Rendered at 13:59:14 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
metadat 1 days ago [-]
I bought a Steam Deck earlier this year and haven’t touched my Switch since. Nintendo hardware and games were already obscenely overpriced imo, so this is essentially a nail in the coffin for folks who were already questioning Nintendo’s prices and value proposition.
Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? In the past this was more the case, but with the Switch 2 the hardware bill of materials is actually more costly relative to previous products like the Switch 1.
Poor timing of market forces (Sam Altman spending VC money to purchase all the world’s memory chips). Ouch.
InsideOutSanta 23 hours ago [-]
By "a nail in the coffin", do you mean that people will stop buying Switches? Because I would be very surprised by that.
It's not like most people even know what a Steam Deck is. At the moment at least, the two devices mostly don't compete for the same audience. And if you want to play Nintendo's games - which a lot of people do, they're usually quite good - you don't have much choice anyway.
ksymph 21 hours ago [-]
Nintendo's core audience has always been children, their parents, and casual players, but with some console cycles they expand into other niches, as has (resoundingly) been the case with the Switch; the Switch appealed to virtually anyone interested in playing games on the go, including people who otherwise don't usually buy the newest Nintendo console/games for their polish and/or family-friendliness. For a long time it was by far the most convenient way to play Skyrim or Witcher 3 or what-have-you on buses, planes, at school etc.
The Steam Deck doesn't cut into Nintendo's core audience, but it does draw away people who would have bought the Switch 1/2 for those reasons -- the audience that made the Switch 1 such an overwhelming success. Anecdotally, I've had multiple non-techies bring up the Steam Deck unprompted, usually with an impression of 'the Switch but better' and/or 'more adult-oriented'.
Historically, when the market they created starts to become saturated, Nintendo starts looking to pivot. So the Steam Deck might not kill the Switch 2, but I'd be very surprised if it doesn't kill the Switch 3.
gorjusborg 20 hours ago [-]
> It's not like most people even know what a Steam Deck is.
Steam basically is PC gaming at this point, which is still a massive market that is almost as big as the entirety of console gaming.
I know there are those out there, but I would be slightly surprised if a PC gamer didn't know what a Steam Deck was in 2026.
As someone who has pretty much every console system and most handhelds, I didn't spring for a Switch 2, and it is for the exact reason the thread parent mentions. I do like Nintendo games, as they are consistently high quality, but they are not usually graphics reliant for fun, and the Switch is good enough still, and I don't love paying $90 USD for a single game when I can buy $5-20 games on Steam and play them across multiple devices.
evilduck 15 hours ago [-]
The Switch also followed a poor WiiU cycle that caused some pent up demand and launched with Zelda BotW which was an epic title. People bought Switches just to play that game and then stuck around to buy other titles on the platform. The Switch 2 doesn't have either going for it.
I'm in the same boat as you, I also don't feel the need to buy a Switch 2 yet. Also, game sharing on Steam with my kids is just so much more pleasant. Having multiple kids and multiple Switches was such a shit show of what felt like manual license and provisioning management that I'm not really keen on giving Nintendo more money at this time.
ge96 22 hours ago [-]
Breath of the Wild when that came out only reason I would have bought a Switch. But apparently if you own it can run it through QEMU on PC.
I have neither devices right now, only a PC.
uejfiweun 22 hours ago [-]
Yes, Nintendo is essentially the futuristic version of Disney. And families will continue to pay a premium in exchange for a curated experience that you know will be OK for your child.
JeremyNT 24 hours ago [-]
> Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? In the past this was stronger but with the Switch 2 the hardware bill of materials is actually more costly relative to previous products like the Switch 1.
They know that the combination of extremely high quality first party exclusives combined with hugely popular IP is going to move units even if they're "overpriced" as devices to play any other games.
When my daughter's Switch 1 died, I had the choice between the 2 and the Steam Deck, and I chose the Deck. It's got a ton of games and the cheap Steam back catalog is great, but... no Mario? No Zelda?
I won't pretend I wasn't tempted to own both.
cardanome 20 hours ago [-]
The combination of expensive hardware AND expensive games kills the switch 2 for me.
80 Dollar just to play Mario Kart?
Even older switch titles are barely ever on sale.
I never buy games at full price so the economics don't add up for me. I guess it works for the kind of person that buys games on release. If someone has that much money to burn they don't need to care about hardware cost either I guess.
It's also the best game in its category (which Nintendo basically invented), offers terrific local multiplayer on a single console, and is something you can enjoy for years with friends and family.
xp84 13 hours ago [-]
Yeah Nintendo basically doesn’t even acknowledge the concept of marking things down, even many years after their release. And as the physical media window begins closing, even buying a used game will become not a thing anymore. Probably the Switch 3 or whatever they call it will not have a card slot anymore. And used consoles might lose all their games when signed out of an account. I’m sure they’d love that.
__s 24 hours ago [-]
You can run Ship of Harkinian on steamdeck
Twilight Princess soon
staticman2 23 hours ago [-]
Most people probably want to get a game and play it without figuring out how to navigate pirate web sites.
jjordan 1 days ago [-]
Nintendo hardware IMO is mostly reasonably priced. Their first party game library is why many buy into the ecosystem and they charge a premium for it. The original Switch was under-powered but also the first of its kind. The Switch 2 was mostly a hardware bump with additional polish to the rough edges of the original Switch.
ozbonus 23 hours ago [-]
Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits?
Yes! Famously so, in fact. Look up Gupei Yokoi and "Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology".
gorjusborg 20 hours ago [-]
Comments like yours are why I come to HN discussions. Thanks for sharing.
johnnyanmac 9 hours ago [-]
As another fun fact: the most powerful system has never "won" the console generation. Nintendo only has to be strong enough to realize its and 3rd party's visions. And even then, it can get away with being a little weaker than that line.
afavour 23 hours ago [-]
Maybe I'm in a bubble but I really don't see the Steam Deck and Switch as big competitors for each other. I mean, yes, they're both portable games consoles, but I'd bet a large percentage of Switch gamers don't even know what a Steam Deck is.
There's a reason Nintendo targets and wins with very casual gamers. It would take a lot more than a $50 price increase to be the 'nail in the coffin' for the Switch.
chocochunks 21 hours ago [-]
There's some overlap. I think it probably has a bigger impact on game attach rate for a certain segment of gamer. I bought a lot less games on Switch upon getting a PC handheld, not because of price (generally I find games are pretty comparable there), but because the PC version is more flexible and I'm pretty sure I can run the PC version ten years down on some PC. Will Nintendo's next console run it? No idea.
array_key_first 20 hours ago [-]
I don't understand this position at all. In the console space, Nintendo makes the cheapest console and it's not even that close. The switch originally launched at 300 dollars. Keep in mind their competitors are well into 700+ dollar land.
The steam deck is more expensive as well, and the switch 2 is much more powerful than the steam deck.
juancn 23 hours ago [-]
Nintendo is almost on a different market than Steam, XBox, and all the others.
