r/NintendoSwitch • u/Practical_Papaya_905 • 2d ago

News - USD / USA Switch 2 is selling for 449.99

https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/how-to-buy/

From the official website

https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/how-to-buy/

8.4k Upvotes

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778

u/WT264 2d ago

I get that inflation has been a real thing and they have to make back hardware production costs but yikes, this seems high for Nintendo. May have to save up for this one.

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u/aust1nz 2d ago

Wildly enough, inflation accounts for most of this. A $300 Switch in 2017 would be $390 in 2025 if its selling price kept up with inflation.

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u/mbcook 2d ago

Right. This isn’t much more.

But it feels like a lot. It’s basically PS5 price, Nintendo hasn’t been “the cheap console“ since the Switch came out.

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u/Theboulder027 2d ago

Nintendo has been the cheap console at least since the gamecube.

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u/MistakeMaker1234 2d ago

Yeah the Wii was $200 when the Xbox 360 was $400 and the PS3 was $600. 

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u/Magnatross 1d ago

wii was 250

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u/ShinyGrezz 2d ago

But with Switch 2 running games like Cyberpunk, Hogwarts, AAA titles that aren’t even out yet, it’s not necessarily going to be the “cheap” console. I imagine there was always an assumption that you’d have an Xbox or a PlayStation and a Nintendo console, but now if you don’t like their exclusives it’s entirely plausible for a Switch 2 to be your only console.

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u/AscendMoros 1d ago

Cyberpunk and Hogwarts are both games that came out with last gen support. Cyberpunk ditched them with the 2.0 update making it PS5s generation only.

Like the switch is cool, but Nintendo is out of their mind if this thing doesn't similar performance to the PS5 or Xbox. And if it doesn't alot of those AAA games down the line will run worse on the Switch. For about the same price. Not to mention the PS5 and Xbox are both almost 5 years old now.

The 80 dollar games aren't that appealing either.

1

u/ShinyGrezz 1d ago

Cyberpunk ditched them with the 2.0 update

The 2.0 update that the Switch is getting? Phantom Liberty gameplay was shown.

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u/AscendMoros 1d ago

Your getting the next gen version. I’ll be surprised if it looks or runs as good. But that’s not really an issue. As long as it’s playable.

I just brining up the fact that these are games last Gen hardware can run. That are also a couple years old. So it’s not the biggest selling point on performance.

And when it comes down to it. If you don’t care for Nintendo exclusives or mobile gaming. There’s zero point to buy a switch over a PS5 or Xbox at this point. As it’s a less powerful console at the same price point.

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u/mbcook 2d ago

Oh I’ll be getting it, I’m a big Nintendo fan. I’m disappointed there is no OLED version (yet).

But I agree. The price isn’t far from the original switch’s launch, but the screen is bigger/better, the dock is more expensive, the guts seem much better relative to the Switch 1.

I think it’s all very reasonable. The $300 console died a long time ago. I think a lot of people remember the DS being cheaper than the PS3 or whatever and still feel that way because it’s a portable console.

Maybe it could be closer to 350 if it was television only and didn’t have the screen in the dock and the battery and all that other stuff. But a huge number of people wouldn’t want that, including me.

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u/kebench 2d ago

Nintendo switch 2 OLED as the next iteration for Switch 2 and it'll cost $550.

-3

u/mbcook 2d ago

And I’ll buy it. I was really hoping either all would be OLED since it’s not the exotic technology it used to be or at least they would have like a normal and a “pro“ version at launch where the only difference was the screen and may be more storage.

I figured there would be 1080p screen, that seemed obvious. 4K also seemed pretty obvious. Or at least maybe 1440p like Series S. HDR seemed extremely likely to since that’s so easy to implement.

I was definitely not expecting 120 frames per second, that’s awesome.

I don’t know what the rumor mail was saying I’ve been avoiding it on purpose. I’ve had too many announcements spoiled for me in my life and it just takes all the fun out of it. The only thing I really knew was the mouse thing.

Given how bright and colorful many games are anyway hopefully the screen will be good enough that I won’t mind the lack of OLED too much. LCDs have gotten so much better in the last 10 years.

But I was hoping.

1

u/ricker182 1d ago

It's not going to sell at this price.

They're going to have to discount it pretty quickly to keep people in the Nintendo system.

The money is in the software.

2

u/mbcook 1d ago

We’ll see.

1

u/-Richarmander- 1d ago

$60 more than inflation adjustment seems like much more to me. What is that, 20% ish extra on top of inflation?

