The Switch launched in 2017 for $300. It’s now 2025 and it’s still $300. Will it finally get a price cut like every other Nintendo console has had at some point in its lifecycle or will the Mario maker take the unprecedented step of actually making it more expensive, even after the Switch 2 is out? According to Nintendo, we’ll find out on August 1.
Yes, the company made the very weird (ominous?) decision to tease an upcoming “price change” to the nearly decade-old handheld for players in Canada without indicating which way the price will change until it’s officially announced on August 1. “Pricing for the original Nintendo Switch family of systems and products in Canada will change based on market conditions,” Nintendo wrote in a press release on Monday. “These include Nintendo Switch - OLED Model, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite, physical and digital Nintendo Switch games and Nintendo Switch accessories.”
The reference to market conditions, which includes exchange rates, import taxes, and shipping fees, suggests the price is going up, not down. Why only for Canada and not the rest of North America remains to be seen. Nintendo went out of its way to stress that the Switch 2, currently $450, will not see its price go up. However, amiibo and Switch Online memberships will be included in the pricing changes. New amiibo in the U.S. already jumped to a whopping $30 each. Fans haven’t been impressed.
The seemingly likely price hikes come as other console makers raise prices across the board. In the U.S., Microsoft bumped the price of the Xbox Series X by $100 and the Series S by $80. It’s launching its first $80 game, The Outer Worlds 2, this fall, and many suspect another Game Pass Ultimate price hike won’t be far behind. Sony has also been raising its prices, especially in Japan where the price of the base PS5 went up nearly $100. The price of PS Plus also went up in Brazil earlier this year, with hikes seemingly teased for other regions in a recent business meeting.
Nintendo has already been aggressive with its next-gen pricing. Standard games like Donkey Kong Bananza have bumped up to $70, while some like Mario Kart World are $80. Players balked at the steep increases, in addition to the Switch 2 being priced at $450 with most of its accessories sold separately, but that hasn’t slowed the new system’s momentum yet. It’s already the fastest-selling console ever with 3 million units shipped in the first week.
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