I don't think it will matter much. They live off the exclusives.
GorbachevyChase 22 hours ago [-]
Adults aren’t the target market. I pay a premium because I know there are content standards and at least the big titles aren’t going to bombard my kids with inappropriate content.
ProfessorLayton 21 hours ago [-]
>Adults aren’t the target market.
Adults are VERY MUCH the target market: See page 10 of Nintendo's investor relations doc.
But also most parents will scoff at the prices and tell them to pick cheaper toys.
johnnyanmac 8 hours ago [-]
The bigger issue is that they'd scoff at the price and get their kids to play Roblox or Fortnite on some tablet. The steam deck isn't what the console marker is really worried about these days.
Analemma_ 22 hours ago [-]
That hasn’t been happening since the beginning of video games and it isn’t about to start now. Adjusted for inflation the NES was about $590 at launch and individual games were $90-120. Didn’t stop it from nearly wiping the American video game industry clean off the earth.
toast0 18 hours ago [-]
To be fair, the American video game industry had pretty well wiped itself off the earth. Nintendo came in and actively worked to present itself as different and did a fair bit of anti-competitive stuff once it got market power: can't release the same game on other platforms, limited release count per developer, strict cartridge hardware controls, etc.
epicide 23 hours ago [-]
Given that everybody, including Valve, are in the same boat, I'm not sure Nintendo is that much worse off for this.
It's true that fewer people will be buying fewer consoles as a whole, but gaming is a pretty competitive market. I'm sure Nintendo will take a hit regardless, but probably no more than the likes of Sony, MS, Valve, etc.
Like any gold rush, the only people who win are the ones selling the shovels (in this case, Nvidia).
tapoxi 23 hours ago [-]
Steam Deck starts at almost the same price - $549. The base model was discontinued. The Switch 2 has superior performance, an inferior screen, and comes with the dock + detachable controllers.
vjk800 23 hours ago [-]
The only reason to buy Nintendo hardware is so that you can play Nintendo's exclusive games. In the past, I felt that it was worth it. In the recent years, there haven't been many good Nintendo releases, definitely not enough to justify buying Switch 2.
I feel that Nintendo should really become just a software company. All consoles are converging towards using more or less similar PC hardware anyway, so having your own hardware platform doesn't seem very useful anymore.
musicale 14 hours ago [-]
> The only reason to buy Nintendo hardware is so that you can play Nintendo's exclusive games
Nintendo also pushes gaming innovation in different directions, enabling interesting experiences. It's not always successful, but is rarely boring: virtual boy (proto-VR), dual screen gaming (DS, 3DS, Wii U), asymmetric multiplayer (Wii U), split controller with motion controls (Wii, Switch), advanced haptics (Switch), screen-free gaming (1-2 Switch), glasses-free lenticular 3D (3DS), hybrid cardboard gaming (Labo/Switch), slab handheld (2DS), hybrid handheld/TV gaming (Wii U, Switch), asynchronous network interaction and game data sharing (3DS street pass), moderated social networking (Warawara Plaza and MiiVerse on Wii U and 3DS), etc.
The consoles are carefully designed. Game Boy had a non-backlit, reflective display that enabled it to be used in broad daylight and helped it achieve a 50-hour battery life. GBA SL and Nintendo DS/3DS were attractive and functional clamshell designs. GameCube (a compact and rather charming purple cube design) had a handle to encourage people to move the system to different TVs or bring it to friends' houses. Switch has a kickstand and a dock system to enable quick switching between handheld, tabletop, and TV-attached gaming, all without restarting the game.
ethagknight 21 hours ago [-]
I just bought a Switch 2 for my kids and I am very impressed with it. Yes, pricing for games and components is wild, but so is everything else these days. The Switch software is very good, the kids love it, Nintendo online retro games are awesome, and we've had a lot of fun playing Zelda together.
I would pay 50 more dollars for the same experience if thats what it took. I do think Nintendo should provide a little more value at the new price, but it's not a huge gap.
tailscaler2026 20 hours ago [-]
Can you show me where I can purchase a Steam Deck? They're out of stock except overpriced auction sites.
metadat 19 hours ago [-]
I put a watch notification on slickdeals.net for it. As soon as they get restocked on the site they tend to sell out quickly (presumably people really want them).
musicale 15 hours ago [-]
> Nintendo hardware and games were already obscenely overpriced imo
Nothing against those $1 game sales on Steam or gog.com (or "free to play"/live service games – for those who can tolerate their monetization schemes), but fun/benefit per dollar for {Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Animal Crossing, Ring Fit Adventure, etc.} has been huge for me, even accounting for the cost of the console and additional controllers.
Being able to pop in a physical game card and play the game immediately (even if you are offline) is another thing I appreciated about the Switch (though unfortunately some Switch 2 games are not available as real game cards.)
> Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? In the past this was more the case, but with the Switch 2 the hardware bill of materials is actually more costly relative to previous products like the Switch 1.
Underpowered and cheap, yes, but not really "to juice profits". See "lateral thinking with withered technology":
"his strategy demonstrated Nintendo's belief that graphical advancement is not the only way to make progress in gaming technology; indeed, after the Wii's overwhelming success, Sony and Microsoft released their own motion control peripherals."
Newer, more expensive console runs better than older, cheaper one.
Insane.
nsxwolf 24 hours ago [-]
Does anyone really find the Switch 2 to be underpowered? Is the Steam Deck really that much more powerful, and is it worth the extra 100 grams of weight?
Metroid Prime 4 looks amazing, and you can choose 4K@60 or 1080p@120. I don't really care about generated frames or whatever AI magic the console is doing to pull it off, it looks great.
chocochunks 23 hours ago [-]
It's not really. The CPU in the Switch 2 isn't the most amazing and the Steam Deck has 4GB extra RAM (but it's also got a lighter OS), but the GPU is worse on Deck. Switch 2 offers pretty comparable performance in handheld mode, better in docked and devs are more likely to tailor games for Switch 2. FF7 Rebirth looks like trash on Deck, even on my faster 780M handheld it was pretty ugly, I had to hack in FSR3/4 support for it to look remotely decent. Switch 2 by comparison looks better. Star Wars Outlaws is another example.
FunHearing3443 24 hours ago [-]
The switch 2 is definitively more powerful than the steam deck and also supports DLSS.
22 hours ago [-]
dragontamer 23 hours ago [-]
> 4K@60
Parts of Samus's gun and some parts of the UI are 4k.
I'm a Nintendo fan but this 4k@60 claim from Nintendo is incredibly laughable. The vast majority of the screen is upscaled.
I think there were a bunch of 4k Hatsune Miku games that came out. It turns out that 2D renderings at 4k can be accomplished with very low end hardware.
The game looks good because Nintendo has excellent artists. So I guess it's worth the money. But the technical specs are completely baloney.
scblock 21 hours ago [-]
"The vast majority of the screen is upscaled."
