Summary
TheNintendo Switch 2is now just a day away from release. If you were planning to get one at launch, you’ve either secured a pre-order or have been left hanging by retailers. However, most fans are probably waiting for a price drop to grab the next-gen Switch. Unfortunately, with the world economy being in flux thanks to the Trump administration’s tariff policies, prices may go higher before they get lower.
Nintendohas alreadyraised the prices of Switch 2 accessories due to the tariffs, and president Shuntaro Furukawa has also told investors that theprice rise for the console is not off the tableif the situation proceeds as it currently is. However, it seems that many industry analysts are of the opinion that a price increase may be inevitable.
GamesRadar+contacted a number of well known industry analysts to get their take on the subject, and it seems most of them think a price rise is bound to occur. “If the tariff talks do not progress quickly and Nintendo runs out of the first batch of hardware, price increases are certainly possible,” said Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games. “It’s not only chaos but an absolute clown show, so nobody knows what is going to happen even 24 hours from now.”
“Absolutely, there’s the potential for future price increases in the US for any video game product that is sourced from tariff-impacted countries,” added Circana’s Mat Piscatella. “The chaotic nature of the tariff rollout – and the rapid shifts in policy we’ve seen – do not provide a firm foundation for predicting scale and timing of potential price increases.”
DFC Intelligence CEO David Cole thinks that, since the tariff policy issue has been going on for a while, Nintendo may have already accounted for fluctuations in the current price for the Switch 2. “If prices rise, many consumers may hold off waiting for them to come down,” he explained. The threat of tariffs has been around for a while and we assume Nintendo modeled that in when doing the initial pricing. So we consider further price increases unlikely."
Industry researcher Joost van Dreunen went into great detail about how Nintendo would possibly adjust prices to overcome tariff hurdles, saying, “Rather than immediate price increases, we might first see changes in bundle configurations or reduced holiday discounting before formal price adjustments.”
