"Changes in market conditions" lead to $50 price bump on Sept. 1.
Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav When we reviewed the Switch 2 just after its launch last year, we warned that interested customers might want to buy in early, as the launch price could go up. That potential price hike became a reality today, as Nintendo announced the Switch 2’s MSRP will increase to $499.99 on September 1, a $50 (and about 11 percent) increase from the $449.99 launch price.
In an announcement of the impending price increase today, Nintendo cited “changes in market conditions” and “the global business outlook” that are “expected to extend over the medium to long term.” That’s likely a reference to the climbing RAM and storage prices that have been impacting all sorts of hardware makers for months .
Nintendo’s pricing move means all three current major consoles have now increased in price since launch. Sony’s PS5 got its second price increase in March , just eight months after its first price hike . The Xbox Series consoles saw their second price increase in September , five months after an initial price hike . Nintendo also raised the price of the aging original Switch console for the first time last year.
These now-routine price increases are a marked change from a decades-long period where game consoles routinely and quickly dropped in price in the years after their launch. Even before recent component shortages, though, a combination of higher-than-normal inflation , the slowing of Moore’s Law , tariff-related market shocks , and spiking gas prices have made the once-reliable console price drop a fading market memory.
In updated financial forecasts also released today, Nintendo cited “the impact of these price revisions” in projecting sales of 16.5 million Switch 2 units in the current fiscal year (ending March 2027). That’s down from 19.86 million sales in the console’s first fiscal year, but it still “represents a solid level of adoption for Nintendo Switch 2 in its second year after launch,” the company wrote.
Outside of the US, Nintendo announced the following new hardware prices for other markets: Canada: $679.99 (from $629.99) Europe: €499.99 (from €469.99) Japan: ¥59,980 (from ¥49,980 – effective May 25) Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper .
43 Comments
