As the original Nintendo Switch goes up in price, a former Nintendo of America marketing manager reckons it could actually really benefit the Switch 2.
The Switch 2 reveal was almost immediately followed by massive tariff increases on countries where Nintendo manufactures the consoles (like China and Vietnam), resulting in pre-orders being delayed in the United States. But after fears that the already-expensive Switch 2 would be more expensive for US customers, Nintendo kept it the same, with accessories getting hit instead.
Now another price rise has arrived, but once again the Switch 2 has dodged it, and strangely, the eight-year old Nintendo Switch will be going up in price, with the OLED model being now $50 less than the Switch 2. But former Nintendo of America senior PR manager and director of social media marketing and original content Kit Ellis thinks "this could actually be really good news for Nintendo and the Switch 2."
Ellis states "a new customer today buying a Nintendo Switch 2 is a lot more valuable than a new customer buying an old Nintendo Switch," as that gets a player into their new ecosystem going forward, in what will likely be close to 10-years of Switch 2. Now that the original console is getting closer in price to the new Switch 2, the type of person who waits until the end of a console's lifetime to grab one may think it's worth just dropping the extra $50 to get the new console that's backwards compatible.
He adds that Nintendo has "found a way to stay winning, no matter how much it stinks for all of us, the regular people, in the end."
