There has been much speculation regarding the potential for Nintendo to raise the prices for the Switch 2. In a recent episode of the Kit & Krysta Podcast, a former Nintendo sales lead discussed the company’s pricing practices and the differences in how it will tackle digital and physical first-party releases.
The employee, going by the name Sean, praised Nintendo’s recent announcement, which involves digital copies of first-party games being priced lower than physical copies. He called it a “consumer-first” move. However, he also noted that the company will have to follow up by raising the price for its console hardware. In fact, he believes that making digital copies of games more affordable might be a way to make potential increasing hardware prices “more palatable.”
“Unfortunately, I think eventually the hardware price is going to have to go up,” he said. “I think that there’s things that they can and seem to be doing to try and mitigate that, but I also look at this move on software, if I’m reading it correctly, as a way to make a hardware price increase a little bit more palatable.”
The pricing differences for the physical and digital copies of first-party Nintendo games will kick off in May with the release of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, which will cost $59.99 on the eShop and $69.99 at retail. The company noted that this decision “simply reflects the different costs associated with producing and distributing each format and offers players more choice in how they can buy and play Nintendo games.” The move marks a major change, which had previously charged $79.99 for its Switch 2-exclusive releases like Mario Kart World. On the other hand, Donkey Kong Bananza was priced more in line with other AAA releases, at $69.99.
Fears that Nintendo would increase the Switch 2’s price arose in light of global memory shortages and various tariffs on imports. These discussions have been heating up in recent weeks thanks to Sony announcing price hikes for the PS5, PS5 Pro, and PS Portal. As a result, the PS5 Pro is now priced at $899.99 in the US. The company said that these hikes were “a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide.”
Back in February, a Bloomberg report had indicated that Sony and Nintendo were keeping an eye on RAM prices, with Sony possibly pushing back its next-generation console launch to either 2028 or 2029. Nintendo, on the other hand, was noted as looking at raising Switch 2 prices later this year.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has spoken about having to deal with the current state of the global economy, especially when it comes to trade tariffs, exchange rates, and memory shortages.
“Hardware profitability depends on factors like component procurement conditions, cost reductions through mass production, and the impact of exchange rates and tariffs,” he said. “It’s difficult to generalize. Fundamentally, we aim to address this by advancing component procurement over the medium to long term.”