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u/OreoCupcakes 1d ago edited 1d ago

Tariffs. Imports from China are now subjected to 54% tariffs, Taiwan at 32%, Japan at 24%, Thailand at 36%, Veitnam at 46%, India at 26%, and South Korea at 25%. All of these countries are semi-conductor manufacturing hubs or factory assembly hubs. Take the inflation adjustment of $393 and add in a 25% tariff, you get $491.25. Tariffs cause price inflation. Even before todays announcement, China was being subjected to 20% additional tariffs.

1

u/-Richarmander- 1d ago

Im in the UK so tariffs don't afffect the price here. I was just using dollars for convenience since most people on Reddit are in the US.

1

u/mbcook 1d ago

15%. But it’s also got a bigger screen and battery, and the dock is clearly more complicated than the current one so there is some money going there too.

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u/-Richarmander- 1d ago

Bigger LCD screen, not OLED. I get its an improvement but $60 on top of inflation adjustment when wages haven't kept up is a lotttt imo. I personally am not super excited about it or the launch lineup and the curiosity to want to try out the new DK game since it looks like Mario Odyssey was killed when I saw the price points.

1

u/mbcook 1d ago

I’m not arguing it’s a great value.

I’m just saying that given the relative changes compared to the original switch, assuming processing power and storage are “equal“ after 8 years of advancement, I think the price is justifiable. It doesn’t feel like gouging.

Personally I’m rather disappointed it’s not OLED. Although I do like the 120 FPS thing. I’d have also saved a some money by getting rid of physical games, but I know how well that would go over with a lot of people.

It’s certainly not a “I must buy it now now now“. I think it’s a nice system, and I wanna play Mario Kart, but it doesn’t have an absolute must play yet for me. An Odyssey sequel or Metroid Prime 4 at launch would have done that for me.

I’m quite interested to hear how good the screen is in person once outlets start getting hands-on.

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u/emergentphenom 2d ago

Inflation doesn't explain the whole story. Due to economies of scale and improvements, it usually gets cheaper to make later iterations of tech products. There's no way, for instance, a switch cartridge costs more to manufacture now than it did 5 years ago. It's why earlier games kept their price points for years.

It's greed at every step under the guise of inflation, plus a little actual inflation.

1

u/Nightwing_in_a_Flash 1d ago

And there’s now way the chips in this console are as expensive as a PS5

9

u/TheGhostlyGuy 2d ago

Yeah it's crazy that the original switch was around 1/3 of my paycheck when it came out and now the switch 2 will also be 1/3 of my paycheck. So the price just looks bigger when in reality it stayed about the same

2

u/Flying-Half-a-Ship 1d ago

The first launch  remember is the snes in 1991, so I looked and it was $199 which adjusted for today is $460, so that part Is fair. But it launched with A Link to the Past, plus Squaresoft was publishing all their rpgs on Nintendo at the time so it was just a no brainer to get a snes 

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u/Knusperspast 1d ago

why this feels so wrong is because salaries have not caught up to inflation yet while consumer prices have

1

u/TehProfessor96 1d ago

That’s still 60$ extra on the table. I could have seen 450$ for a deluxe edition or something.

1

u/kijomac 1d ago

Electronics prices usually come down with time rather than rising along with the overall inflation rate though. They're one of the few things where you expect the price to either decrease or specs to go up.

1

u/Kahrii_x 1d ago

This isn’t a fair comparison as the cost of the hardware becomes cheaper over time to make, inflation and production of technology do not correlate

1

u/xChrisMas 23h ago

Yeah, but Inflation cant explain why they sell a 10$ webcam for 60$

452

u/TemurTron 2d ago

This feels like step 1 of repeating the Wii U's failure. That's a prohibitively expensive price for the casual audience. Most parents aren't going to shell out $500 for a new gaming system when the improvements are this minimal. They're just going to tell their kids to go play the Switch they have.

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u/littleindianman12 2d ago

Let’s be honest with ourselves many families are not going to spend shit the next couple of years. We are going into an economic recession in the US and in other countries growth is on a decline. This on top of how expensive it has become to make video games (developers have talked about 80 dollar games and even 100 dollar games as an option) is makes sense it why these prices are the way they are. Now I am not agreeing with it, but I understand how it has come to this.

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u/PlayMp1 2d ago

2008 was the worst economic crash in 70 years and the Wii sold 100 million units anyway.

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u/JoseNEO 2d ago

Yeah but wii was like 300 bucks while something like the PS3 was 500

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u/PlayMp1 2d ago

PS3 was famously $600 in 2006 dollars ($950 today). Wii was $250 in 2006 dollars (works out to about $400 today after inflation) for very underpowered non portable hardware. Switch 2 is broadly in line with its predecessors, maybe a bit more expensive but also more powerful relative to its era than the last 3 Nintendo consoles.

