Well, there it is.
Last month, I wrote about how two things were making me recommend Switch 2 to family and friends despite the hefty price tag and the lack of a truly killer ‘OMG I need one to play this life-changing video game’ to call its own: the convenience of GameChat versus scratchy speakerphone while visiting my mum’s Animal Crossing island with the kids, and a more general fear of price increase (which I dubbed ‘FOPI’).
With Sony having hiked PS5 prices again, giving fence-sitters less than a week to invest before the price of entry for a PS5 Pro went up to a staggering $900, it felt like a matter of time before Nintendo was forced to follow suit. Nintendo already raised the prices of Switch 1 in the US — which will surely affect its chances of beating PS2’s all-time best-selling console record — so this move to increase Switch 2 prices globally should come as no surprise if you’ve been keeping a vague eye on the news.
To recap if you missed it, you’ll be paying $50 USD / €30 more for a Switch 2 starting on 1st September, with the RRP going up from $449.99 / €469.99 to $499.99 / €499.99 (UK prices “will be shared at a later date”). That’s 500 notes for Nintendo’s latest console, just $100 shy of Sony’s cheapest PS5.
On Nintendo’s home turf, the price on the region-exclusive Japanese-Language System goes up by ¥10,000 to ¥59,980 (around $380 at the time of writing) on 25th May, and Switch 1 models are also affected as the weak yen continues to cause issues for Japanese firms and ‘events’ push the global economy down the toilet.
With the price for many at launch being on the higher end of acceptability, and an $80 Mario Kart World throwing petrol on the fire, this is discouraging news, however expected it is. 500 bucks for a Nintendo console without a game, in this economy? That’s a real ask.
Looking at Nintendo’s latest financials, Switch 2 is selling well and tracking ahead of its wickedly successful predecessor in Year One sales terms. The high price and lack of groundbreaking exclusives hasn’t stopped it selling nearly 20 million units in its first 10 months.
Pokémon Pokopia sold more than 4 million copies in its first five weeks alone, too, a surprise hit that’s seen Nintendo cobbling together a bundle for June. Elsewhere, Tomodachi Life — a Switch 1 game, remember — has shifted a whopping 3.8 million copies in just three weeks. Despite everything, people are buying games and systems.
But with forecasts lowered for the upcoming year, the question is whether fear of the impending price hike will cause a sales surge. Software-wise, there’s good stuff on the slate but nothing which screams ‘system seller’. Could FOPI be a significant factor driving Switch 2 sales? Will my mum bite the bullet over the summer despite the ‘boring grey one’ being the only option? Will you be jumping aboard the Switch 2 train earlier than planned to avoid paying more?
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