Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has shared a detailed explanation of why they are raising Switch 2 prices.
He addressed the issue in the Q&A for last week’s earnings call. Before Nintendo shares their official translation, we’ll summarize Neha’s translation from ResetERA.
While OpenAI crashed the global memory market last year, that did not actually affect the Switch 2’s profitability. And it’s clear that it isn’t affecting them now, since the price increase goes in effect this September.
There’s no single reason for the price increase, but their impact estimate is that Switch 2 production costs will go up by 100 billion yen (roughly $ 600 million).
That’s for measuring the impact of component supplies, exchange rate fluctuations, tariffs, and oil prices, among others. Ultimately, Nintendo needs to keep the Switch 2 profitable to keep their business sustainable.
Nintendo also believes this impact is medium to long term. So they’re not just preparing for 2026, but possibly most of the Switch 2’s lifetime.
Furukawa won’t share how much they believe Switch 2 will sell now, but they are making a ton of games to sell fans. While this is hardly the best of news, Nintendo seems ready to meet the challenge.
