Retail pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 will begin on April 24, 2025. At launch, the price for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will remain as announced on April 2 at $449.99, and the Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle will remain as announced…
Prices for accessories will be increasing to compensate for tariffs.
I never bought a console at launch, this won’t change this time either. I will wait for either the OLED or Lite models, or at least until there’s 5 games that I really want and can’t get anywhere else.
My friend is looking to pick one up after that fromsoft game comes out. I might grab one then as well so we can play together, but I’m more in it for Metroid and whatever the Zelda team cooks up.
It’s the fault of people that bought the Switch 1 from scalpers. It basically showed to Nintendo that people were willing to pay a lot more and that they could’ve charged a lot more. The Switch 2 will also be in short supply and Nintendo rather wants that a buyer pays them $500 than a scalper.
… It’s using modern hardware, with specs that are entirely reasonable for being a handheld. The fuck are you expecting, a ps6 that you stick in your pocket for $200?
Then what exactly are you expecting?
The market for new consoles is currently:
Switch 2: $449
Xbox Series S: $299, less resolution/less fps, less powerful than the switch 2
Xbox Series X: $499, more expensive, same resolution/fps, more powerful (tflops) than switch 2, 15.7x the size
PS5: $499, more expensive, same resolution, more fps, more powerful (tflops) than switch 2 but less so than series x, 24x the size
The switch 2 was positioned, and announced, as a portable console capable of similar power levels as one console generation ago, and it overdelivered- the common comparison is that it’s more powerful than a PS4. For a handheld, that is absurdly good, and the price is certainly in line with the rest of the market. The literal only outlier is the Series S being significantly cheaper, which tracks considering the switch 2 is more powerful than it, while being a handheld.
people buy them for the motion sensors and the games. the tech is irrelevant. The NES was ancient tech when it came out.
Most of the games on PS are too hard and/or inappropriate for children.
The hardware really isn’t dated though. Remember this is a handheld, not a console, and it’s using a newly designed custom Nvidia chip. Mainstream audiences aren’t going to be deeply analyzing the specs. They’re just going to look at the games. And the games look very good and are running at 4K.
Indeed I should have said “up to 4K” and of course that is usually going to require using Nvidia’s excellent DLSS tech. But at the end of the day, the results are a visual treat. Again, mainstream consumers don’t think about stuff like this. It’s a solid upgrade over Switch. Thing is going to sell out instantly and be hard to get for a year just like the original regardless of what we think.
It’s only “outrageously” priced compared to its predecessor, and only if you don’t think about it too much. Considering under the hood it’s basically a phone or tablet, it’s very fairly priced considering the specs.
The Switch 1 is basically a tablet from 2017 being sold for $300. It never received a price drop despite it using 8 year old technology, it actually received a price increase with the OLED model. An iPad 5th Gen from 2017 sells for $50 on eBay, for comparison purposes. Not like for like as that has a way higher res screen and less RAM, but it’s fairly close.
As it’s a new chip with an expected 10 year lifespan, it’s likely on 3nm process which means it has to fight for manufacturing time with TSMC because they’re the only ones who can fab that sort of chip.
All that, plus the expectation that they will be absorbing some tariff costs for now means it will likely never see a price drop, and honestly doesn’t seem that bad in terms of pricing. It’s the cheapest console on the market with the exception of the very underpowered and useless Series S, and it’s competitively priced in terms of the tech under the hood.
So if it will be the cheapest console of its generation, is already cheaper than its ancient competition, is cheaper than a mid range GPU by itself, and is cheaper or comparably priced with similarly specced devices, then how is it so overpriced?
The only argument I’ve heard yet has been “consoles are sold at a loss because the games are expensive” but that hasn’t been true for the industry since the PS4 era, and it’s literally never been true for Nintendo consoles, they always make a profit right out of the gate. So I honestly don’t get it.
The reason I think it’s astroturfing is because there’s a lot of people who are critical of Nintendo, while simultaneously giving Sony and Microsoft a free pass for doing the exact same thing, or even just making things up outright to bash Nintendo, like your claims that it’s ‘hardware that is long in the tooth at launch.’
I agree with most of what you said, I don’t think the price is as high as people make it out to be, but:
So if it will be the cheapest console of its generation
Cheapest version of the Steam Deck is still cheaper for very comparable hardware, and while generations don’t align I think the Deck is closer to the Switch 2 than to the switch 1, and a Deck 2 would be miles ahead of a switch 2.