I have bad news for you, friend. You just described AAA gaming on anything less than a 5090 (and not even then, at all times). Without DLSS or FSR many modern games won't run smoothly at 4k on typical hardware (such as a 5070, which costs more than a Switch 2, or a 5060, which costs about the same).
dragontamer 21 hours ago [-]
I know.
That's why it's laughable that a Switch2 would play anything at 4k@60Hz.
So I'm just pointing it out and laughing at the fanboys. It is literally laughable. This is a tech site where I expected more people to know what these words mean rather than echoing (clearly bullshit) marketing points.
This is a console with 100GB/s memory bandwidth. Like come on guys. It's a whole order of magnitude to weak to make a claim like 4k@60Hz, but all the Nintendo fans are just gobbling up the marketing without thinking.
100GB/s is closer to 2010 era tech (PS3 or something) than 2025.
nsxwolf 23 hours ago [-]
4K mode looks better to me than 1080p on my TV, I'm not Digital Foundry so I don't know how to count pixels or whatever. I would imagine most people don't care much and can't see the difference from where they are sitting in the room anyway.
It more than gets the job done, the job I hired it to do is make the games impress me visually and allow me to experience the thrill of technological progress, and it does that very well.
dragontamer 21 hours ago [-]
4k is a technical spec. It's the same as lying about the horsepower of your car.
Nintendo (and NVidia) are playing games with specs. And it's incredibly off-putting to me.
Lying about small things means the company will lie about large things. This sort of thing erodes trust, especially because 4k is so easy to test and figure out.
-------
There are other words for better than 1080p. Such as 1440p or 2k. Which is closer to what the new Metroid game actually does.
InsideOutSanta 23 hours ago [-]
It's an odd criticism to begin with. The Switch is a toy, it's not a PC. Apart from a few shitty PC ports, it runs its games just fine, so in what sense is it really "underpowered"? Would Super Mario Bros. Wonder be a better game if the Switch 2 could push twice as many polygons?
maccard 23 hours ago [-]
Compared to Xbox and PlayStation it’s vastly underpowered.
They’re not “shitty PC ports”, they’re ports that people tried, likely managed to one platform and then when they tried on switch 2 realised just how far behind it is.
9x39 22 hours ago [-]
How well do Pokopia and Mario Galaxy play on PS and Xbox?
Performance is orthogonal to the Switch aims, which are about those tightly curated Nintendo titles.
maccard 18 hours ago [-]
> Performance is orthogonal to the Switch aims, which are about those tightly curated Nintendo titles.
>Compared to Xbox and PlayStation it’s vastly underpowered.
Sure, the same way an IPhone 17 is vastly underpowerred compared to a PS5. I'd hope we don't need to go into details on why that's not a very useful comparison.
>They’re not “shitty PC ports”,
Garbage in, garbage out. They are called "shitty PC ports" because the port to the PC from the PS5/XBX was bad, without the specs excuse.
Fricken 18 hours ago [-]
Yeah, but does having twice the polygons make the game twice as fun? It does not. The Switch is only behind on metrics that don't matter.
lightedman 22 hours ago [-]
"The Switch is a toy, it's not a PC. Apart from a few shitty PC ports, it runs its games just fine, so in what sense is it really "underpowered"?"
Well this comment down below brings it about really quickly:
"Switch 2 has better FPS for Switch 1 games. Like BotW stops having terrible FPS drops in certain scenarios."
If you need a newer-gen piece of hardware to run an older-gen FIRST PARTY title at acceptable speeds without issues then I'm going to say you are ABSOLUTELY and PURPOSEFULLY selling underpowered hardware (and Nintendo has been doing it since the days of the NES. So many first-party titles with slowdowns because the hardware was not up to the task.)
9x39 22 hours ago [-]
Switch also tried to live in the portable console niche, above handhelds, and this was several years before Steam Deck. SOC development favors the later devices, obviously.
The steam deck is 4 year old hardware. The Switch 2 came out last summer. So if they're about on-par performance-wise, doesn't that prove OP's point?
semiquaver 24 hours ago [-]
Holy goalposts-moving, Batman!
chaostheory 24 hours ago [-]
Yeah, the emulator support is nice
snapcaster 22 hours ago [-]
I wish people (nerds like us) would use better language. It's not overpriced, because a product is more than a pile of chips and tech specs. Do you realize you're implicitly assuming CPU speed == product quality and how untrue that is?
It provides incredible value for its price (hours of fun per $) when compared to basically any other form of entertainment
metadat 22 hours ago [-]
I like this perspective. I was thinking in terms of enjoyment I derived from switch 1 vs steam deck. For me, the Deck has already unlocked way more fun!
quectophoton 20 hours ago [-]
And when you don't need the Steam Deck for gaming anymore, it is still useful as a home server.
campbell000 1 days ago [-]
[dead]
SwtCyber 1 days ago [-]
The Switch 2 price bump isn't too surprising, but increasing the price of the old Switch models this late is pretty wild...
pjmlp 1 days ago [-]
Switch 1 still has more games than I have time to play, plenty of them around to get.
harimau777 1 days ago [-]
FWIW, a significant part of the enjoyment in gaming for me is the community aspects of talking about the latest popular game. Unfortunately, that means that while games on the previous cycle's console are often still good, they innately lack one of the biggest parts of gaming as a hobby for me.
pjmlp 1 days ago [-]
I grew up in a time when we got one or two games a year, if we wanted more games, piracy with double deck tapes, or programming our own games, were the only options available.
Thus it is hard to feel the need to be talking about the latest popular game.
Fricken 1 days ago [-]
I'm with you, but The Switch2 has so far mostly been dropping remakes of classic games, and games already released years ago on other platforms.
kyrra 1 days ago [-]
I bought a switch 2 for one main reason: speed.
Switch 2 is backwards compatible with switch 1.
Switch 2 has better FPS for Switch 1 games. Like BotW stops having terrible FPS drops in certain scenarios.
Switch 2 loads games faster. There are test videos out there, but it's up to twice as fast.
I like the joycon 2 controllers ergonomics more.
pjmlp 1 days ago [-]
For some people the speed is worth the money, for others it isn't
I started gaming with Nintendo's Game&Watch handhelds, Timex 2068, PC MS-DOS 3.3, Amiga, and so on, so I do understand something about upgrading hardware for speed, or deal with what one has at home.
SwtCyber 1 days ago [-]
That's probably the strongest argument against rushing into Switch 2
Rob_Polding 1 days ago [-]
if you mainly play Switch 1 games, it's not worth the upgrade. I've got both and Switch 1 games are not dramatically better. The screen is certainly not as good as the Switch OLED, so if you have that and aren't interested in Switch 2 games you've made a good choice!
andrekandre 21 hours ago [-]
> Effective Date of MSRP Revisions in Japan: May 25, 2026
> Effective Date of Price Revisions in the United States, Canada, and Europe: September 1, 2026
interesting, i wonder what the cause of such time lag in us vs japan is for... maybe the super low japan price is hurting them badly so they need to up the price there sooner?
ageitgey 1 days ago [-]
The value of the yen compared to other currencies has fallen through the floor since 2022, so this isn't unexpected - Nintendo had to do something to equalize prices somewhat. The dollar's global value has also weakened noticeably since (checks notes) April 2, 2025 and Canada has had currency struggles as well the last few years.
raincole 1 days ago [-]
You got the relationship between currency value and export prices upside down. Usually when your local currency devalues, it will make your exported goods cheaper in other countries.
