While Nintendo’s pricing for the Switch 2 as well as its games has been the subject of quite a bit of backlash, the looming question right now revolves around how the tariffs announced by the United States will affect the console when it launches on June 5. Former members of Nintendo of America’s PR team, Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang, are hopeful that Nintendo doesn’t further raise the price of the console in response to the tariffs.
In a recent video, the duo discuss the tariffs and the Switch 2’s pricing. Ellis believes that the company could feasibly “eat the cost” and keep the Switch 2’s price at its announced $449.99. “They can do it, they can eat it, it would not make a huge dent in them,” he said. He believes that Nintendo is in a unique position to do this as eating this cost is “an option a lot of other companies don’t even have.”
Yang believes that Nintendo eating the added costs brought about by the tariffs would also buy it quite a bit of good will with its audience. According to Yang, this is especially important for the company do since it has already been facing quite a bit of backlash over its pricing.
“They have lost so much trust already with the current negative sentiment around price, and around what they’re doing with the games and charging the high price for Mario Kart World, this would repair some goodwill with their current fan base,” said Yang.
She continued, “you’re not now asking the customer to pay more, you’re not giving them a confusing message of ‘Oh, we announced this price of $450 and now we have to raise the price for you to get this thing,’ you can start immediately with your pre-order strategy as planned, you can start to like work towards your June 5 launch which is coming up very soon. So it does feel like this one helps with the perception, the negative perception that Nintendo has right now.”
Meanwhile, responding to criticisms of the Nintendo Switch 2’s $449.99 price tag, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser made a statement telling fans that can’t afford the new console to look to the rest of the Switch line-up to get their fix for Nintendo games.
“We recognize there are some people that may not be able to afford [the Switch 2’s] price point,” said Bowser. “That’s why we wanted to make the other Switch platforms available, so [people] still have an opportunity to come into our gaming universe, be a part of these characters in these worlds, and see value, if you will, in whatever rung of the platform they come in.”
In the meantime, analysts believe that effects that tariffs have on the Switch 2 will likely only be the beginning. Circana’s Mat Piscatella, for instance, believes that the long-term effects on Nintendo for its pricing strategy for the new console and its games will only start becoming more evident in year 2.