While the Switch 2 has better hardware, that’s only a tiny piece of the value proposition. The Deck is leagues better in value. I guarantee it will be able to play new release games for another 10 years. You can’t say that for the Switch 2. It won’t be able to play all of the new releases, sure, but thousands more than the Switch 2.
And that’s not to mention the tens of thousands of games the Deck can play now that the Switch 2 will never be able to play.
The truth is that hype and FOMO are powerful drugs that push gamers to constantly shell out their hard earned money to chase the newest things.
And, to an extent, I get it. There is something to be said about playing games when they come out and experiencing that moment with other gamers. There’s a sort of fraternal feeling about it.
But if you can step back from that and be patient, you can play all the games you have time for and not play into their trap.
I would prefer to pay for high prices to a company that has the reputation of “consistently fun no matter what (unless its online)”.
Why? Because I am tired of paying a ‘good’ price for other media (or any goods/services) with a bunch of hidden aggressive enshitification. I know that when I buy mario kart, I am getting mario kart.
Can’t say the same for most other stuff, especially AAA video games. Nintendo might ask for high prices, but they deliver their product. And that is what I was promised in a capitalist economy, but rarely get it. So I am ‘happy’ as long as Nintendo doesn’t screw me individually.
BUT!!!
Fuck Nintendo for what they have done historically to the smash community. I won’t forget.
Nintendo does not have a monopoly on fun video games without “aggressive enshitification”, which I’m guessing you mean microtransactions and battle passes. I’m drowning in a deluge of great stuff to play, and none of it is Nintendo lately.
That’s part of the issue, though. Sometimes they sell trash for high prices, too. Sometimes they sell the same game across three console generations and increase the price.
There are way more issues with Nintendo than just whatever your beef with Smash is.
In the short term? Nintendo likely have drastically decreased the supply to the US (and Canada since allegedly that was routed through the US in the past?) and are counting on tariffs not changing TOO much over the next 40 something days. Same with being able to route shipments from different countries. So they’ll take a hit but it won’t be more than they already baked in to the MSRP.
Whereas for peripherals they did NOT already stock up on that in the US and all of those are going to be getting hit by tariffs at varying levels.
THat said? Going forward? My money is on Nintendo taking a page out of nVidia and AMD’s book. The MSRP of the Switch 2 will remain 450 USD or whatever it is. But Nintendo will conveniently not direct sell those and it will be up to Best Buy and the like to jack up prices to cover it on their end. But hey, Amazon are the bad guys, not Nintendo.
Still gonna skip this and hope for a 3DS-like price drop around the holidays. I’m really hoping Nintendo misses their sales targets big time because fuck these prices.
I’m so unimpressed with their release lineup as well. They’ve just done the same thing they always do, and made a minority improved Mario Cart and a lackluster Pokémon game. Or, and a tutorial, don’t forget that.
Yep, the switch was a great idea to bridge console and handheld. Once the technology is out and the steam deck is open, without subscription, without lock down, allowing all past purchases, etc. ; the console is dead.
Agree. Personally I like having something portable, so I’ve always complemented my PC with a Nintendo handheld. Thankfully, PCs can now be handhelds too, even including an open operating system.
The only time I even booted my Switch after getting the Steam Deck was to rip all my games and saves from there.
Given the tariff position, I’m curious if this will be the first time Nintendo decides to eat the loss on console hardware sales; something usually only other console makers have done.
Perhaps they think Trump will be on his way out. Or they’re eating into their cash reserves to prevent discussion of their consoles from getting political.
Given the outcry over the price, I think they have no choice but to eat the loss. They can’t drop the price, but they can’t raise it either. They’ll just have to hope that they can bring down manufacturing costs over time.
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I never bought a console at launch, this won’t change this time either. I will wait for either the OLED or Lite models, or at least until there’s 5 games that I really want and can’t get anywhere else.
My friend is looking to pick one up after that fromsoft game comes out. I might grab one then as well so we can play together, but I’m more in it for Metroid and whatever the Zelda team cooks up.
Hell yeah brother, sign me up for that Mario Kart bundle.
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It’s the fault of people that bought the Switch 1 from scalpers. It basically showed to Nintendo that people were willing to pay a lot more and that they could’ve charged a lot more. The Switch 2 will also be in short supply and Nintendo rather wants that a buyer pays them $500 than a scalper.
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Lmao outrageously priced. It’s higher than it was, yes, but I remember the PS3 announcement.
Now THAT was outrageously priced!
$950 for the 60gb model after inflation!
