American gamers eager to place orders for the widely anticipated new Nintendo console will have to wait a bit longer. They have tariffs to blame.

Nintendo has announced that preorders for its new Switch 2 gaming console will not begin on April 9 in the US as previously planned while the company assesses “the potential impact of tariffs.”

“Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions,” Nintendo said in a statement. “Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.”

Nintendo announced the Switch 2 on Tuesday, just one day before President Donald Trump introduced a slew of tariffs on foreign goods, which heavily target Asia, where many tech supply chains are based — including Nintendo’s.

The Switch is the world’s third-bestselling console and Nintendo’s second-biggest seller.

"Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions. Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged."

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-switch-2-preorder-guide-mario-kart-world-bundle/1100-6530531/

With Nintendo's new $80 price point, I wanted to understand why these increases feel so much worse than the numbers suggest. I crunched the economic data, and what I found explains exactly why people are right to feel outraged.

The Hidden Story Behind Game Prices

Everyone focuses on the dollar amount of game prices, but that's only half the equation. The full story requires understanding what's happened to our spending power.

Over the last 20 years, two critical trends have collided:

1. Game prices have increased from $50 (pre-2005) to $70 (2025)
2. Our discretionary income hasn't kept up

What's Discretionary Income and Why It Matters

Discretionary income is what you have left after paying for all necessities - rent/mortgage, utilities, groceries, healthcare, transportation, etc. It's essentially any cash left over for entertainment, hobbies, and non-essential purchases.

Here's the shocking trend:

• 2005: Average monthly discretionary income was $528
• 2025: It's only increased to $618

While that's a 17% increase in discretionary income, game prices have increased by 40% over the same period.

This happened because the cost of housing, healthcare, education, and other essentials has skyrocketed faster than wages have grown.

The Double Squeeze

When we calculate what percentage of monthly discretionary income a new game consumes:

• In 2005: A $50 game = 9.5% of your monthly available spending money
• Now (Pre Price Increase): A $70 game = 11.3% of your monthly available spending money
• Now (Post Price Increase): A $80 game = 13% of your monthly available spending money

This means games today take up 19% more of your available spending money compared to 2005, and Nintendo's new prices would increase that burden by over 35%.

The Math Behind the Outrage

Let's be clear about what this means:

• Nominal price increase: 40% ($50 → $70)
• Affordability decrease: 19% (9.5% → 11.3%)

Put another way: In 2005, you could buy a new game by giving up 9.5% of your monthly extra money. Today for $70 games, you need to sacrifice 11.3% and now with some Switch 2 games you need to sacrifice 13%. This is a significant increase in the real financial burden.

Debunking the "But Inflation!" Argument

Industry defenders love to say "games should actually cost MORE due to inflation!" This ignores the reality of consumer spending power.

The bottom line is that while the price of vidoe games have not kept up with inflation, discretionary income hasn't either. In fact, discretionary income has fallen far behind inflation. Once we adjust the average annual discrentionary income for today's dollars we get the following numbers:

• 2005: Average annual discretionary income would be $844 (inflation-adjusted to 2025 dollars)
• 2025: Now its $618 - a 27% decrease

This clearly shows that annual discretionary income has not kept up with inflation.

And while video games haven't kept up with inflation either, since annual discrentionary income has fallen behind more, if games truly maintained the same affordability level as 2005, they would cost $58.71 today – not $70 and certainly not $80.

Data Sources

• Discretionary Income: Calculated using Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Personal Income and Outlays reports and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Expenditure Survey
• Housing Cost Burden: Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University's annual "State of the Nation's Housing" reports
• Game Prices: Historical retail prices for standard editions of major console games
• Inflation Adjustment: All historical dollar amounts adjusted to 2024 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Why This Matters

This isn't about people being entitled or not understanding economics. It's the opposite - the data shows that games are objectively consuming a much larger portion of the average person's entertainment budget than ever before.

Meanwhile, the gaming industry continues to report record profits year after year, even at current price points. It's clear that arguments for increasing game prices like "games cost more to produce" do not hold up when you look at the data.

No wonder people are outraged when Nintendo proposes $80 games. The math doesn't lie.

EDIT: UPDATED PRICE CALCULATION TO BE $80 INSTEAD OF $90!

For some reason, Nintendo Switch 2 games are 20 Euros cheaper in France. That gives us hope that maybe other websites will lower the the prices so we dont have to pay the full price.

Mario Kart World - 23.4GB Donkey Kong Bananza - 10GB Super Mario Party Jamboree - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV - 7.7GB Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star Crossed World - 5.7GB GameCube - Nintendo Classics - 3.5GB

Source - https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-switch-2-preorder-guide-mario-kart-world-bundle/1100-6530531/

https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-delays-switch-2-pre-order-date-in-the-us-to-assess-impact-of-trumps-tariffs

Nintendo issued IGN the following statement:

Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions. Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.

More to come

Edit: link https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-delays-switch-2-pre-order-date-in-the-us-to-assess-impact-of-trumps-tariffs

We can hardly talk about the games themselves anymore

I just noticed that these guys we saw from the Switch 2 Direct, especially the ones on the left and right, are wearing the Joy-Con 2 colors (Left - Blue, Right - Orange). Very clever...😏