This is why the US always accuses (justified or not) other countries artificially keeping their currencies undervalued, by the way.
ageitgey 1 days ago [-]
First, Japan doesn't make the Switch in Japan. They are made in Vietnam and China. So having a weak local currency isn't super helpful.
Second, the largest price increase is for the local Japanese market (and they are increasing the already-underpriced special 'Japan-only' model that they won't allow to be sold in other markets).
somenameforme 1 days ago [-]
He may have just fumbled into an accuracy, but the nuance here is that what you're saying is mostly true for domestically produced things, which is why the other country you're mostly referring to is China - they have domestic production facilities for just about everything.
Something like the Switch is going to rely heavily on imported parts, and so when your currency plummets relative to others, that forces you to increase prices just to stay in the black. And yeah in looking it up, then yen has dropped about 50% against the yuan just over the past 5 years. Seems like Japan didn't learn much from the US about picking 'print money' as your economic policy. It doesn't last long when you're an economic hegemon able to export your inflation, but it's a far worse idea when you're a lesser economic power.
ageitgey 1 days ago [-]
> it's a far worse idea when you're a lesser economic power
Exactly. Japan has held its interest rates at almost zero for years (currently 0.75%) while the US is at 3.5% and has been roughly there or higher since late 2022. Having a negative 3% interest rate gap with the world's largest economy for over 3 years is going to cause currency weakness.
jackgavigan 1 days ago [-]
> The value of the yen compared to other currencies has fallen through the floor since 2022...
That would normally allow them to keep prices of export goods low...
ageitgey 1 days ago [-]
This is a large price rise in domestic (Japanese) markets, with a small rise in other countries. This is impacting Japanese consumers the most.
Nintendo is a very Japanese-centric, proud company. For those not aware, Nintendo has been avoiding repricing domestically until now by selling a "Japanese-only Switch" locked to Japan in order to prevent foreign arbitrage. But the currency pressure is too strong.
pjc50 1 days ago [-]
The thing is dependent on imported RAM. The flip side of this.. have you seen SK Hynix stock price lately?
Jolter 1 days ago [-]
You’ll notice they raised prices in Japan by A Lot, but the US price is only up $50.
moron4hire 1 days ago [-]
Uuuuuuh, ¥10,000 is currently about $64, so it's not that much different to be calling it "a lot".
vasco 1 days ago [-]
It totally depends on if you need to import things to transform them or if you source mostly locally in your supply chain.
hajile 1 days ago [-]
> Given that the impact of various changes in market conditions is expected to extend over the medium to long term, price revisions are also planned outside Japan as described below.
Current Price Revised Price
United States $449.99 $499.99
Canada $629.99 $679.99
Europe €469.99 €499.99
These price changes reflect more than just Yen value dropping.
rpdillon 1 days ago [-]
Yeah, the comment talking about currency exchange rates is missing the hardware crisis. Nintendo stock prices dropped 45% over the past year because of the hardware shortages and the inevitability of having to raise prices to account for that. I think the difference in currencies is a minor factor. Last July, Nintendo was selling for about $24 a share, and now it's down to about $12.
Inflation is just one factor and is not limited to one country. This shows the US dollar vs other currencies.
iso1631 1 days ago [-]
That graph shows the dollar started dropping in Jan 2025
ageitgey 1 days ago [-]
Right, it started dropping when the current administration was inaugurated, directly because of the party's promise to enact immediate tariffs. And it continued to drop sharply leading up to and through the tariff announcement.
I'm not trying to say anything spicy here. You can argue whether a strong currency is good or bad. But it would be silly not to acknowledge the cause. It was one of the largest global financial shocks in recent years.
motbus3 1 days ago [-]
The truth is that you can increase prices by 50% and if you loose 50% of sales you are still in a good place as your costs also drop.
They have little uncertainty to work with, they don't need their consumers as much.
They're continuing their anti consumer policies
mysterydip 1 days ago [-]
Hardware is just one aspect of sales though. I assume they have much higher margin on software, especially rereleases of existing games on whatever the next platform is.
ymolodtsov 1 days ago [-]
That's very simplistic. They also earn money on sales, both first-party and third-party games, so they need a large audience.
gcr 1 days ago [-]
Hang on, halving your sales means doubling your price to stay even (ignoring your own cost), right?
I have a bridge to sell you …
1 days ago [-]
phoronixrly 1 days ago [-]
If you consider the jump in price of DRAM due to hyperscalers to not be a considerable factor in this increase, please state so. Your comment leaving this out makes it harder to trust.
ageitgey 1 days ago [-]
DRAM prices increase everywhere, so it should affect the worldwide market in the same way. But Nintendo is raising prices mostly in Japan.
Japan's local currency devaluation is more about US vs Japan differences in central bank policy and interest rates (and a million other issues) and is mostly separate from DRAM prices.
SwtCyber 1 days ago [-]
[flagged]
bix6 1 days ago [-]
I’m waiting for a special edition and some games that make the upgrade worthwhile.
perarneng 1 days ago [-]
So all electronics are doomed? This does not seem to good for the global economy .
archargelod 1 days ago [-]
This might lead to less e-waste and resource-efficient programming. Not likely, but one can dream.
schnitzelstoat 1 days ago [-]
The price increases aren't massive though, I think I'll still wait for a mainline Mario game.
-warren 1 days ago [-]
I know it's stupid and phschological, but there's a line in my head on what the absolute maximum I'd pay for the nsw2 once the right game comes out. That line is $450.
At $500, I will think twice about just buying nsw1 games, moving to thr steam deck, or digging out old consoles (which is fun too!)
I'm really having a hard time (stupid, I know) giving my kid a $500 toy. Somehow I'm ok with a $300 toy (nsw1) or even a $400 toy (old smartphone).
asukachikaru 1 days ago [-]
It's relatively mild for EU and US, but for JP it's a 20% increase. Finally going to get one after the announcement.
avadodin 1 days ago [-]
They showed some good will towards protecting the local market against blatant currency manipulation but it is an important market for them and at this point it doesn't look like the JCB is going to react. They just "intervened" the Gopher back to what it was a few weeks ago.
worthless-trash 1 days ago [-]
I remember reading that the screen is worse than v1, is that still true ?
jezzamon 1 days ago [-]
I have the originals of both, the screen is much better on the switch 2. Don't have any other similar devices or the OLED version.
In the Switch 2 Welcome Tour app they even have demos to highlight the improvement in the screen quality compared to the switch
schnitzelstoat 1 days ago [-]
Yes, there is no OLED version like they later released for the original Switch.