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… It’s using modern hardware, with specs that are entirely reasonable for being a handheld. The fuck are you expecting, a ps6 that you stick in your pocket for $200?
deleted by creator
Then what exactly are you expecting? The market for new consoles is currently:
Switch 2: $449
Xbox Series S: $299, less resolution/less fps, less powerful than the switch 2
Xbox Series X: $499, more expensive, same resolution/fps, more powerful (tflops) than switch 2, 15.7x the size
PS5: $499, more expensive, same resolution, more fps, more powerful (tflops) than switch 2 but less so than series x, 24x the size
The switch 2 was positioned, and announced, as a portable console capable of similar power levels as one console generation ago, and it overdelivered- the common comparison is that it’s more powerful than a PS4. For a handheld, that is absurdly good, and the price is certainly in line with the rest of the market. The literal only outlier is the Series S being significantly cheaper, which tracks considering the switch 2 is more powerful than it, while being a handheld.
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I don’t think $500 for a Switch 2 and Mario Kart World is outrageous at all.
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Just an FYI, Sony is raising the price of the PS5.
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people buy them for the motion sensors and the games. the tech is irrelevant. The NES was ancient tech when it came out. Most of the games on PS are too hard and/or inappropriate for children.
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The hardware really isn’t dated though. Remember this is a handheld, not a console, and it’s using a newly designed custom Nvidia chip. Mainstream audiences aren’t going to be deeply analyzing the specs. They’re just going to look at the games. And the games look very good and are running at 4K.
deleted by creator
Indeed I should have said “up to 4K” and of course that is usually going to require using Nvidia’s excellent DLSS tech. But at the end of the day, the results are a visual treat. Again, mainstream consumers don’t think about stuff like this. It’s a solid upgrade over Switch. Thing is going to sell out instantly and be hard to get for a year just like the original regardless of what we think.
Oh so you don’t like it when other people seem to pull arguments out of their ass but then it’s ok when you go ahead and do it?
Ok, please describe your playtesting experience with 4K games on Switch 2.
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It’s only “outrageously” priced compared to its predecessor, and only if you don’t think about it too much. Considering under the hood it’s basically a phone or tablet, it’s very fairly priced considering the specs.
The Switch 1 is basically a tablet from 2017 being sold for $300. It never received a price drop despite it using 8 year old technology, it actually received a price increase with the OLED model. An iPad 5th Gen from 2017 sells for $50 on eBay, for comparison purposes. Not like for like as that has a way higher res screen and less RAM, but it’s fairly close.
As it’s a new chip with an expected 10 year lifespan, it’s likely on 3nm process which means it has to fight for manufacturing time with TSMC because they’re the only ones who can fab that sort of chip.
All that, plus the expectation that they will be absorbing some tariff costs for now means it will likely never see a price drop, and honestly doesn’t seem that bad in terms of pricing. It’s the cheapest console on the market with the exception of the very underpowered and useless Series S, and it’s competitively priced in terms of the tech under the hood.
So if it will be the cheapest console of its generation, is already cheaper than its ancient competition, is cheaper than a mid range GPU by itself, and is cheaper or comparably priced with similarly specced devices, then how is it so overpriced?
The only argument I’ve heard yet has been “consoles are sold at a loss because the games are expensive” but that hasn’t been true for the industry since the PS4 era, and it’s literally never been true for Nintendo consoles, they always make a profit right out of the gate. So I honestly don’t get it.
Honestly I just have to wonder if it’s not astroturfing, or the results of astroturfing.
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The reason I think it’s astroturfing is because there’s a lot of people who are critical of Nintendo, while simultaneously giving Sony and Microsoft a free pass for doing the exact same thing, or even just making things up outright to bash Nintendo, like your claims that it’s ‘hardware that is long in the tooth at launch.’
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I can’t, because you went and deleted it lmaooooo
I agree with most of what you said, I don’t think the price is as high as people make it out to be, but:
Cheapest version of the Steam Deck is still cheaper for very comparable hardware, and while generations don’t align I think the Deck is closer to the Switch 2 than to the switch 1, and a Deck 2 would be miles ahead of a switch 2.
While the Switch 2 has better hardware, that’s only a tiny piece of the value proposition. The Deck is leagues better in value. I guarantee it will be able to play new release games for another 10 years. You can’t say that for the Switch 2. It won’t be able to play all of the new releases, sure, but thousands more than the Switch 2.
And that’s not to mention the tens of thousands of games the Deck can play now that the Switch 2 will never be able to play.
The truth is that hype and FOMO are powerful drugs that push gamers to constantly shell out their hard earned money to chase the newest things.
And, to an extent, I get it. There is something to be said about playing games when they come out and experiencing that moment with other gamers. There’s a sort of fraternal feeling about it.
