Can Nintendo turn Switch 2's pricing disaster around? And how?

Sooner said:
Not gonna happen
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I'm not saying it will. I'm just exploring the hypothetical. Personally, I think that the backlash is already receding and will be all but over by the time the Mario Kart Direct has aired, but the point of my post was to speculate on what Nintendo could do if things don't resolve themselves that easily.
 
Its too late now, cats out of the bag, pre-orders are up, even if they can smell the negative feedback theres no going back. They will see after 1-2 years their projected sales numbers and then they will know.
 
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It's a win win for Nintendo. People could buy the games for 90 bucks, and if not, they gonna buy for 70. Both high prices. Its a testing ground for them without losing option.
 
Here is a list of Nintendo consoles and handhelds released in the USA, their original MSRP, and their adjusted prices for 2025 based on inflation:

Console NameOriginal MSRPAdjusted Price (2025)
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)$199$649.15
Game Boy$89$257.95
Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)$199$543.65
Virtual Boy$179$434.48
Nintendo 64$199$468.96
Game Boy Color$69$153.27
Game Boy Advance$99$201.25
GameCube$199$404.53
Nintendo DS$149$277.18
Wii$249$436.62
Nintendo 3DS$249$376.63
Wii U$349$512.52
Nintendo Switch$299$378.76
Nintendo Switch Lite$199$237.62
Nintendo Switch OLED$350$393.93
 
Jubenhimer said:
In all fairness, this "$90 games" is complete misinformation. Mario Kart is the only Switch 2 exclusive that's $80
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And you think MK will be the only one, right? You can't be so naive. That's their new premium price. Expect all Mario titles, and Zelda games to be $80+
 
QLQ said:
And you think MK will be the only one, right? You can't be so naive. That's their new premium price. Expect all Mario titles, and Zelda games to be $80+
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The only reason TotK was $70 was because it came on a 32 GB card, which is more expensive to manufacture. So they changed a higher price because Zelda is a big enough brand to eat it. If that's the case here with MK, then Nintendo should be upfront about it.
 
Jubenhimer said:
The only reason TotK was $70 was because it came on a 32 GB card, which is more expensive to manufacture. So they changed a higher price because Zelda is a big enough brand to eat it. If that's the case here with MK, then Nintendo should be upfront about it.
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It's a given that card prices are going to be more expensive for the Switch 2.

If it requires quite expensive microSD cards, then the game cards will need to match that in performance.
 
Until it has been out for a while I'm not convinced it is a disaster. I think Nintendo fully expected this initial reaction.

It'll be very interesting to see if they can keep this software pricing over time. Hopefully the market gives them a big slap in the face.
%D9%83%D9%81-slap.gif
 
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All kinds of consumer electronics are going to go way up in price due to these stupid tariffs.
People will see that and stop blaming Nintendo.
 
I think it's gonna sell fine at launch but will dwindle fairly quickly. The price of the system is actually fine but if the games are really going for $80, there will be major rejection amongst most of the casual market.

People are more price conscious now than ever. It isn't a necessity and if people already have a system that plays most of what they want, then there is very little incentive to waste money a new system that mostly does the same. Nintendo did very little to compel people to upgrade.

Probably part of their strategy is to fleece their most loyal customers because they know they would buy their shit at any price. I see plenty of people that post here that think Nintendo can do no wrong and defend even the shittiest moves they make.
 
_Ex_ said:
Here is a list of Nintendo consoles and handhelds released in the USA, their original MSRP, and their adjusted prices for 2025 based on inflation:

Console NameOriginal MSRPAdjusted Price (2025)
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)$199$649.15
Game Boy$89$257.95
Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)$199$543.65
Virtual Boy$179$434.48
Nintendo 64$199$468.96
Game Boy Color$69$153.27
Game Boy Advance$99$201.25
GameCube$199$404.53
Nintendo DS$149$277.18
Wii$249$436.62
Nintendo 3DS$249$376.63
Wii U$349$512.52
Nintendo Switch$299$378.76
Nintendo Switch Lite$199$237.62
Nintendo Switch OLED$350$393.93
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You think most people give a shit? Are wages keeping up with inflation? No, they are not.
 
