things )
I’ve got a Steam Deck. I love it for emulation, indie games, and for bigger games released pre-2020ish. The only reason, in my opinion, to buy the Switch 2 at all is if you want to play the exclusive games - particularly the big Nintendo ones. If that isn’t a primary interest, I don’t think the Switch 2 is a good purchase.
2 Likes
Its not just the console, its the big picture. Major Price increase with games and stuff and you even have to pay for the tutorial game.
It’ll be interesting to see the price of the new peripheral stuff too, Joycons etc. you can bet those Sandisk cards will be eye wateringly expensive… my prediction for joy cons is north of 70 quid this time round pro controller will be closer to 100…
No one is complaining about the hardware, it’s impressive tech and much better than I expected.
What people are unhappy about is the pricing of the games which does seem very high.
Agree, nobody is complaining about the hardware price (at least as it was announced pre-tariff discussion). It’s excellent gear for a reasonable price (even if higher than previous gen). I think it was spot on for what you get.
There are tons of factors on why software/game prices don’t scale linearly over time, or with inflation, why they should/shouldn’t move, etc.
One cannot compare the prices of digital releases with the prices of games from the 80s, 90s, 2000s, etc. For one thing, there were tooling, ROM, circuit, costs to manufacture cartridges for many systems. Later, getting CD/DVD or custom optical media reproduced. Packaging costs for any physical game. Warehousing and shipment of these, etc.
Sure, now we have servers doing much of the heavy lifting there, but it’s still not 1:1.
The companies also don’t have to eat the cost if their investment of say a million cartridges doesn’t sell, and then sits in a warehouse until it can be destroyed.
Games cost more to make now (at least for AAA style games) but there is much less risk, many more options for sales and making back some of that money through digital distribution.
Retailers have also mainly been cut out more or less with brick and mortar shops to maintain.
Used games aren’t even a thing now, so most companies aren’t losing sales to second hand markets.
Everything is different now.
Nintendo is also talking about releasing larger physical games (which are still just cheap flash media) as just a cartridge containing a download key and checksum. So, you buy a physical game for $90 and then all you get is a download key on the cart?
There is a huge indie market now, with small studios, some as small as one person making extremely high quality games, charging very little, and still making enough to continue making games. This also doesn’t scale linearly in size per dollar charged per employee per game with large studios.
I will say that I think in SOME cases, higher prices are justified. However, in MOST cases, I do not believe charging $80+ for a single non-expanded game is justifiable the way games are distributed these days.
Inflation alone can’t justify the prices either.
I would definitely pay more for absolute top quality, or even pay an inordinate price for what turned out to be an amazing indie project. One example is that I’ve bought copies of Hyper Light Drifter (and other similar quality titles) for all of my kids, multiple devices of my own, and even friends, just because I felt that the game deserved as much support from me as it could get. I enjoyed it that much. I am no stranger to paying high prices for things that I enjoy or find quality in.
However, blanket pricing your whole lineup regardless of size, dev team, distribution changes, breadth of game, popularity of franchise, is where I draw the distinction. More for a good Zelda title? Sure. More for a Donkey Kong or Kirby game? No thanks.
Edit: Watch, they just announced all this to generate unheard of publicity, will launch at under announced pricing, and hit 100 million console sales the first year. 
4 Likes
There were PLENTY of people complaining about both the console and game price lol.
The price of the games is a bit of a sticker shock.
But wait until they announce that GTA6 is gonna be $100. The industry has been wanting this for awhile. Nintendo were just the ones that ripped off the bandaid.
What’s weird is they aren’t particularly consistent either cuz that new Donkey Kong was listed at $70 while MK is $80-$90,
1 Like
Of course, but the main sticking point is the game prices. The console is always was going to be expensive. I was expecting £350 at least but wasn’t far off, it’s going to be expensive anyway. It was never going to buy relatively cheap with the components they packed in it. Could it be cheaper?, personally for me yes but then I rather spend £400 if I could, and buy games for around £40-50 than the crazy 70-80 which has cooled me off buying one. Plus besides from Donkey Kong, nothing has wanting me to buy it day one.
1 Like
One other thing to think about when comparing various console generations and consoles to each other.
Since the Gamecube, (or maybe it was the Wii) Nintendo has been the only company to design competitive hardware, and sell at an actual profit for the hardware. Up to that point (and still to this day with most other console makers) the hardware was sold at a loss, and the profits all came from the software sales, accessories, and licensing deals. So for the past couple of decades Nintendo was in the unique position of making money on EVERYTHING that they put out, and with all of their systems being record sellers over that time period (with only maybe the PS2 making similar numbers from Sony) they are in no way unable to pay their employees and make profits that the other companies can only dream of.
So, you know, if they WANTED to, they could keep prices friendly to consumers in the current environment, and still rake in truckloads of money.
I’m not saying they’re in any way required to do that, and I’m not making a value call on their software because it’s second to none. (stable, entertaining, different, top quality) I’m just saying if they wanted to be friendlier to the people that put them where they are, they could, and they would not be hurting as a company.
1 Like
Be interesting to see what happens in light of the tariffs. Maybe they would drop the price, but it would still go up a bit. Or maybe it already was a bit high to accomodate.
Re game prices, at least in Europe physical games are generally available in one store or another for 10-20€ below RRP within a couple of months of release (if not before). So yes there are price hikes, but it shouldn’t actually be necessary to pay €80 for a game, other than the usual Day 1 / pre order Super Fan tax .
Someone said used games aren’t a thing anymore. Where is that the case? No eBay? At least where I live there’s a thriving small-ad market. You can pretty much use it as a game library.
1 Like
The tariffs are really only an issue for US residents. It’s funny that they announced all the details of it on Trumps Liberation Day, and then have walked back their US release of it as a result.
Yeah cool, there could be onflow effects of this around the world, though?
I read elsewhere Vietnam are in negotiations with Trump presently, to organise a deal. People say this is where Nintendos manufacturing takes place, although I’m not sure how that would work specifically, with Nintendo being a Japanese company.
Switch 2 manufacturing is split between various countries, apparently including Vietnam / China / Cambodia
Just saw the Swedish prices. No thank you. This makes me sad because I love Nintendo.