On the same day Nintendo revealed the Switch 2, President Donald Trump also unveiled his list of tariffs on countries the U.S. trades with. This led Nintendo to delay preorders in the U.S., although it did make them available a short time later.
As the June 5 launch of the Switch 2 approaches, Nintendo held an earnings call on May 8. The company anticipated selling 15 million Switch 2 consoles in its first year, but Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa did raise some concerns that the price of the console may change due to tariffs.
“If the assumptions regarding tariffs change significantly, we would like to consider what price adjustments we should make and implement them after considering various aspects,” according to a translated report on Yahoo Finance Japan.
Nintendo says it has concerns that the increase in tariffs leading to a price increase will cause a drop in demand for the Switch 2, as consumers will have to deal with rising costs of food and other daily expenses on their budgets.
Tairffs are about to debuff the game industry.
There have been warnings about Trump’s tariffs on game console prices for months. A report from the Consumer Technology Association from back in January suggested that the price of game consoles could jump by 40%.
Of the three video game console manufacturers, only Microsoft has increased its hardware prices so far. The company increased the prices of its Xbox Series S by $80 while the Xbox Series X jumped by $100.
Sony has yet to increase the price of the PS5 in the U.S., but in April, it did bump up the price of the hardware in multiple foreign markets by 25%. It’s very likely the console will increase in price as it’s primarily made in China. Sony could have foreseen this situation and stockpiled consoles before it needed to increase prices to accommodate the tariffs.
As for Nintendo and the Switch 2, a price hike on the Switch successor would make the already pricey portable at $450 even pricier. The Mario maker did increase the prices of its accessories due to tariffs, and the new console already upset fans when it was revealed that Mario Kart World would be the first game to make the jump to a $80 suggested retail price.
Other game hardware companies have already felt the pinch from the tariffs. Anbernic, a Chinese handheld gaming company known for its many Game Boy clones, said it’s suspending all shipments to the U.S. Funstock, a U.K.-based online retailer that sells the Evercade retro handheld, announced it would stop taking orders from the U.S. due to the current trade war. It’s likely that more companies that have their hardware coming from China to either increase their prices or simply not sell to U.S. customers.
