The Nintendo Switch gaming console, introduced eight years ago, debuted at $300, and the $450 price tag announced last week for its successor might have shocked many, but representatives of the American division of the company explained that costs have increased since then, and in general, Nintendo is not ready to sell consoles at a loss, covering the difference through the sale of games.
Image source: Nintendo
Last week, Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser gave an interview to CNBC, and Polygon almost simultaneously published an interview with Nintendo Vice President of Player Engagement and Product Management Bill Trinen. At the time of the interview, the head of the American division of the company was already aware of the customs duties introduced by Donald Trump, but was not ready to immediately answer how Nintendo would react to their introduction. He only explained that the price of $450 for Switch 2 was set without taking into account the increased tariffs, and a certain number of gaming consoles have already been imported to the United States, which will delay the negative impact of the tariffs on Nintendo’s business. As is known, the company has decided to refrain from starting to accept pre-orders for Switch 2 gaming consoles in the American market, although it planned to launch them in April.
Bill Trinen tried to justify the one and a half times increase in the price of Switch 2 compared to its predecessor not only by inflation, but also by the appearance of new functions such as GameChat and mouse mode, not to mention the updated hardware characteristics of the console. Bowser added that Nintendo does not intend to follow the business model of Wii U, which was sold at a loss, but intends to maintain some profit when releasing the next generation of consoles, although it will be lower than that observed when selling games of its own development.
Speaking about the prices of games, which in the case of Mario Kart World reach $80, Nintendo representatives explain that the company does not want to set a new benchmark for all publishers and developers, but simply considers such a price justified for a particular game. At the same time, Trinen recalled an example from 1993, when the cartridge version of Donkey Kong Country was priced at $59. In general, taking into account the transition to digital distribution of games, the comparison was not the most correct, but prices over the past three decades have definitely soared by more than a third. Nate Bihldorff, Senior Vice President of Product Development and Publishing at Nintendo of America, explained in an interview with Digital Trends that pricing for games is generally a very complex process that cannot be compared to simply increasing the amount in an Excel file.