OLED is probably better overall but it can be harder to use in bright sunshine and you have the risk of burn-in if you accidentally leave the screen turned on for hours or something.
gambiting 1 days ago [-]
I have the switch 2 and an OLED steam deck and it's not even close - the switch 2 screen is just not very good. To a point where if you have grey on grey movement you can see visible smearing like it's some old LCD from 20 years ago. When an OLED version comes out I'll definitely upgrade(so I guess the joke is on me, because I'll end up buying the same console twice just to have the screen that it should have had from the beginning)
nokeya 1 days ago [-]
Really? They released a second generation with screen being worse than installed in the first generation (even non-oled version)?
We have two switches in our family, both first gen, one usual and one oled. Standalone, usual screen is bearable, compared to oled it is quite bad, but if the new screen is even worse?? I can’t find any explanation for this except of greediness from Nintendo
savant2 1 days ago [-]
The Switch 2 screen is way better than Switch 1 non-OLED.
nokeya 1 days ago [-]
So, they are not soo greedy, but greedy enough to not make it an OLED and later add a separate pricier OLED version.
echelon 1 days ago [-]
I'll wait for the Ocarina of Time remake.
The leaks have been coming out for months now and say it is supposedly coming out this fall. The upcoming Legend of Zelda film sets seem to be based on Ocarina of Time, recent merchandise (LEGO sets, etc.) are based on Ocarina of Time to enhance marketing, etc.
Nintendo just dropped the official Starfox 64 remake news yesterday, so this rumor is likely pretty legitimate.
I don't play games much anymore, but that's something I will absolutely revisit due to nostalgia.
uncircle 1 days ago [-]
Entertainment companies have unlocked the infinite money glitch with remakes; not only companies but also people are afraid of trying something new, so why not profit from nostalgia.
I called it years ago, but I didn’t expect how people would love to play the same story and watch the same movie over and over again. Incidentally they will be also easier to AI generate, as part of their existing data set. It truly is the end game for our stale and uninspired culture.
I missed Breath of the Wild, I’ll play it on the Switch 4 remake in a couple of years.
/rant
hootz 1 days ago [-]
And they charge a lot for them, too. The Luigi's Mansion 2 remake is too expensive for a graphical upgrade of a 3DS game.
__natty__ 1 days ago [-]
For adults, sure. For kids saving for the console it may be problematic.
k__ 1 days ago [-]
Has this ever happened before?
roxolotl 1 days ago [-]
This is the story imo. For a large percent of people, basically everyone born after 1980, technology has always reduced in price and increased in capabilities over their entire life. If sustained, which if you start with the Xbox price increase it probably already is, this is a secular change in the market for technology.
handoflixue 1 days ago [-]
I was wondering the same thing - I grew up thinking of console prices as something that invariably fell over time
Jensson 1 days ago [-]
Ram prices went up, normally they go down.
echelon 1 days ago [-]
PlayStation 5 has a price increase in August, 2022. I think this was the very first time this happened.
Xbox Series X had one in June, 2023.
Nintendo Switch (original) had a price increase last year.
I don't remember this ever happening before the 2020s unless it was due to retailer shortages or markups.
philistine 1 days ago [-]
NEC temporarily raised the price of the TurboExpress due to low screen yields in 1991. That is the only price increase I was able to find.
butler14 1 days ago [-]
£385 in argos and smyths at the mo for any UK folk!
weberer 1 days ago [-]
Can't you take a trip to France and shop tax free? That would shave off around 25% of the price.
Symbiote 1 days ago [-]
You are then obliged to pay UK VAT / import tax when you return
deciduously 1 days ago [-]
And add the cost of transit to france
prism56 1 days ago [-]
Picked mine up last week, they had a deal with a game too which dropped £20 off Mario Wonder.
moron4hire 1 days ago [-]
I remember when Nintendo bundled the best Mario game with their consoles, not the worst.
prism56 1 days ago [-]
Wait what. Wonder is incredible...
moron4hire 1 days ago [-]
I genuinely hate it. I think it controls like shit. It feels like the Megaman 8 of the Mario series.
everyone 1 days ago [-]
You can still 100% get a great 2nd hand gaming pc for that amount. That will play all games, including all console games from every era, and will last for 10 years at least. Also you can use it to make music / art / software and also do most jobs.
A lot of sellers will even throw in the peripherals for free.
I might buy up a few now while they are left.
Also never buy 1st hand desktop hardware, total waste of money, the price drop from 1st hand to 2nd hand is insane, but desktop components dont degrade that much, theyre still mostly following IBM's sane design pattern, so you're getting a massive price drop with no downside.
chocochunks 1 days ago [-]
You can't play Pokopia, DK Bonanza or Mario Kart World on PC. Even with a 5090. You also can't play Cyberpunk 2077 on the plane or train with a 2nd hand desktop unlike the Switch 2.
gambiting 1 days ago [-]
....and how are you going to carry that gaming PC onto a plane?
Like, it's a portable console, it's not a competition for a desktop PC in any way.
pier25 1 days ago [-]
Probably related to RAM and storage prices going up just like with the PS5.
throwaway270925 1 days ago [-]
Probably related to "we are getting away with it in the current climate" just like with the PS5.
jFriedensreich 1 days ago [-]
And new prices for playing cards not even set yet... TIL nintendo still makes cards in japan.
zinekeller 1 days ago [-]
I can see why you thought it was, but "Open Price" in Japan means that the manufacturer has forgo setting the price themselves, unlike the previous policy that the price is dictated by Nintendo (in this case). The wholeseller's price... is simply not disclosed here, there's an NDA on that one (even with other companies such as Sony).
zeafoamrun 1 days ago [-]
I know Nintendo is the slowest game company to ever lower prices, but raising them! Not something you see every day.
AntiUSAbah 1 days ago [-]
Never buy a switch later. Nintendo prices don't fall and if, it takes ages.
hootz 1 days ago [-]
Yep, they refuse to lower prices to try to maintain value over time. That's why most second hand physical first party games cost the same, people know the digital or first-hand physical game prices won't ever go down.
thrownawaysz 1 days ago [-]
I wish I have the means to travel to Japan right now because prices never been cheaper, especially food. Feels like missing out on a great opportunity
merpkz 1 days ago [-]
What a wild statement, how much you have to eat in Japan to offset the airline ticket prices?
Wowfunhappy 1 days ago [-]
I’m assuming GP would like to visit Japan anyway.
jermaustin1 1 days ago [-]
Why would they have to offset the cost? They are just saying, being in Japan is a cheaper experience right now than ever before (not sure if it is true). The cost to get there is their only impediment. They still want to go and eat food and see experiences they cannot get at home.
Also, if the trip is of sufficient length, you can totally offset the cost.
