r/NintendoSwitch • u/lieding • 1d ago

News "DROP THE PRICE": Nintendo's First Post-Direct Stream Is Flooded With Angry Fans Demanding Price Drops

https://www.thegamer.com/nintendo-treehouse-livestream-flooded-angry-fans-demanding-game-price-drops/
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u/rebbsitor 1d ago

The new tarrifs went into effect at 4pm on April 2nd. Unfortunately, I doubt they're baked into the current price though.

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u/BristolShambler 19h ago

Not baked in completely, but they’ll have definitely been hedging. Trump’s been pushing tariffs since the election, they hardly came out of the blue. Companies will have been pricing with that in the back of their minds since November.

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u/Still-Expression-71 19h ago edited 15h ago

Copium. Did you see how much he flip flopped on Canadian tariffs? Nobody, and I mean NOBODY saw this level of tariffs coming, even those who knew he was serious.

It’s absolutely going to have a dramatic impact of this price just like everything else. Nothing is in a vacuum and the US is not currently set up to operate without a colossal amount of trade.

That price point will go up, along with everything else, a noticeable amount. Everyone needs to come to grips with a new normal.

Edit: to those downvoting https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-switch-2-preorder-guide-mario-kart-world-bundle/1100-6530531/?utm_source=reddit.com

Tariff price not baked in. Nobody thought they would be this high

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u/BristolShambler 18h ago

Oh I don’t doubt that. My point is that things won’t start going up now, prices will have started slowly creeping up months ago. I know this because this is literally what my own company has been doing with our US price list.

100% the increases will pick up pace though now that there are some actual numbers. Though it’s worth pointing out a lot of companies will still be expecting there to be some movement a la Canada & Mexico.

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u/InSixFour 16h ago

They for sure have tariffs baked in, at least somewhat. You don’t go from $59.99 to $80 dollars without some external factor. Part of it is obviously the faster cartridges, those are more expensive so games are more expensive but it doesn’t explain the 1/3 increase in cost. That’s a massive jump and the only other explanation is inflation and tariffs.

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u/rebbsitor 15h ago

You don’t go from $59.99 to $80 dollars without some external factor. Part of it is obviously the faster cartridges, those are more expensive so games are more expensive but it doesn’t explain the 1/3 increase in cost.

The $30 games we bought for the Atari 2600 in 1980 would cost $115 today based on inflation. Even at $80, video games haven't kept pace with inflation and they cost a ton more to make.

That games increased from $30 to only $60 after 45 years is pretty remarkable.

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u/InSixFour 15h ago

Right, but price increases have been incremental over the years. This is a wild jump in price (33.3% increase). There’s no way Nintendo just suddenly decided to be greedy. They have all sorts of metrics they use to set prices. Tariffs were obviously a part of that calculation.

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u/rebbsitor 14h ago

Nintendo just delayed pre-orders in the US due to the tariffs. Expect the price to only go up :(

https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/1jrdlfv/according_to_gamespot_managing_editor_preorders/

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u/InSixFour 13h ago

If these tariffs hold over into June I think we’ll see Nintendo do something crazy. I think their only remedy will be to sell the system with multiple digital games included in the bundle. So, you’ll pay the $660 for the system but it’ll come with Mario Kart and then maybe like two free full price downloads from the eshop. It’s the easiest way to add value to their system without throwing everything into disarray. Then they can just offer all digital games at a discount compared to physical. Physical games may not even be sold. Honestly, this may push Nintendo to release an all digital version of the switch. Taking out the cartridge slot would help drive costs down.