Nintendo Will Eventually Increase Switch 2 Prices Very Soon

The gaming industry has been heavily affected by the spike in prices of hardware and parts. For instance, just last week, Sony increased their base prices on all editions of PlayStation 5 consoles in response to the increased prices of memory chips or RAM in the global market. Now, Nintendo may be gearing up to do the same if the situation continues or worsens throughout the year. Here’s what one former Nintendo sales lead had to say about the changing atmosphere of the gaming industry and what he thinks Nintendo will do.

Sony Increases Prices on All PS5 Consoles

The global economy has been taking hit after hit due to inflation and increased prices on essential products and resources. Since last year, inflation has caused certain technological parts, such as memory chips, to increase in price. This is especially an issue, given that all computers and consoles need this particular part to work.

Last week, in response to the increased prices on parts, Sony also raised their prices on all editions of PlayStation 5 consoles. The news hit especially hard, given how extreme the jump in price was. For context, the base console sold for $500. Now, the base console will sell for $649.99. That’s a $150 spike in price. Many community members expressed their discontent with Sony’s decision, and according to industry professionals, this is only just the beginning.

Former Nintendo Sales Lead Believes Nintendo Will Do the Same

Kit & Krysta Podcast, courtesy of Kit & Krysta Official YouTube Channel

In the most recent podcast episode of the Kit & Krysta Podcast, the co-hosts invited a former Nintendo sales lead, who goes only by the name Sean, where they touched upon the recent increase in prices of hardware and consoles, and the many things that effectively caused this situation.

Sean believes that many factors, such as global inflation, tariffs, the increased demand for AI software, and, most recently, the issues with oil production and sales, have definitely affected the gaming industry in many negative ways. Sean also notes that the decrease in digital software, like buying games digitally instead of physical copies, has helped offset the rising costs of things; however, it’s a temporary fix to a much larger issue that Nintendo will be facing.

Sean believes that sooner or later, Nintendo will follow in Sony’s footsteps and also increase the prices on its consoles, especially their newest release: the Switch 2. However, it seems that Nintendo is being cautious when considering a price change to its consoles, given that they haven’t done so already. Here’s the full excerpt from the podcast, where Sean and co-hosts Kit and Kyrsta talk about their thoughts on the situation:

So going from the price of games to the price of hardware, we just saw Sony just did this incredible price hike where like the price of the PS5 Pro went up by $150 and we’ve we’ve kind of seen Nintendo resist the, you know, the pole of having to do that.

Do you think do you think that’s something that they can fend off or are they ultimately going to have to go that path as well?

Yeah, unfortunately I think eventually the hardware price is going to have to go up. Um, it’s I look I think that there’s things that they can and seem to be doing to try and mitigate that, but I also look at this move on on software as, you know, if I’m reading it correctly, a way to make a hardware price increase a little bit more palatable. We’ve seen in inflation, you know, being a problem for a while now.

Uh tariffs are a more recent nuisance, but they’re not going away anytime soon. Um the the demand for AI is causing for chips is is causing memory prices to go up. And you know, within the past couple of weeks, we have issues with oil prices going through the roof. And when oil goes through the roof, that’s not just shipping costs that go up.

That’s, you know, there’s there’s, you know, we can imagine, well, you know, to get the the games from wherever they’re being manufactured to, uh, to the warehouse, to the retailers, you know, to the shelf, that’s going to drive the price up.

Um, so there’s all of these world events that are, you know, have been for a while putting pressure on on on pricing and putting pressure on margins and um that like they don’t seem to be going away. Like tariffs are going to be here for a while.

Um, it seems inflation is really stubborn and I don’t think the issues that we’re seeing in the Middle East with oil pricing is going to help that. In fact, it’s likely going to make inflation worsen um and and stick around for even longer. So, you know, even if they are able to make um you know, concessions in some areas, hardware prices are going to go up I think eventually.