When I lived in NYC, I used to travel to the UK a few times a year, and the flights between NYC and London were around $500 round trip. The cost of eating in the UK was typically 1/2 that of NYC, plus cool castles and history.
kmfrk 1 days ago [-]
The Switch 2 also released right in the midst of the tariff mayhem, Nintendo really couldn't catch a break with this generation.
sitzkrieg 1 days ago [-]
like they need a break
maxglute 19 hours ago [-]
TBH would be nice if AI crunch kills Nintendo hardware business model.
jgbuddy 1 days ago [-]
Funny the European and US models have the same price. effectively a 20% discount buying it in europe.
bsimpson 23 hours ago [-]
The EUR is often worth more than the USD, which leads to complaints when they are given the same nominal price (500 bucks, in this case). Europeans think they're getting overcharged.
One big difference is sales tax. If you remove the 20% VAT and apply the currency conversion, a European Switch would cost an American $472 after these changes. Tax is added here, so it could cost an American as much as $550 back home.
ankitsanghi 1 days ago [-]
I'll buy it once Winds and Waves comes out. The increase isn't THAT much.
I bought a Switch 2 about 6 months ago. My biggest disappointment with it so far has been the lack of first-party games.
mcphage 24 hours ago [-]
If you haven't tried Pokemon Pokopia, it's really excellent. A great mixture of Pokemon, Minecraft, and Animal Crossing. Largely developed by the same team at Koei Techmo that did Dragon Quest Builders 2, and it has a lot of the same structure and feeling of that game, but replaces the combat with building environments to attract different Pokemon. It's been a system seller for the Switch 2, and deservedly so.
EZ-E 1 days ago [-]
Is Mario Kart on the switch 1 still $70?
NDlurker 1 days ago [-]
I paid like $10 for a used copy of the Wii U version
schnitzelstoat 1 days ago [-]
It's €80 digital and €90 physical here in Spain. :(
1 days ago [-]
AdmiralAsshat 23 hours ago [-]
Yeah, okay, "market conditions", RAM more expensive, hardware more expensive, fine...
But then why are they also increasing the price of their online services? The games run locally!
Fuck you, Nintendo.
1 days ago [-]
_imnothere 1 days ago [-]
Friendly reminder: The pennies are going to be used to bring community devs lawsuits.
grougnax 21 hours ago [-]
Legal reminder: it is not allowed to steal someone else's creation and make money from it. Yes, getting money from your Patreon followers to instead of selling directly your Ocarina of Time remake is not allowed.
TodorGrudev 1 days ago [-]
[dead]
dude250711 1 days ago [-]
Lol, keep buying it. Investor profits must be protected at any cost.
hdaf1298 1 days ago [-]
That is another victim of all hardware being hoovered up by AI fraudsters.
People need to go to the classic class warfare methods:
- Do not buy anything new, especially graphics cards. Buy on Ebay but avoid bidding wars.
- Use adblockers and do not pay for any company's services if the company promotes AI.
- If it is true that Nintendo is lobbying against AI in Japan, still buy Nintendo of course.
The AI people think they don't need us, let their stocks crash.
falcor84 1 days ago [-]
> Do not buy anything new, especially graphics cards. Buy on Ebay but avoid bidding wars.
And what then? If you did manage to convince everyone to stop buying consumer graphics cards, wouldn't Nvidia just reasonably dedicate 100% of its resources to AI?
ymolodtsov 1 days ago [-]
I assume by "AI fraudsters" you mean companies whose product are in extremely high demand by everyone.
pjc50 1 days ago [-]
Just because something is heavily in demand doesn't mean it's not fraudulent.
parasubvert 1 days ago [-]
Generally speaking, that's incorrect. That's like saying "I don't like cars, and don't see the value in cars, therefore the market for cars is fraudulent".
In AI, buyers are getting what they want. The demand is real. YOU might not value what they're getting, but that doesn't make it fraudulent.
This is why people misunderstand why AI isn't a bubble. A bubble is asset prices rising due to speculative demand far beyond what the actual demand is.
AI - specifically chip and memory markets feeding AI - is a demand shock on par with World War 2 in its impact. NVIDIA is legitimately forecasting demand of $1 trillion in their chips+memory by the end of 2027.
This is actual, real, shipping physical product: not vapor, not something that will disappear, not something that will "crash" suddenly.
Yes, there is some speculation among AI providers training new models in the race to AGI, but that is not the majority of demand, inference is 65-80% of demand. If the current pace of training slows, that excess capacity for training will get easily sorted out through resale markets.
The world has changed.
choo-t 1 days ago [-]
> Generally speaking, that's incorrect. That's like saying "I don't like cars, and don't see the value in cars, therefore the market for cars is fraudulent".
It's arguable that the car market is indeed fraudulent and the result of years of lobbying, destroying public transportation and car-centric architectures.
qlart 1 days ago [-]
There are circular deals, the product is heavily subsidized. Managers are promised the moon and are deceived about the actual capabilities of the product.
Mythos is marketed like a nuclear weapon to make people jealous.
AI model government approval is floated, perhaps in preparation for a government bailout justified by "national security".
Kushners are invested in OpenAI.
There is a lot of fraud going on.
> This is actual, real, shipping physical product: not vapor, not something that will disappear, not something that will "crash" suddenly.
"Not X, not Y, not Z, just A" works better than "Actually A, not X, not Y, not Z".
Jolter 1 days ago [-]
Classic class warfare. ”Buy on eBay”. Sure worked for the bolsheviks!
Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? In the past this was more the case, but with the Switch 2 the hardware bill of materials is actually more costly relative to previous products like the Switch 1.
Poor timing of market forces (Sam Altman spending VC money to purchase all the world’s memory chips). Ouch.
It's not like most people even know what a Steam Deck is. At the moment at least, the two devices mostly don't compete for the same audience. And if you want to play Nintendo's games - which a lot of people do, they're usually quite good - you don't have much choice anyway.
The Steam Deck doesn't cut into Nintendo's core audience, but it does draw away people who would have bought the Switch 1/2 for those reasons -- the audience that made the Switch 1 such an overwhelming success. Anecdotally, I've had multiple non-techies bring up the Steam Deck unprompted, usually with an impression of 'the Switch but better' and/or 'more adult-oriented'.
Historically, when the market they created starts to become saturated, Nintendo starts looking to pivot. So the Steam Deck might not kill the Switch 2, but I'd be very surprised if it doesn't kill the Switch 3.
Steam basically is PC gaming at this point, which is still a massive market that is almost as big as the entirety of console gaming.
I know there are those out there, but I would be slightly surprised if a PC gamer didn't know what a Steam Deck was in 2026.
As someone who has pretty much every console system and most handhelds, I didn't spring for a Switch 2, and it is for the exact reason the thread parent mentions. I do like Nintendo games, as they are consistently high quality, but they are not usually graphics reliant for fun, and the Switch is good enough still, and I don't love paying $90 USD for a single game when I can buy $5-20 games on Steam and play them across multiple devices.
I'm in the same boat as you, I also don't feel the need to buy a Switch 2 yet. Also, game sharing on Steam with my kids is just so much more pleasant. Having multiple kids and multiple Switches was such a shit show of what felt like manual license and provisioning management that I'm not really keen on giving Nintendo more money at this time.
