Doug Bowser, President of Nintendo of America, explains what factors go into setting the price for a new console and its games.
In addition to the new console and game lineup, Nintendo also revealed some sticker shock during their Switch 2 event last week. The console will be priced at $449.99—a big jump from the original Switch, which started at $299.99 back in 2017. Some have speculated that the price hike might be at least partially due to the ongoing confusion around President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs. The timing was certainly odd; Trump announced a new, broad wave of global tariffs on the same day as Nintendo’s event.
However, Doug Bowser from Nintendo of America says that tariffs haven’t directly impacted the console’s base price. “[The April 2 announcement] is separate. Any prior tariffs were not factored into the price,” he explained to me the day after the event.
That may be true, but the impact of the April 2 tariff announcement is already being felt. Just two days after the event, Nintendo announced that they would be delaying the Switch 2 preorders, which were originally set to begin on April 9, to “assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions.” There is no new preorder date yet, and it’s unclear whether the console’s price will change. “The news is still fresh, and like many other companies, we are actively evaluating what the impact could be,” Bowser says.
So why is the Switch 2 so expensive? When I asked Bowser, he listed off a range of new features: a larger LCD screen, more powerful internal components, redesigned Joy-Con controllers that are “larger and redesigned for durability,” built-in game chat and social layers on the console, and more. Bowser says, “We want to make sure this is a device that’s accessible, one that consumers will see as part of their overall entertainment experience, and understand that it will last long-term.” “And all of these factors really come into play when considering the price.”
The Switch 2’s price tag places it in a premium spot within Nintendo’s lineup. Even with the new console announcement, Nintendo will continue to sell all three models of the original Switch—the base unit, the OLED version, and the Switch Lite—in the near future.
However, when Bowser was asked whether the existing Switch models, priced at $349.99, influenced the decision to charge $449.99 for the Switch 2, he gave a vague response. “You want to consider pricing relative to the Switch because we still have them in distribution,” he says. “But, really, the thought was driven more by what the experience of this particular gaming experience is, not what it is relative to Switch 1.” “We are actively evaluating what the impact could be.”
The Switch lineup isn’t the only part of Nintendo’s offering that has become more expensive. Select Switch 2 games have also seen a price increase. For example, Mario Kart World, coming June 5, will be priced at $79.99, whereas first-party games on the original Switch typically cost $59.99. Speaking generally about game pricing, Bowser says, “We believe each game is a unique experience,” and as such, prices can vary accordingly.
This is why the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour—a game designed to teach players about the Switch 2 and highlight its key features through technical demos—has become a paid game, rather than a free pack-in title like Wii Sports or Astro’s Playroom. Bowser says, “When this game was being developed, it was packed with mini-game experiences with a lot of depth. They’re very deep, they’re very replayable. And so, when we looked at the depth of the game experience and the opportunities, we felt that $9.99 was a fair price for it.”