nick776 said:
I'm not understanding why there is so much controversy over the Switch 2 price and the price of Switch 2 games. Is the sentiment more of "I cannot afford to pay the higher prices because I do not have the money," or is it more along the lines of "I should not have to pay that much money for something I love just to enrich greedy Nintendo corporate?"
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The outrage comes from both the fact that Mario Kart World costs $80 for seemingly no reason, and the whole sloppy manner in which Nintendo revealed Switch 2's game prices. Especially since Mario Kart, while looks good, doesn't look good enough to justify the high price tag. And given that people are on edge about recent economic concerns, it just comes off as looking greedy and/or tone deaf to a lot of gamers.

Nintendo can simply fix this problem by coming clean, explaining their pricing decisions clearly to the customers, and even backtracking on a few of them. This is a problem of their own making, but its one they can very easily fix.
 
When you consider the Switch OLED launched at $349 and the Switch 2 is only $100 more. And the new console has much more power, larger screen and memory and a cooling fan built into the dock etc etc... The price is pretty cheap. Hell, even allowing for inflation on the launch Switch OLED you would be paying more.

I also feel we are confusing the suggested retail price of games with the actual price you pay in reality. Nintendo are also going cheaper with the digital versions so this will affect any retailer selling physical copies. I have pre ordered Mario Kart World in the U.K. It has a suggested price of £80.... I hav been charged £70 and the game is not even released as yet. Pretty sure you will be easily able to picj this up for between £60-£70 on release day.

So what pricing disaster are we talking about here?. Or are we looking at faux outrage from core minorities on videogame forums. And YouTubers with very few subscribers and views.
 
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Pasta la Vista said:
It isn't a necessity and if people already have a system that plays most of what they want, then there is very little incentive to waste money a new system that mostly does the same.
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Yeah, when we discussed it where I work the consensus was basically "Mario Kart 8 is good enough" among those with a Switch(1).

Very anecdotal of course, and they're all super casual folks, but still.
 
I don't have to do anything because the backlash is empty talk; people will still by my console because I have cultivated a horde of global loyal fans that don't mind any of the 'controversies'
 
I don't get why people moan about the pricing. It's a hobby ffs! You can use a product for thousands and thousands of hours over the years for a couple of hundred dollars. Get a cheaper hobby if you can't afford it.
 
I have no opinion here, saw it and just preordered a Switch 2.
Pricing is a thing, yes. But 10€ more a game will not kill me. Like how often do you buy a game a month? One or two that's it anyways.
 
Salmonboy said:
I don't get why people moan about the pricing. It's a hobby ffs! You can use a product for thousands and thousands of hours over the years for a couple of hundred dollars. Get a cheaper hobby if you can't afford it.
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What if people already have a product that plays what they want? You think Nintendo has a monopoly on gaming or something? You know how many games exist today and how many different places you can play games?

No matter how much some of you may think otherwise, Nintendo is competing with all the other players in the industry for people's time and money. They are not impervious to failures and have failed multiple times in their history.

Their direct just showed how out of touch and behind the times they are. They showed off party chat as if it is some revolutionary thing with that added camera accessory (that will fail miserably, nobody gives a shit about that camera). Mouse controls with a wheelchair basketball game?? They are trying to sell people on a new pro controller with a useless button unless you are actually subscribed to their online service. They treat people like idiots.

They missed the boat when it comes to their online integration into their eco-system. They went out of their way to make connecting to other players and friends as convoluted as possible with their friend code bullshit and requiring an external app. Nobody buys a Nintendo system to be apart of their online community.

So tell us again, why those that don't see the value in this system should find a new hobby?
 
DavJay said:
It's not even the price that's bothering me. The damn key card, low onboard storage and extremely expensive memory solution is a killer to me.
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Key cards represent absolutely no change from Switch 1 whatsoever. Exactly like Switch 1 some games require a download. People are just freaking because Nintendo said so upfront. It's almost like we didn't notice it was already like this for 8 years.