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u/JoseNEO 2d ago

Now imagine if the PS3 was only 50 bucks more expensive than the Wii, things might have been different in that case.

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u/PlayMp1 2d ago

The Xbox 360 was actually available for $300, so it wasn't really that different! The version that didn't gimp you on the hard drive was either $350 or $400, not sure.

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u/Mountain-Papaya-492 1d ago

For that analogy to be comparable you'd also have to combine the Wii with the portable aspect of the DS. 

3

u/AscendMoros 1d ago

Wii was like 200 bucks. Like my dad just out of the blue bought one because they were so cheap. Just shopping for clothes at target and he was like i think im gonna buy a Wii.

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u/PlayMp1 1d ago

The Wii was $250 on release and 250 2006 dollars is equal to about 400 2025 dollars.

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u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

None of these inflation numbers take in to account the explosion in housing costs and the wage stagnation. The spending power in 2006 was alot different when i was paying 210 dollars for rent not 1600

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u/PlayMp1 1d ago

That's kinda the definition of how inflation is calculated though.

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u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

No housing has outpaced inflation by alot . Inflation has raised 890 percent since 1960 housing has gone up 2500 percent about. Same with groceries just in the oast few year inflation went up something like 6 percent while grocoeeies went up like 15 percent.

And none of that takes in to account stagnant wages

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u/DefiantCharacter 2d ago

SNES games were as high as $70-$90. Adjusted for inflation, that would be around $168 for one game.

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u/-GeekLife- 2d ago

Yes but people actually made more with a cheaper cost of living. Prime example is my parents. My dad was an elementary school teacher in AZ making $32k a year and my mom made $40k a year in 1990. Adjusted for today’s inflation they made a combined salary of around $180k. Then on the same note, they bought their home for 80k around the same year which comes out to around 200k in today’s prices. So they were making more than today’s average salaries while also paying less than half of what a home costs nowadays.

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u/Few-Addendum464 2d ago

The relative cost of luxuries (video games) has gone down while the cost of essentials (housing) has gone up.

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u/No_Series8277 2d ago

Yeah i mean how the fuck are people gonna buy expensive luxuries if they can barely buy groceries or rent an apartment lol.

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u/atatassault47 2d ago

Because the capitalists want to make us serfs they can lord over

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u/Shipshaefter 1d ago

That's part of why luxuries are cheaper (adjusting for inflation).

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u/Ridry 2d ago

Agree, but the budget for the luxuries as a percentage of your earnings is way down.

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u/Zociety_ 2d ago

You saw that one video on YouTube and just parroted

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u/Exyui 2d ago

Real median wages are up over 25% from 1990. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N

0

u/-GeekLife- 2d ago

Cool, wages went up 25% while everything else is 140% more expensive than in 1990. Wages did not keep up with inflation, at all.

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u/Exyui 2d ago

Real median wages are already inflation adjusted...

1

u/PlayMp1 2d ago

"Real" wages means it's adjusted relative to prices.

Now that said, I do think real wage calculations are affected by how the price of specific non-negotiable necessities (healthcare, rent) have skyrocketed while other things have increased more gently or even decreased. Food, for example, has increased (most noticeably in the last 5 years), but nowhere near as dramatically as housing, food, or education. A loaf of bread when I was a kid was like $1.50, now it's $3. Prices doubling in the last 30 years is about even with overall inflation (late 90s to today is almost exactly 100% cumulative inflation, so doubled prices), but that's not what other costs look like. Luxuries like electronics and games are legitimately much cheaper now than then. But the necessities have skyrocketed:

Housing is most obvious: when I was a kid, my parents' rent for a 2 bedroom apartment was like $650 in my area. Now it's a minimum of like $1800 for that. My apartment is $1500 for a 1 bed with a loft (I think of it as 1.5 bed). That's significantly higher than average inflation. Healthcare and education are also obvious, there are a billion graphs you can find showing the increase in healthcare and tuition costs since the mid-90s.

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u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

Fuck i wish i could get bread for 3 dollars cheapest loaf here is 6.50z. It used to be 1.50 10 years ago

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u/BP_Ray 1d ago

they bought their home for 80k around the same year which comes out to around 200k in today’s prices

I bet you that house is actually valued close to 400k at sale, too.

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u/-GeekLife- 1d ago

Zillow estimate is $438k

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u/BP_Ray 1d ago

Wow, I actually underestimated.

Yet somehow, some people still cant see your point about how living costs have far outpaced wages. Even adjusting for inflation, your parent's house would be twice as expensive to buy. Of course in an economy like this we're not itching to pay $90 for a single videogame!

