Judging by reactions online across the world, the cost of the Switch 2 and its software has proven to be controversial. Perhaps Nintendo knew this, considering it didn’t include the price in the actual Direct presentation.
Here in the UK, the console will cost £395.99, or £429.99 bundled with Mario Kart World, when it launches on 5th June. That’s compared to the £280 launch price of the original Switch, and £310 launch price of the OLED.
It’s the increase in the cost of games themselves, though, that’s proven most shocking. Mario Kart World, for instance, will cost £74.99 for a physical copy, or £66.99 digitally. That’s an increase from £49.99 for most brand new original Switch games.
Donkey Kong Bananaza, meanwhile, is slightly cheaper: £66.99 for a physical copy and £58.99 digital. There’s the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour game too, which will cost 990 yen according to the Japanese website – that’s around a fiver.
It should also be noted that some Switch 2 physical game cards won’t actually include the full game, but include a download key instead. As for the difference between physical and digital pricing, this appears to be a shift towards pushing digital games – especially with the addition of the sharable Virtual Game Cards Nintendo revealed last week.
Still, accounting for inflation, the Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle works out cheaper in the UK than the original Switch with a copy of Breath of the Wild in 2017.
To directly compare the consoles alone, £280 for the original Switch works out at £367.40 today with inflation, still cheaper than Switch 2. However, throw in the big launch game and it’s a better deal – an original Switch with a separate copy of Breath of the Wild cost £340 at launch in 2017, which works out at £446.13. That’s pricier than the Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle.
Over in Europe, the Switch 2 console costs €469.99, or €509.99 for the Mario Kart World bundle. That’s equivalent to the cost in the UK.
It’s a different story in other parts of the world, however.
In Japan, for instance, Nintendo will be selling a region-locked console at a lower price, in a bid to stop importers due to the weak yen.
The Japan-only console will cost 49980 yen (around £258.95), but will only play Japanese games in Japanese language, with a Japanese Nintendo account.
A more expensive Switch 2 with multilingual support will also be available at 69980 yen, around £362.57. That’s still slightly cheaper than in the UK, though doesn’t account for import costs.
As for the price of Mario Kart World in Japan, it’ll be 9980 yen compared to the cost of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the original Switch at 6578 yen. As Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, wrote on social media, that’s 52 percent more expensive, which is a higher jump than the 33 percent rise from $60 to $80 in the US.
As for the console itself in the US, it costs $450, but there are fears this could rise to as much as $600 if impacted by new tariffs from the Trump administration.
Tariffs – taxes charged on products when they enter the country – could be as much as 46 percent on products from Vietnam, which is where the majority of Switch 2 manufacturing has taken place, Kotaku has reported.
David Gibson, analyst at MST Financial, confirmed to The FT: “Export data combined with finished product codes confirms that Nintendo shipped finished Switch 2 [from Vietnam] across five days in January for a total of 383,000 units with all of them going to the USA.”
He added: “I suspect this occurred to test the distribution system and get ahead of the risk of tariffs. I expect the numbers to have ramped-up significantly in February and March.”
Wrote Niko Partners director of research and insights Daniel Ahmad on social media: “Nintendo shifted its manufacturing to Vietnam to avoid tariffs and with today’s reciprocal tariff announcements they’re likely going to end up paying tariffs anyway.”
Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis also suggested to IGN Nintendo “probably had a range of pricing for the US market in play up until the last minute due to the uncertainty on import tariffs”, which is why the price wasn’t included in the Direct.
However, analysts don’t believe the pricing will impact sales of Switch 2 initially.
“Based on what we’re seeing across the market, sales to higher-income or more affluent households likely won’t be impacted by this pricing,” Circana analyst Mat Piscatella told IGN. “And, of course, we have the price insensitive super enthusiasts that will do and pay whatever it takes to acquire the Switch 2 at launch. Therefore, because of the limited quantities that will be available during the launch year, I do not anticipate this pricing to hinder year one sales volumes.
“The true test will come in year two, as supply is likely to become more readily available, and the addressable market will be forced to widen. So, we’ll have to see what happens over the next 9-12 months.”
And compared with Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro at £699.99 and Valve’s Steam Deck OLED at £479.00, the price of Nintendo’s new console still appears reasonable.
Of course, this all depends on whether consumers are able to pre-order, as Nintendo is enforcing strict criteria on pre-orders from its own Nintendo store in a bid to reduce scalping. That’s based on playtime and the requirement of a Nintendo Online account.
In the meantime, multiple online UK retailers have already gone live and sold out of Switch 2 stock, without the need to meet Nintendo’s criteria.
For more on the new console, here’s everything announced at the Switch 2 Direct.