More built in storage means more price to get your foot in the door. They were squeezed to deliver this system for as cheap as possible. I'd rather they boost something else I can never change like RAM and lean on SD cards.

Finally, extremely expensive memory? What is this memory stick pro duo? I get it has to be express but it's still a SD card so I'm not sure how we could ask them to do better. I do recommend not buying the one with 🍄 printed on it tho

Edit: I'm kind of getting now it's really the combination of key cards and having nowhere to store the game without express micro SD cards. So it really depends on how bad the keycard thing is.

But if you belong to the group that only buys first party games on Nintendo then you will literally never notice this is a thing with game carts anyway.
 
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JaxarGT said:
Yeah it's expensive, but I think it will sell out for probably the first 12 months or so and then may slow down, prompting price reductions.
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I don't know preorders are still up in Germany with garanteed shipping for the 5th. Xbox and ps5 wäre Sold out in hours/ min after preorders had gone live. Ok we don't know how many units are available so it might not be comparable, but still
 
Of course it's expensive and people complain online. But you know which products are expensive and online people colpain about? Apple's phones, and that's another magnitude of expensiveness.

Remember kids, online loudness is never a good indicator of what is really gonna happen. But then the Switch 2 launch won't either tell us if it's gonna be a success. The Wii U was out of stock at launch, and we all know how it went... Only time will tell...
 
BlackTron said:
Finally, extremely expensive memory? What is this memory stick pro duo? I get it has to be express but it's still a SD card so I'm not sure how we could ask them to do better. I do recommend not buying the one with 🍄 printed on it tho
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THey should support hard drives via the dock if not to run games from directly then atleast to save gamess onto
 
I wish I lived in a world where the prices of pretty much everything hadn't increased sharply over the past few years!

That way I might be a tiny bit surprised by the way gaming's gotten more expensive.
 
I don't get why people are citing the OLED version pricing. The new machine doesn't have an OLED screen, so the correct comparison would be to the OG switch.

This means that this new Switch is launching at a whopping %50 price increase vs last gen. If you think that doesn't justify sticker shock for a middle class or lower family then you are delusional.
 
RoboFu said:
The Mario kart bundle is a deal. That's what I'm trying for.
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Is it ? In France you can get the base Switch 2 for 439, and the MK pack for 499. So you are basically paying 60 euros for the digital version of the game. Might as well find a physical copy, right now they are 69, that's only 10€ more.
 
Lol mate this thing is sold out everywhere.
People aren't going to eb playing the UI they will buy the games. Most likely digitally.

Nintendo don't want you buying physical games so they have priced them to push you into the digital store.

As someone who prefers digital it's fine but for the casual who doesn't give a shit if its on a plastic card or not. They will still buy the games and where it's cheapest...on the store.

People are ingrained in digital media phones computers TVs movies it's all digital so it's a very easy choice for the casual consumer.

Buy the cheap console then pay less for your games on the store. The relative price won't come into it.
 
Mozza said:
When you consider the Switch OLED launched at $349 and the Switch 2 is only $100 more. And the new console has much more power, larger screen and memory and a cooling fan built into the dock etc etc... The price is pretty cheap. Hell, even allowing for inflation on the launch Switch OLED you would be paying more.
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Nintendo ripping you off with OLED Switch doesn't mean $450 Switch 2 is justifiable.
 
I dunno, man. We don't know yet if it's a disaster. We will know as soon as we've got sales data. The only thing we do know right now is that people on Twitter/Reddit aren't happy (I also think all of this is vastly overpriced), and that some retailers report that they've already sold their stock. Let's wait and see.
 
Given what the Switch 2 is as a console, the power of the hardware, the screen, the joy-cons, the 256GB on board storage, the upgraded dock, and the reality of inflation of the past 5 years, 450USD for the Switch 2 is pretty reasonable IMO. 500 with Mario Kart seems more than fair.

Where I have a problem is 80USD for games being the new standard going forward. I hope that won't be the case.
 
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