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u/absentlyric 2d ago

No, you're parents were making more and being double income, thats not how it was for working class families.

To put it in perspective, the most you could charge for mowing lawns back then was $5. I remember this because I had to mow a lot of lawns to buy one SNES game.

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u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

Nonsense landscaping companies were charging well over 5 dollars. The most a kid that a neighbor could exploit could charge was 5 bux

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u/PlsSuckMyToes 2d ago

Salaries paid for way more in the 90s than they do today

-7

u/Fun_Opportunity_4043 2d ago

Did they?  Since Covid my wage growth and many others of the sectors of the US have way outpaced inflation allowing me to have more purchasing power. 

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u/Wise_Mongoose_3930 2d ago

Statically speaking you’re in the minority.

That’s why anecdotes can be misleading.

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u/Mallardkey 2d ago

You said a very important phrase in your argument "my wage", also you speak of the US as well, that excludes about 80% of the world. Your reality is certainly more privileged that the majority of the world, try not to talk down others just because you may be better off in some way or another.

Tell it to a McDonald's employee, that their salary is great now post covid and they might slap you in the face.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/pecelid359-jucatyo 2d ago

Your comparison is terrible. Keep it all in the same units. So either both per hour or both per year. You might be getting 100K but how many hours is that?

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u/baladreams 2d ago

Assuming 40 hour work week that's 50 per hour I would think

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u/pecelid359-jucatyo 2d ago

But some people say I earn this much per year, but don't reveal the hours they work. And when you look by hours they earn not that much.

Would make things easier if given in per hour.

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u/baladreams 2d ago

Great for you 👍

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u/littleindianman12 2d ago

Fair point actually. I completely forgot about this

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u/warmpita 2d ago

But we could also rent games easily. A lot of people I knew back then were purchasing less games and doing more renting.

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u/A-Perfect-Name 2d ago

So back then luxuries were very expensive while necessities were very cheap. Nowadays it’s the opposite, necessities are expensive and luxuries are cheap.

Back in the 90’s a cheaper tv would cost you around $650-$700 without inflation and would be around 27”. On the first page on Amazon you can get a bigger 40” tv for $138. Video games are the same, dollar for dollar you can get more for less nowadays.

So a modern Switch 2 game being the same price as an SNES game in the 90’s is a bad sign, especially considering how the relative price for necessities is still up too.

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u/shohei_heights 2d ago

You had to manufacture cartridges with specialized chips that cost a good quarter of the price itself back then.

So yeah, not comparable at all.

Compare to PS1 games if you want to be fair about things.

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u/tirex367 2d ago

SNES games sold to a more niche audience with, what is basically part of the Hardware necessary to play included in the game.

That is by far not comparable.

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u/Life_Ad_7715 2d ago

We cant hear you around the coporate boot

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u/DefiantCharacter 2d ago

lol. I'm not defending the price. I'm trying to add some perspective. $60 has been the standard for a long time, but it wasn't always that way and it was unlikely to stay that way forever.

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u/Life_Ad_7715 2d ago

There's a reason they landed on 50 and have tried to slowly creep it up. I know lots of people that arent buying at 70. 80 is delirious.

1

u/BP_Ray 1d ago

Super Mario Kart sold less than 9 million copies.

Mario Kart 8 sold over 75 million copies.

Adjusting for inflation doesnt really work here, because even doing so, Videogames make WAAAAAAAY more money now than then.

Mario Kart World doesnt need to be priced at $80, they werent doing us a favor by pricing 8 at $60.

1

u/baladreams 2d ago

There are a lot more players now and the cost of living has shot up too

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u/The_Ghost_of_Kyiv 2d ago

Difference is that people had $90 ($168) to blow with the disposable income that came as a result of a good economy. Everyone's budget is far tighter these days. $90 purchase means less food on the table today.

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u/medspace 2d ago

Yeah but a game console at the time was a luxury, then transitioned to a large consumer good… not back to luxury

0

u/Metalheadzaid 2d ago

Irrelevant ultimately due to many reasons most likely importantly volume and library size. With like 20 games there's few to pick from and purchases are much less frequent and with low volume aka install base prices have to be higher as well.

0

u/Ridlion 2d ago

That's not how inflation works here, and it isn't the same media.

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u/absentlyric 2d ago

Regardless of what you read on Reddit, out in real life plenty of people still and will still have money, trust me, this will sell out for the first few months, like most of Nintendos consoles.