I have neither devices right now, only a PC.
They know that the combination of extremely high quality first party exclusives combined with hugely popular IP is going to move units even if they're "overpriced" as devices to play any other games.
When my daughter's Switch 1 died, I had the choice between the 2 and the Steam Deck, and I chose the Deck. It's got a ton of games and the cheap Steam back catalog is great, but... no Mario? No Zelda?
I won't pretend I wasn't tempted to own both.
80 Dollar just to play Mario Kart?
Even older switch titles are barely ever on sale.
I never buy games at full price so the economics don't add up for me. I guess it works for the kind of person that buys games on release. If someone has that much money to burn they don't need to care about hardware cost either I guess.
Always has been:
https://gamerant.com/mario-kart-game-launch-price-adjusted-i...
It's also the best game in its category (which Nintendo basically invented), offers terrific local multiplayer on a single console, and is something you can enjoy for years with friends and family.
Twilight Princess soon
Yes! Famously so, in fact. Look up Gupei Yokoi and "Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology".
There's a reason Nintendo targets and wins with very casual gamers. It would take a lot more than a $50 price increase to be the 'nail in the coffin' for the Switch.
The steam deck is more expensive as well, and the switch 2 is much more powerful than the steam deck.
I don't think it will matter much. They live off the exclusives.
Adults are VERY MUCH the target market: See page 10 of Nintendo's investor relations doc.
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2022/221109e.pdf
It's true that fewer people will be buying fewer consoles as a whole, but gaming is a pretty competitive market. I'm sure Nintendo will take a hit regardless, but probably no more than the likes of Sony, MS, Valve, etc.
Like any gold rush, the only people who win are the ones selling the shovels (in this case, Nvidia).
I feel that Nintendo should really become just a software company. All consoles are converging towards using more or less similar PC hardware anyway, so having your own hardware platform doesn't seem very useful anymore.
Nintendo also pushes gaming innovation in different directions, enabling interesting experiences. It's not always successful, but is rarely boring: virtual boy (proto-VR), dual screen gaming (DS, 3DS, Wii U), asymmetric multiplayer (Wii U), split controller with motion controls (Wii, Switch), advanced haptics (Switch), screen-free gaming (1-2 Switch), glasses-free lenticular 3D (3DS), hybrid cardboard gaming (Labo/Switch), slab handheld (2DS), hybrid handheld/TV gaming (Wii U, Switch), asynchronous network interaction and game data sharing (3DS street pass), moderated social networking (Warawara Plaza and MiiVerse on Wii U and 3DS), etc.
The consoles are carefully designed. Game Boy had a non-backlit, reflective display that enabled it to be used in broad daylight and helped it achieve a 50-hour battery life. GBA SL and Nintendo DS/3DS were attractive and functional clamshell designs. GameCube (a compact and rather charming purple cube design) had a handle to encourage people to move the system to different TVs or bring it to friends' houses. Switch has a kickstand and a dock system to enable quick switching between handheld, tabletop, and TV-attached gaming, all without restarting the game.
I would pay 50 more dollars for the same experience if thats what it took. I do think Nintendo should provide a little more value at the new price, but it's not a huge gap.
Nothing against those $1 game sales on Steam or gog.com (or "free to play"/live service games – for those who can tolerate their monetization schemes), but fun/benefit per dollar for {Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Animal Crossing, Ring Fit Adventure, etc.} has been huge for me, even accounting for the cost of the console and additional controllers.
Being able to pop in a physical game card and play the game immediately (even if you are offline) is another thing I appreciated about the Switch (though unfortunately some Switch 2 games are not available as real game cards.)
> Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? In the past this was more the case, but with the Switch 2 the hardware bill of materials is actually more costly relative to previous products like the Switch 1.
Underpowered and cheap, yes, but not really "to juice profits". See "lateral thinking with withered technology":
"his strategy demonstrated Nintendo's belief that graphical advancement is not the only way to make progress in gaming technology; indeed, after the Wii's overwhelming success, Sony and Microsoft released their own motion control peripherals."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi
Insane.
Metroid Prime 4 looks amazing, and you can choose 4K@60 or 1080p@120. I don't really care about generated frames or whatever AI magic the console is doing to pull it off, it looks great.
Parts of Samus's gun and some parts of the UI are 4k.
I'm a Nintendo fan but this 4k@60 claim from Nintendo is incredibly laughable. The vast majority of the screen is upscaled.
I think there were a bunch of 4k Hatsune Miku games that came out. It turns out that 2D renderings at 4k can be accomplished with very low end hardware.
The game looks good because Nintendo has excellent artists. So I guess it's worth the money. But the technical specs are completely baloney.
I have bad news for you, friend. You just described AAA gaming on anything less than a 5090 (and not even then, at all times). Without DLSS or FSR many modern games won't run smoothly at 4k on typical hardware (such as a 5070, which costs more than a Switch 2, or a 5060, which costs about the same).
That's why it's laughable that a Switch2 would play anything at 4k@60Hz.
So I'm just pointing it out and laughing at the fanboys. It is literally laughable. This is a tech site where I expected more people to know what these words mean rather than echoing (clearly bullshit) marketing points.
This is a console with 100GB/s memory bandwidth. Like come on guys. It's a whole order of magnitude to weak to make a claim like 4k@60Hz, but all the Nintendo fans are just gobbling up the marketing without thinking.
100GB/s is closer to 2010 era tech (PS3 or something) than 2025.
It more than gets the job done, the job I hired it to do is make the games impress me visually and allow me to experience the thrill of technological progress, and it does that very well.
Nintendo (and NVidia) are playing games with specs. And it's incredibly off-putting to me.
Lying about small things means the company will lie about large things. This sort of thing erodes trust, especially because 4k is so easy to test and figure out.
-------
There are other words for better than 1080p. Such as 1440p or 2k. Which is closer to what the new Metroid game actually does.
They’re not “shitty PC ports”, they’re ports that people tried, likely managed to one platform and then when they tried on switch 2 realised just how far behind it is.
Performance is orthogonal to the Switch aims, which are about those tightly curated Nintendo titles.
I disagree. https://opencritic.com/browse/switch%202 Half of the top rated games on Switch 2 are multiplatform titles
Sure, the same way an IPhone 17 is vastly underpowerred compared to a PS5. I'd hope we don't need to go into details on why that's not a very useful comparison.
>They’re not “shitty PC ports”,
Garbage in, garbage out. They are called "shitty PC ports" because the port to the PC from the PS5/XBX was bad, without the specs excuse.
Well this comment down below brings it about really quickly:
"Switch 2 has better FPS for Switch 1 games. Like BotW stops having terrible FPS drops in certain scenarios."
If you need a newer-gen piece of hardware to run an older-gen FIRST PARTY title at acceptable speeds without issues then I'm going to say you are ABSOLUTELY and PURPOSEFULLY selling underpowered hardware (and Nintendo has been doing it since the days of the NES. So many first-party titles with slowdowns because the hardware was not up to the task.)