But if you can step back from that and be patient, you can play all the games you have time for and not play into their trap.
$50 in 2007 is $77.62 in 2025. The outrageous thing is how little the working class has been given to compensate for it.
I want one but I can’t afford it right now regardless. So I’ll just be waiting anyways, maybe there will be a sale when I can get one.
I have such a nuanced opinion of Nintendo.
I would prefer to pay for high prices to a company that has the reputation of “consistently fun no matter what (unless its online)”.
Why? Because I am tired of paying a ‘good’ price for other media (or any goods/services) with a bunch of hidden aggressive enshitification. I know that when I buy mario kart, I am getting mario kart.
Can’t say the same for most other stuff, especially AAA video games. Nintendo might ask for high prices, but they deliver their product. And that is what I was promised in a capitalist economy, but rarely get it. So I am ‘happy’ as long as Nintendo doesn’t screw me individually.
BUT!!!
Fuck Nintendo for what they have done historically to the smash community. I won’t forget.
Nintendo does not have a monopoly on fun video games without “aggressive enshitification”, which I’m guessing you mean microtransactions and battle passes. I’m drowning in a deluge of great stuff to play, and none of it is Nintendo lately.
That’s part of the issue, though. Sometimes they sell trash for high prices, too. Sometimes they sell the same game across three console generations and increase the price.
There are way more issues with Nintendo than just whatever your beef with Smash is.
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The great news is, you don’t have to… they’re just gonna release a bunch of shit that was already on the switch and charge $90 for it.
Somewhat informed tinfoil hat time:
In the short term? Nintendo likely have drastically decreased the supply to the US (and Canada since allegedly that was routed through the US in the past?) and are counting on tariffs not changing TOO much over the next 40 something days. Same with being able to route shipments from different countries. So they’ll take a hit but it won’t be more than they already baked in to the MSRP.
Whereas for peripherals they did NOT already stock up on that in the US and all of those are going to be getting hit by tariffs at varying levels.
THat said? Going forward? My money is on Nintendo taking a page out of nVidia and AMD’s book. The MSRP of the Switch 2 will remain 450 USD or whatever it is. But Nintendo will conveniently not direct sell those and it will be up to Best Buy and the like to jack up prices to cover it on their end. But hey, Amazon are the bad guys, not Nintendo.
They are smoking crack if they think they can sell the Joy Con 2s (Joy Cons 2? Joys 2 Cons?) for $95.
2 Joy 2 Cons
2 cons 4 me
Still gonna skip this and hope for a 3DS-like price drop around the holidays. I’m really hoping Nintendo misses their sales targets big time because fuck these prices.
I’m so unimpressed with their release lineup as well. They’ve just done the same thing they always do, and made a minority improved Mario Cart and a lackluster Pokémon game. Or, and a tutorial, don’t forget that.
I’m normally at least moderately excited for nintendo’s release lineup. This time, though… it’s neat I guess?
If there a good enough games out for it, then I might consider getting one when the budget version gets released.
But, we will see not if there is stick drift and stuff like that.
Not going to happen. US customers are lucky that Nintendo won’t increase the console price.
Yeah, they’re going to sell out immediately and stock is going to be scarce even if they did increase the price.
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You’re lucky they’re selling it to you at all.
Grow up
Personally, I’m at the point of “fuck walled garden ecosystems”, not to mention all the legal work they’re doing to ruin video games.
Yep, the switch was a great idea to bridge console and handheld. Once the technology is out and the steam deck is open, without subscription, without lock down, allowing all past purchases, etc. ; the console is dead.
Agree. Personally I like having something portable, so I’ve always complemented my PC with a Nintendo handheld. Thankfully, PCs can now be handhelds too, even including an open operating system.
The only time I even booted my Switch after getting the Steam Deck was to rip all my games and saves from there.
Very unlikely that they even could drop the price with the tariff situation.
Given the tariff position, I’m curious if this will be the first time Nintendo decides to eat the loss on console hardware sales; something usually only other console makers have done.
Perhaps they think Trump will be on his way out. Or they’re eating into their cash reserves to prevent discussion of their consoles from getting political.
deleted by creator
Given the outcry over the price, I think they have no choice but to eat the loss. They can’t drop the price, but they can’t raise it either. They’ll just have to hope that they can bring down manufacturing costs over time.
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We’re talking about the console.
deleted by creator
I think that you’re doing that annoying internet argument thing, because you’re not actually replying to what I said here.
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I said that they can’t drop the price of the console and they can’t raise the price of the console either. What does this have to do with what I said?