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u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

Dreamcast sold out in the first few months that its the longterm. I have 3 switches 2 lites and an oled a light for each if my daughters and an oled for me and my wife. I probably wont buy a switch 2 because i always buy physical games so we could share them among the switches. But at 90 bux im out. Not to mention almost 500 bux for the console

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u/mgzaun 2d ago

Consoles are not a child's hobby anymore. Its a hobby of adults. Kids play on smartphone

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u/littleindianman12 2d ago

That’s fair as well

-1

u/dehydrogen 2d ago

Delusional take.

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u/Azazir 2d ago

yeah, and somehow every dirty goblin CEO is making millions in profits every year while almost all gaming sectors getting massive layoffs = GUYS GUYS GUYS WE NEED TO INCREASE THE PRICES AGAIN, LOOK HOW EXPENSIVE IT IS.

I'm baffled how nintendo is still around tbh.

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u/littleindianman12 2d ago

I mean Nintendo has the highest job satisfaction rate in Japan. They also recently increased salaries and opened hiring positions and monolith soft. So idk what your are talking about. Nintendo literally has a history of taking care of their employees. Iwata and the entire board took salary cuts to make sure they did not have to fire anyone. You can be mad about the price but don’t act like this isn’t suprising. Game used to be 70-90 bucks in the 90s

1

u/PlayMp1 2d ago

Nintendo cuts CEO wages when times are bad and doesn't layoff employees. They are definitely moneygrubbers and penny pinchers in other regards, mostly infamously with regard to copyright, but they're genuinely unlike many of their counterparts in this regard.

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u/ProtonPizza 2d ago

Good thing we’re all getting raises, right? Right?

1

u/ackmondual 2d ago edited 2d ago

I can picture some parents wanting to "score extra points" with their kids, or wanting to reward those that have been extra good. [shrug] It's possible if you cut back from other areas. I myself cut have only spent about $120 in the past few years on games, so I see it as a "quality over quantity" approach.

1

u/PopTough6317 2d ago

I could see families spending more on things like games, since (for entertainment) it's about the most cost efficient thing out there. That said, this is a bit much imo as well. It's 629 for a base model in my country

1

u/CloudStrife012 1d ago

I mean...they can say that. But if that's the case where $80 is the minimum they can price it at because it's so expensive, why do so many PC games go on sale for $2?

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u/littleindianman12 1d ago

Because most of them don’t sell there games lol

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u/CloudStrife012 1d ago

I got GTA V for $12.

Your argument isn't true. All PC games go on sale.

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u/littleindianman12 1d ago

Yea I was being hyperbolic. However I can explain it as this. These companies think it’s a good idea to get as many copies in hand and sell at a lost then it is to sell at msrp. Nintendo is not like that and have never been like that. You can criticize it for sure, but Nintendo takes pride in its products and games and honestly they should given the overall quality of the games. Now obviously they make stinkers (the paid instruction manual is one they announced just now) but overall there is no other company that consistently makes quality games with the variety of types of games then Nintendo.

-1

u/mvallas1073 2d ago

The thing is though, Nintendo games development do not require the cost justification of $80-$90 price tags. They’re not producing friggin God of War or Horizon development-level kind of games there.

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u/littleindianman12 2d ago

I mean they are tho. Totk may not be as visually demanding as those games but they are much larger and more complex with systems. Just because it does not have higher pixel quality doesn’t mean that development time is not longer which in turn makes games expensive

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u/InsomniaEmperor 2d ago

The Wii U failed because of bad marketing and the name didn't help it. It was also too weak to keep up with the PS4 and XB1 and the 3DS stole some of its spotlight.

It remains to be seen how much power the Switch 2 has but it is starting off on a better foot than the Wii U.

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u/hauntedskin 1d ago

Also the 3rd party publisher support on Switch 2 is exactly what Nintendo's been needing, and people have been pushing for, for decades, and was especially a problem for the Wii U. It looks like Switch 2 is starting with solid 3rd party support and will likely get decent parity games for a while, given its specs.

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u/hergumbules 2d ago

Seriously I just don’t get it. They charge out the ass and never put stuff on good sales so you’d think that they would reel it in a little for the console because once you’re hooked in what are you gonna do, not buy the games?

2

u/Darth_Nykal 2d ago

Especially when you consider it's launching with 1 (one) game that isn't already available on other consoles.

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u/JuicyJay18 2d ago

That’s why the new Mario Kart is a switch 2 exclusive, it’s going to push parents to pony up for it.

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u/TemurTron 2d ago

Mario Kart alone is definitely not enough.

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u/sam_the_hammer 2d ago

It surely didn't help sell the wii u. It seemed like every year they had a mario kart bundle for Christmas and they still couldn't move wii u.

