Nintendo’s Switch 2 price has already gone up? Trump to blame
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Nintendo puts on the brakes
It seems that Nintendo keep taking one step forward and then two back. With all the headlines around the Switch 2 reveal only 2 days ago (feels like a week at least right?) they have already changed some of the details shared. The biggest is the pre-orders for the American market were planned to go live next week on the 9th April. But Nintendo have now issued a statement to many in the press announcing this had been delayed indefinitely, due to the new Tariffs announced by President Trump, on the same day as the Switch 2 itself. The statement reads as below:-
Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions, Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.
This means that currently Japan, Europe, China and other parts of the world will be able to pre-order their Switch’s safe in the knowledge that it should not go up in price. However, the US market will now be nervous around the obvious risk that the Switch 2 could become even more expensive, 24% more expensive if required. This would take the announced $449.99 and $499.99 Switch 2 console without or with Mario Kart, up to $557.99/$619.99 respectively.
This is unlikely though, as many electronic and large scale companies manufacture machines and assemble them in multiple countries. And the Tariffs are relevant to the final shipped retail unit, assembly parts and where they have come from to begin with. A further blow for Nintendo is that they recently moved manufacture of their Switch console to Vietnam (at least in part) to mitigate the tensions between China and the US. This has backfired though, as the current proposal from Trump’s new Tariff is 46% would be added to the units coming from Vietnam. Taking the cheapest model up to an eye watering and wallet busting $656.99.
The reality is, Nintendo will now be looking through it’s supply chain to understand what stock they have already in various countries for launch. With a planned June 5th release, which is not moved out, then many countries, 3PL logistics and retailers will already have stock in warehouses that will be bonded. The game now will be for Nintendo to pay the duty on the import rates on the Pre April 2nd rates and then allocate the stock from these according to demand. How much they have, where and when they can do this, and even if this resolves the launch window is unknown. But the business and commercial side of Nintendo will now be focused on selling these units for the best price that meets the Return on Investment (ROI) on the millions of units assembled , R&D and shipping to ensure the 2025 FY starts as expected. This could mean that the United States customer base, one of the largest for Nintendo consoles and gaming as a whole, could be left with the lowest supply of all. But the American loss could be to all others benefit. such as the growing markets in China, India and of course the huge European markets and the rest of the world. The likelihood is the console will ship in the US at the same price, but possibly with a larger limit on units beyond the initial batch. Post the launch window though, Nintendo may have no option but to set-up a pseudo “QC” warehouse in a more “favoured” country and then adjust the price as little as possible, to side step the hit on their bottom line. Nintendo’s ‘even’ console curse may have just struck again, sooner than expected.
