If there's one thing that fans have been critical about when it comes to the Switch 2, it's its price. However, former Nintendo marketing leads Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang believe (and hope) that the tariff situation in the United States probably won't end up increasing the cost further for consumers – in fact, Nintendo has a golden opportunity to "repair some goodwill" by absorbing the costs itself.
As announced during the flurry of Nintendo Switch 2 news last week, the Switch successor costs $450 in the United States, and with upcoming Switch 2 games going up to $80 in the case of Mario Kart World, these things don't come cheap. This was already enough for many to beg Nintendo to "drop the price," but some fans have since become concerned that the exact opposite could happen as a result of the tariffs recently announced by US President Donald Trump. Nintendo has already delayed pre-orders for the console in the US and Canada because of the tariffs, with the company initially explaining that this was to "assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions."
Discussing the ongoing tariff situation on their YouTube channel, Ellis and Yang – former hosts of Nintendo Minute and NOA's former director of social media marketing and original content, and former senior manager of creator relations and original content, respectively – speculate that there's a few potential options Nintendo could take to deal with the ongoing circumstances. While a price increase to offset the tariffs could be one approach, the pair are ultimately optimistic that Nintendo will deal with the costs itself.
This is something that Ellis is confident the company could feasibly do, noting: "They can do it, they can eat it, it would not make a huge dent in them." Pointing to Nintendo's financial success, he goes on to say that this is "an option a lot of other companies don't even have."
The benefits of this wouldn't just be for customers who wouldn't have to pay more for their already pricey consoles, though. Yang explains: "They have lost so much trust already with the current negative sentiment around price, and around what they're doing with the games and charging the high price for Mario Kart World, this would repair some goodwill with their current fan base."
Furthermore, she continues, this would help if Nintendo is looking to have "a smooth transition between Switch 1 and Switch 2," since "you're not now asking the customer to pay more, you're not giving them a confusing message of 'Oh, we announced this price of $450 and now we have to raise the price for you to get this thing,' you can start immediately with your pre-order strategy as planned, you can start to like work towards your June 5 launch which is coming up very soon. So it does feel like this one helps with the perception, the negative perception that Nintendo has right now."
Reflecting on all the options, Yang thinks Nintendo is still probably "seriously considering" a price increase, but is "very hopeful" that it will ultimately "eat the cost" like explained above. From the company's perspective, she speculates, Nintendo may think that it's "lost so much trust, and we've made this a rocky road in already for so many people. This is the opportunity for us to smooth this out for them, and look at the situation long term."
The tariff situation is constantly evolving – just yesterday, it was announced that a 90-day pause on tariffs is being implemented for many affected countries (but not all). Nintendo still hasn't given an update on its pre-orders in the US and Canada, however, so we'll have to wait and see what its plan is there.
Be sure to keep up with everything we know about Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders.