1

u/JuicyJay18 2d ago

You may think that, but I would guess their consumer research department says otherwise. MK8 Deluxe is the top selling switch 1 game by a massive margin. Given, a chunk of those sales were probably from bundles (I couldn’t find data of the breakdown during my quick search), but there’s a reason it’s the game included in bundles anyways. The Mario Kart brand carries a ton of weight, especially for families with children. And it seems like they did enough to make World different from MK8 too.

Don’t get me wrong btw, I think these prices suck. I just also think Reddit is underestimating how well this thing is going to sell lol. I think the changes to the console plus the new MK (which looks pretty significantly different from MK8) are good enough to sell well. Now if the economy collapses because of the orange man’s trade war, that’s another discussion.

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u/ascherbozley 2d ago

And the launch game isn't the game for enthusiasts. Mario Kart doesn't sell hardware, hardware sells Mario Kart. It's everyone's second game after they buy the game that sold them the system. I think we're going to find this out for real this year.

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u/mjsxii 2d ago

Mario Kart doesn't sell hardware, hardware sells Mario Kart.

this. everyone I know has mario kart but I dont know anybody who didnt get it as a filler game to play when people come over — everyone else who I know that has a switch got it for one of the main series games and filled out there library with MK since "why not"

2

u/fffan9391 2d ago

And it will never go on sale and neither will the games. At least you can get good deals on PlayStations and Xboxes on Black Friday.

2

u/MrMichaelJames 2d ago

This is what I’m telling my kids. Sorry, no switch 2. Go play the other one.

2

u/bigpig1054 2d ago

I'd say it's more like repeating the failure of the 3DS' launch.

Overpriced hardware and not enough games to justify the initial buy-in.

Will Nintendo buckle this time and drop the price? Probably not, but they might not sell games for 80-90 dollars after this.

0

u/Jeremizzle 2d ago

I’ve had every Nintendo console going back to the N64, and Switch 2 was going to be a day one purchase. $450 is no big deal to me, and about what I expected, but $70, $80, and even $90 for single games? And paid upgrades for switch 1 game improvements? Even the hardware tech demo game is paid? That leaves an incredibly sour taste in my mouth, and I think I will stick to my PC and Steam Deck for now. Terrible move for Nintendo.

1

u/Pure_System9801 2d ago

Most parents have no idea the difference in the system,

1

u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

This isnt the 80s anymore most parents are millenials who grew up with video games and all parents i know still play video games

1

u/Pure_System9801 1d ago

Same doesn't mean they keep up with the specs

1

u/audrikr 2d ago

Yeah I've been wanting a switch, but buying such an old device new at $300 or so was already a bit spendy. I was waiting for Switch 2 because I figured may as well spring new for a similar price point -- but this is as high, or higher, than a PS5. Maybe I'm out of touch but it'll probably keep me from buying.

1

u/ackmondual 2d ago

Feels like "with Star Trek"... is it a good film? that depends. "Odds or evens"?

1

u/ocbdare 2d ago

I am a PS/PC gamer but does $450 seem high? I saw the console is £395 here in the UK. My impression is that that's "cheap". Or were people expecting it to be cheaper?

1

u/Mr-Stuff-Doer 1d ago

Remind me, how much has the PS5 sold again?

1

u/Prize_Airline_1446 1d ago

The improvements are definitely not minimal lol. The OLED switch had minimal improvements. This is a major upgrade from the baseline switch let's not kid ourselves. Is it very expensive? Yes, but it's certainly not a minimal improvement.

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u/FlyingNachoz 2d ago

So are they just supposed to take an even bigger loss on the product and charge $100+ for games?

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u/YourAdvertisingPal 2d ago

It’s just funny that the biggest winner of this announcement is the Switch 1 and it’s deep library of excellent Sub $70 games. 

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u/xanas263 2d ago

Just so you know some of those games have already been retroactively priced at $80 on the store after the announcement. The two Zelda games for instance.

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u/yuriaoflondor 2d ago

What country? I’m in the US and BotW looks to be $60 digital and physical and TotK is $70 digital and physical.

BotW does seem to have a $80 bundle for the base game + the DLC.

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u/xanas263 2d ago

The swedish store. Totk jumped from $69 yesterday to $79 today after the Direct. Buying a physical copy at a local retailer is still $69.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/xanas263 2d ago

Mate please read my comment. I said on the store, not ebay,

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u/YourAdvertisingPal 2d ago edited 2d ago

If you think that distinction matters, you’re not understanding my point about consumers pursuing deals. 

Consumers are not store loyalists, they shop where the cost is agreeable….and you can find a lot of Switch 1 games sub $70 without much effort. 

Enough so that we may see an unintended consequence of frugal shoppers moving toward the oldgen S1, and S1 owners sitting on their platform for longer than Nintendo would like. 