BoTW was still generally acceptable to people: https://www.metacritic.com/game/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-o...
It provides incredible value for its price (hours of fun per $) when compared to basically any other form of entertainment
Thus it is hard to feel the need to be talking about the latest popular game.
Switch 2 is backwards compatible with switch 1.
Switch 2 has better FPS for Switch 1 games. Like BotW stops having terrible FPS drops in certain scenarios.
Switch 2 loads games faster. There are test videos out there, but it's up to twice as fast.
I like the joycon 2 controllers ergonomics more.
I started gaming with Nintendo's Game&Watch handhelds, Timex 2068, PC MS-DOS 3.3, Amiga, and so on, so I do understand something about upgrading hardware for speed, or deal with what one has at home.
This is why the US always accuses (justified or not) other countries artificially keeping their currencies undervalued, by the way.
Second, the largest price increase is for the local Japanese market (and they are increasing the already-underpriced special 'Japan-only' model that they won't allow to be sold in other markets).
Something like the Switch is going to rely heavily on imported parts, and so when your currency plummets relative to others, that forces you to increase prices just to stay in the black. And yeah in looking it up, then yen has dropped about 50% against the yuan just over the past 5 years. Seems like Japan didn't learn much from the US about picking 'print money' as your economic policy. It doesn't last long when you're an economic hegemon able to export your inflation, but it's a far worse idea when you're a lesser economic power.
Exactly. Japan has held its interest rates at almost zero for years (currently 0.75%) while the US is at 3.5% and has been roughly there or higher since late 2022. Having a negative 3% interest rate gap with the world's largest economy for over 3 years is going to cause currency weakness.
That would normally allow them to keep prices of export goods low...
Nintendo is a very Japanese-centric, proud company. For those not aware, Nintendo has been avoiding repricing domestically until now by selling a "Japanese-only Switch" locked to Japan in order to prevent foreign arbitrage. But the currency pressure is too strong.
https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-under-pressure-to-rais...
This current inflation spike peaked in 2022. If anything, its been easing in 2025.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FPCPITOTLZGUSA
https://cpiinflationcalculator.com/2025-cpi-and-inflation-da...
Inflation is just one factor and is not limited to one country. This shows the US dollar vs other currencies.
I'm not trying to say anything spicy here. You can argue whether a strong currency is good or bad. But it would be silly not to acknowledge the cause. It was one of the largest global financial shocks in recent years.
They have little uncertainty to work with, they don't need their consumers as much.
They're continuing their anti consumer policies
I have a bridge to sell you …
Japan's local currency devaluation is more about US vs Japan differences in central bank policy and interest rates (and a million other issues) and is mostly separate from DRAM prices.
At $500, I will think twice about just buying nsw1 games, moving to thr steam deck, or digging out old consoles (which is fun too!)
I'm really having a hard time (stupid, I know) giving my kid a $500 toy. Somehow I'm ok with a $300 toy (nsw1) or even a $400 toy (old smartphone).
In the Switch 2 Welcome Tour app they even have demos to highlight the improvement in the screen quality compared to the switch
OLED is probably better overall but it can be harder to use in bright sunshine and you have the risk of burn-in if you accidentally leave the screen turned on for hours or something.
We have two switches in our family, both first gen, one usual and one oled. Standalone, usual screen is bearable, compared to oled it is quite bad, but if the new screen is even worse?? I can’t find any explanation for this except of greediness from Nintendo
The leaks have been coming out for months now and say it is supposedly coming out this fall. The upcoming Legend of Zelda film sets seem to be based on Ocarina of Time, recent merchandise (LEGO sets, etc.) are based on Ocarina of Time to enhance marketing, etc.
Nintendo just dropped the official Starfox 64 remake news yesterday, so this rumor is likely pretty legitimate.
I don't play games much anymore, but that's something I will absolutely revisit due to nostalgia.
I called it years ago, but I didn’t expect how people would love to play the same story and watch the same movie over and over again. Incidentally they will be also easier to AI generate, as part of their existing data set. It truly is the end game for our stale and uninspired culture.
I missed Breath of the Wild, I’ll play it on the Switch 4 remake in a couple of years.
/rant
Xbox Series X had one in June, 2023.
Nintendo Switch (original) had a price increase last year.
I don't remember this ever happening before the 2020s unless it was due to retailer shortages or markups.
A lot of sellers will even throw in the peripherals for free.
I might buy up a few now while they are left.
Also never buy 1st hand desktop hardware, total waste of money, the price drop from 1st hand to 2nd hand is insane, but desktop components dont degrade that much, theyre still mostly following IBM's sane design pattern, so you're getting a massive price drop with no downside.
Like, it's a portable console, it's not a competition for a desktop PC in any way.
Also, if the trip is of sufficient length, you can totally offset the cost.
When I lived in NYC, I used to travel to the UK a few times a year, and the flights between NYC and London were around $500 round trip. The cost of eating in the UK was typically 1/2 that of NYC, plus cool castles and history.
One big difference is sales tax. If you remove the 20% VAT and apply the currency conversion, a European Switch would cost an American $472 after these changes. Tax is added here, so it could cost an American as much as $550 back home.
But then why are they also increasing the price of their online services? The games run locally!
Fuck you, Nintendo.
People need to go to the classic class warfare methods:
- Do not buy anything new, especially graphics cards. Buy on Ebay but avoid bidding wars.
- Use adblockers and do not pay for any company's services if the company promotes AI.
- If it is true that Nintendo is lobbying against AI in Japan, still buy Nintendo of course.
The AI people think they don't need us, let their stocks crash.
And what then? If you did manage to convince everyone to stop buying consumer graphics cards, wouldn't Nvidia just reasonably dedicate 100% of its resources to AI?
In AI, buyers are getting what they want. The demand is real. YOU might not value what they're getting, but that doesn't make it fraudulent.
This is why people misunderstand why AI isn't a bubble. A bubble is asset prices rising due to speculative demand far beyond what the actual demand is.
AI - specifically chip and memory markets feeding AI - is a demand shock on par with World War 2 in its impact. NVIDIA is legitimately forecasting demand of $1 trillion in their chips+memory by the end of 2027.
This is actual, real, shipping physical product: not vapor, not something that will disappear, not something that will "crash" suddenly.
Yes, there is some speculation among AI providers training new models in the race to AGI, but that is not the majority of demand, inference is 65-80% of demand. If the current pace of training slows, that excess capacity for training will get easily sorted out through resale markets.
The world has changed.
It's arguable that the car market is indeed fraudulent and the result of years of lobbying, destroying public transportation and car-centric architectures.
Mythos is marketed like a nuclear weapon to make people jealous.
AI model government approval is floated, perhaps in preparation for a government bailout justified by "national security".
Kushners are invested in OpenAI.
There is a lot of fraud going on.
> This is actual, real, shipping physical product: not vapor, not something that will disappear, not something that will "crash" suddenly.
"Not X, not Y, not Z, just A" works better than "Actually A, not X, not Y, not Z".