Research firm Niko Partners has released its new report that predicts how the gaming industry will change over the course of 2026. In its predictions report, the company has noted a number of trends throughout the industry, and among its forecasts is a global price hike for the Nintendo Switch 2.
The research firm notes that while the Switch 2 has an advantage in price right now thanks to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles getting more expensive, Nintendo’s console is expected to follow Sony’s and Microsoft’s footsteps. This projected price hike is attributed to US tariffs and the rise in the cost of memory thanks to global shortages. The firm also predicts that, rather than an overall price hike, Nintendo may choose to simply discontinue its $449 SKU in favour of a higher-priced bundle.
Interestingly, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa had spoken about rising memory prices earlier this month. When asked whether we would see a price hike for the Switch 2, he said that the company is currently paying close attention to market conditions, like the import tariffs by the US. As for how the shortage of memory affects manufacturing, however, he noted that the Switch 2 has been shielded by its effects so far thanks to Nintendo having procured the necessary RAM in advance.
“Hardware profitability depends on factors like component procurement conditions, cost reductions through mass production, and the impact of exchange rates and tariffs,” Furukawa said. “It’s difficult to generalize. Fundamentally, we aim to address this by advancing component procurement over the medium to long term.”
“We procure from suppliers based on our medium- to long-term business plans, but the current memory market is very volatile,” he continued. “There is no immediate impact on earnings, but it is something we must monitor closely.”
As for how things like tariffs could affect the cost of the Switch 2 in the future, Furukawa noted that Nintendo lists US tariffs as a “cost” that can then be passed on to customers. At the same time, however, keeping low costs is important for the company since it is still trying to drive adoption of its relatively new console.
“This is a crucial period for our game business as we promote the adoption of new hardware and maintain the momentum of our platforms,” he said. “We are working on this while carefully considering the situation.”
As for the research by Niko Partners, some of its other major predictions for the gaming industry largely revolve around five regions: Mainland China, East Asia (Japan and Korea), Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore), South Asia (India), and MENA (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt).
Among other things, the firm believes 2026 will see a 40 percent rise of women gamers in Asia and MENA. Following previous market trends, it noted that games marketed towards women, like Love and Deepspace, as well as core games with strong competitive elements like Valorant have seen a rise in women players.
The research firm has also predicted that Asian game development studios will start gradually moving away from their predominantly gacha and lootbox-driven monetization systems. This in large part thanks to market saturation, with heavyweights in the industry like miHoYo also releasing multiple gacha games that compete with each other. Regulation might also have a role to play in this moving forward.