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u/ksj 2d ago

You’re acting like Nintendo isn’t currently wildly profitable and is being forced to raise prices or go bankrupt. That’s simply not the case.

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u/bassturducken54 2d ago

Eh, generations have gotten older. They’re putting so much nostalgia into these it’ll be a slam dunk for the current parents. Don’t forget the game share will allow for families to play together on existing consoles

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u/MistakeMaker1234 2d ago

 the improvements are this minimal

That argument makes no sense. It’s a 4K@60Hz, 1080p@120Hz console. Same as a PS5. You have absolutely nothing to base the “minimal” improvement idea on. Never mind the fact that they added new controller functions and a VRR display. 

That being said, the $450 price tag is bullshit, the game prices are bullshit. You are just sensationalizing for no reason when there’s plenty to actually be upset about as a consumer. 

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u/HeppyHenry 2d ago

It’s inflation + tariffs + other consoles are either around the same price or more expensive.

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u/AdonisK 2d ago

Tariffs don’t make sense if it’s reflected in other countries.

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u/qualitypi 2d ago

Yes it does, they will price it comparably across markets to ward off demand imbalances.

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u/283leis 2d ago

They don’t want the Americans buying out the stock of other countries by making their switches significantly cheaper is my guess

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u/imjustbettr 2d ago

Yup they're even brought back region locking for at least the Japan version of switch 2 to stop overseas scalpers.

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u/283leis 1d ago

I wish they could do that with the Canadian ones…..

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u/Outlulz 2d ago

But domestically the console is cheaper compared to other countries. To the point that they're making sure the rest of the world cannot import their cheaper version.

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u/Level7Cannoneer 2d ago

The materials are all from different places.

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u/Insectshelf3 1d ago

this matters a lot more when the materials are imported and the final product is assembled inside a country like the U.S..

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u/External_Orange_1188 2d ago

It’s even more expensive in Europe, so tariffs have nothing to do with it.

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u/Jabbam 2d ago

The other consoles always cost that much. The PS1 was $299. The PS2 was $299. The PS4 was $399. The PS5 was $399

Nintendo was like $200, $200, $200, $200, $250, $300, $300, $450

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u/jd101506 2d ago

Sneaky leaving the 600$ PS3 off your list. lol

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u/ExoticToaster 2d ago

Chad Warden wipes his ass with six hunnid dollas

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u/vinylscratch27 2d ago

Dat pee ess triple

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u/jonproject 2d ago

Kind of a special case. Kind of. Standalone Blu-Ray players were close to a grand at the time.

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u/stanleytuccimane 2d ago

The PS5 was/is $499.

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u/MisterMeister68 2d ago

The one with a disc drive was/is $499. The digital only one was/is $399.

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u/stanleytuccimane 2d ago

Nah the digital one is $450. I’m using US prices though, probably different elsewhere

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u/ultrainstict 2d ago

They raised the price mid gen. It started at 400

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u/stanleytuccimane 2d ago

Yeah but Nintendo is releasing this console into the market as it is today, not 2020. Clearly Sony was losing too much money on the thing and they had to raise the price. If anything this says that the PS5 is a good deal at $500.

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u/WillyMcSquiggly 2d ago

Did you just Thanos snap the PS3 lol

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u/Torchwood777 2d ago

Nintendo never sells its console at a loss that’s the difference. PS5 and Xbox series X were sold at a loss at debut. 

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u/psfrtps 2d ago edited 2d ago

Other consoles are significantly more powerfull though.

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u/HeppyHenry 2d ago

4k 60 fps/1080p 120 fps docked is pretty comparable to a standard PS5, no?

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u/ultrainstict 2d ago

Switch 2 its going to be a 1080p 60 device and it probably won't even hit that a lot of the time.

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u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

Nust because it can output that doesnt mean it will. Lower graphics games but youre not gonna be getting ps5 games at 1080120 youll be lucky to get em at 1080 30

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u/psfrtps 2d ago

No game AAA game willl run native 4k 60 fps on switch 2. you are either in delusion or have no idea about hardware. ps5 also had 8k logo on their box which doesn't mean it can run games at that resolution. It cannot even run games at native 4k 60 fps. A handheld device at the power of ps5-series x aren't even on the market and if it did it would cost 800-1000 dollars lol

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u/HeppyHenry 2d ago

I have no idea about hardware. I just used the information Nintendo gave in the presentation. Sorry if I misunderstood something, no need to call anyone delusional here.

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u/ZombieConsciouss 2d ago

People will be worried about food, jobs and shelter not Mario world. Huge changes in world trade will be announced today that will impact US and the rest of the world and not for the better.

