Experts Say Switch 2 $450 Price Likely Influenced by Trump Tariffs - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 April 2025 / 4,124 Views
Nintendo yesterday announced the Nintendo Switch 2 will launch on Thursday, June 5 for $449.99 USD, while a Mario Kart World Bundle will also be available for $499.99 USD.
A new report by Financial Times (via VideoGamesChronicle) suggests the Switch 2 costing $150 more than the original Switch did at launch is partly due to Nintendo anticipating Trump tariffs.
Japanese video game analyst and founder of Kantan Games, Serkan Toto stated the price "suggested Nintendo was building a buffer in case tariffs hit supply chains harder than expected."
A separate report from Financial Times last month suggested Nintendo has shifted production away from China and that over half of the hardware imported into the US from Nintendo comes from Vietnam and Cambodia.
However, Trump this week announced he will be imposing a 46 percent tariff on Vietnam and a 49 percent tariff on Cambodia starting April 9.
MST Financial analysts David Gibson did say Nintendo had shipped 383,000 Switch 2 consoles to the USA across five days in January.
"Export data combined with finished product codes confirms that Nintendo shipped finished Switch 2 [from Vietnam] across five days in January for a total of 383,000 units with all of them going to the USA," said Gibson. "I suspect this occurred to test the distribution system and get ahead of the risk of tariffs. I expect the numbers to have ramped-up significantly in February and March."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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This doesn't make sense. Regional prices outside of Japan itself are high across the board, the USD equivalent price is $447 in Canada, $443 in Australia, $445 in South Korea, $517 in the UK, $517 in Europe. If it was simply about a buffer zone for Trump's tariffs, then it wouldn't be high in every single country pretty much aside from Japan itself, where the USD equivalent price is $341, it would cost $450 in the US and $350 in most other countries. This smells of greed, not protections from tariffs.
Maybe other countries are subsidizing the loses in the USA prices.
Switch 2 will cost $546 in Switzerland/Europe (CHF 469).
To be fair, if they felt forced to increase the $ price they would ofc gladly use that as an excuse to increase other prices as well. We've seen similiar stuff with inflation and the brief euro dip in recent years, companies strike when the iron's hot to increase prices when they have some kind of excuse for it, even if it rarely makes sense if you do the math.
If the console and its games were notably cheaper in Europe, etc then that may incentivise a lot of Americans to import. I'm not even sure if region locking would be effective against that. Especially if you plan to buy your games digitally.
That wouldn't explain the similar price increase in virtually every other country minus the weird region locked NX2 Japan is getting...
Nintendo also specially stated they worked on their manufacturing line to mitigate any tariffs from having a noticeable effect
So... I'm not buying what these "experts" are selling
It costs 335$ in Japan..... rest of the world.... 450$-500$. Thats not Tarriffs, thats greed.
Why would the Switch 2, be 469euro if its down to tarriffs? EU doesn't have a trade war going on does it? This is a lame excuse.
".....is 'partly' due to Nintendo anticipating Trump tariffs."
The other part is Nintendo's greed :P
46% tariffs on Vietnam is all Trump, not Nintendo greed. $450 is probably still not even enough to absorb that completely, and Nintendo will suffer profits-wise. When Nintendo moved production to Vietnam in 2018 it was BECAUSE of Trump . He assured them, in his first term, he would only put tariffs on China, which is why Nintendo immediately started moving a huge portion of Switch production just after lunch to Vietnam. At some point in 2020, ahead of the 2020 election and in anticipation of Trump winning then (he didn't), Nintendo hit a point where all North American consoles were shipped from Vietnam, with China manufactured ones going to Europe/Asia/Japan.
So, in the end like with every promise he made, Trump broke it and screwed over Nintendo still.
I was only joking. I already know about the tariffs and Nintendo's production.
But you can't deny Nintendo's got some greed to them when they've been keeping their +7 year old games at full price prior to tariffs (I'm talking end of the Wii to Wii U cycle). If you can explain to me why that is and if its not Nintendo's greed I'd like to hear what you have to say.
Eggs cost $10 these days.
You elected the orange tumor, so you might as well carry him to term.
Got dang! I pay $6.99 for organic pasture raised dozen eggs at WholeFoods. Maybe browse there?
So what about digital prices? Steam games didnt randomly jump up $20
The digital prices are lower - Mario Kart World is $70 digital/$80 physical. Digital price wise, Nintendo is just catching up to Microsoft and Sony.
isn't Steam American though?
This has nothing to do with tariffs since the pricing is generally the same in other countries. Never expected EA levels of greed from Nintendo. RIP Iwata, he would have never allowed this.
If thats the case then it'll only get worse as this price was announced before the most recent tariffs. PS/XB both got price increases post-launch and we could definitely see the same with switch 2.
It is 100% nintendo greed. If it was Trump tariffs, we would only see a price hike in the US market (which honestly would kinda be deserved).
We live in a global economy, and the U.S. is by far the single largest part of that economy. When the U.S. sneezes, the world gets pneumonia.
Fuck that talking orange tumor.
I guess the experts were wrong, considering Nintendo just delayed pre-orders in the US because of the latest Trump trade war tariffs. Only reason they'd delay pre-orders is to jack up the price to account for the new tariffs, meaning $450 was without considering new tariffs.
It was $450 because Nintendo packed in a ridiculous amount of power into the system (and also cuz they're getting a bit greedy after the success of the Switch, which we can clearly see with the $80 Mario Kart game price). Now it'll probably end up being $500 cuz of Trump.
I've heard conflicting opinions on that. But I think we should hope so, because if they haven't yet, they may cause a rise in Switch 2 prices later.
The cost of a PS5 has gone up since launch, so it's not unheard of anymore.
Well, now Nintendo is rethinking its launch strategy in the wake of the latest economic Trumper-tantrum.
I agree with others that it doesn't make sense for NS2's US price to be influenced by the tariffs,
Switch OLED was $350, so it really wouldn't have made sense for NS2 to be $400, unless a hypothetical $400 model cut back on something (digital only, no backwards compatibility, etc.).
I had been saying for the longest time that NS2's price should be at least $100 more than the most expensive NS1 model, and that's exactly what is happening here. Definitely feels like NS2 has enough to justify the price (1080p handheld, 4k TV mode with up to 120fps).
It's roughly priced where PS5 is and you can take the NS2 anywhere (in order to emulate that on PS5, you have to buy the $200 PlayStation Portal).
I think Nintendo's pricing on the console is incredibly reasonable, and people looking to blame tariffs are just silly in my opinion.
Economic situation is about to get 10x worse so, bad timing for a platform launch
Stock is very limited then.
I'm not so sure about that, but I wouldn't be surprised if tariffs make the pricing issue worse.
How much is the Switch in the USA right now? OLED is like $350 right? I am honestly not sure what people expected with the Switch 2. Over the last few years we've had an increase in inflation and cost of parts/demand has gone up as AI is gobbling up chips yet do people really expect the Switch 2 to be only $350 or even $400? Just $50 more for tech no longer 7 years old? I mean really?
Sure, you could argue the Switch should be cheaper but the other 2 reasons mentioned saw to that on all consoles, not just the Switch. Honestly, I think the price is fair if you consider how this gen has gone. Take off the 20% VAT from UK price, convert it to dollars and it's $435 or so right now.
i thought they would of imported as many as they could before it kicks in as for the games i know they will not be ready in time probably reason they cost so much plus the new faster cartridges will cost more to produce
That would explain the strange 30$ off if you get the bundle with MK. Usually launch day bundle with Nintendo it's like the exact add on price.
or its because they know $80 is a bit of sticker shock for a casual game lol