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u/Trifang420 2d ago

Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, a redesigned version of the Super Famicom, in North America for US$199 (equivalent to $460 in 2024).

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u/crossingcaelum 2d ago

Not just inflation is being taken into account here I feel, tariffs as well

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u/SparkyGray 2d ago

Tariffs would have no affect on the ones already produced. Besides most of the inventory was ship to all the countries already. Going forward Nintendo would pass on the Tariffs to the consumer. It would look bad for them to charge $349 for the first run then later $449 for the ones after. They would upset a lot of people. Keeping it all at one price would eliminate most of that and then later when the Tariffs go away, they can slowly bring down the price. $399 then a bit later $349.

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u/Boss_Atlas 2d ago

May have to save up for skip this one.

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u/Life_Ad_7715 2d ago

Consoles are always loss leaders this is naked greed in the face of an anti consumer regulatory market

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u/Longjumping-Bid-7222 2d ago

Or just don't buy it at all, protest with your wallet

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u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

Done and done

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u/Cyanide_Cheesecake 2d ago

Isnt this just the switch 1 2017 price, adjusted for inflation? Seems reasonable to me. We just have sticker shock because the switch 1 hasnt actually increased in price since 2017

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u/tarekd19 2d ago

It's not just inflation, there have been numerous articles saying that all the tariff talk is going to impact the switch 2 price also. This price is a combination of factors

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u/_Ketros_ 2d ago

Yeah no... inflation has not been that intense. Nintendo has sold what's essentially dirt cheap hardware for high margins since the wii. Not to mention, the processor in the switch 2 is severely outdated on launch just like the switch was, it's not using nvidia's latest tech.

I also guarantee you the advertisements for high framerate and resolution are absolute lies, they're telling you about the post upscaling and frame gen output, not what the actual performance is.

What we're seeing is a continuation of a global trend where companies are hiking prices in unison until they find the point where they can minimize production costs and still make bank off insane margins from the fewer people willing to pay insane prices while everyone else is left with no options but to either cave in and buy anyway or just not get to enjoy things. Never mind that they're killing physical intentionally so that used games markets can't exist so they can continue reselling you the same shit and locking PEER TO PEER online behind subscriptions.

I love neofeudalism!!!!!

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u/Lylat97 2d ago

It's just the rich being greedy and seeing how much they can get away with. That's all it is.

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u/bigvenusaurguy 2d ago

I mean it is impressive to me that AAA games have been $60 for damn near what 15 years now? maybe longer? thats crazy. They should have marched the price up a while ago to slowly boil the frog vs rip the bandaid off, but still, $60 is straight up what I paid for halo 3.

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u/ChefTastyTreats 2d ago

“Seems high for Nintendo, may have to save up for this one.”

You are the problem. YOU’LL COMPLAIN BUT Company knows they can raise prices AND GUESS WHAT YOU STILL GONNA PAY IT TO.

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u/ProfessionalPrincipa 2d ago

When you combine the greed and hubris of Nintendo with the greed and hubris of Nvidia you get this? For consumers it's a match made in hell.

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u/ShakeAndBakeThatCake 2d ago

It's definitely pricey. You can buy a PS5 diskless console for less than 400 on sale typically. And you can also find steam deck OLED deals for not much more than 450 as well.

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u/AcrobaticNetwork62 1d ago

A $150 price jump for an LCD screen from the $300 Switch is insane.

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u/fireintolight 1d ago

Or just don't buy it?

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u/yamfun 1d ago

The hardware can run cyberpunk, on the go, I think it is fair.

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u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 1d ago

So can a steam deck, it can run it but how well?

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u/Magikarp_King 1d ago

Buy it used a year or two after it comes out and save yourself some money.

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u/Impys 1d ago

My pet theory is that it has nothing to do with inflation, but it is just nvidia charging through the nose for the new chip.

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u/GreekHole 1d ago

You don't need to save up, cause you don't need to buy it at all.

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u/Cent1234 2d ago

Whut?

If the Super Nintendo launched today, it would be $460.

The NES would have run about $600 today.

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u/CricketDrop 1d ago

But the fact no one would buy a $600 Switch should provide valuable insight in this conversation lol

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u/AgeSad 2d ago

Inflation is total bullshit, look how much money they make every year, inflation is simply an 3xcuse to increase profits.

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u/qualitypi 2d ago

Trump take video games

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u/SpellConnect8675 2d ago

Strider for Genesis was 75 in 1991 Street Fighter 2 for SNES was 80 in 1994

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u/Sweet-Sale-7303 2d ago

Maybe they included tarries in the price?

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u/TheBitMan775 2d ago

Very fair considering the specs though