If you’ve been on the fence about upgrading from the Nintendo Switch to the Nintendo Switch 2, you better make your decision in the next few hours. Back in May, Nintendo announced a planed price increase for its latest console—bringing it up from $450 to $500. September 1 is when this new pricing officially goes into effect, meaning today is the last day you can pick up the hybrid handheld gaming system at it’s original value.
Amazon has already implemented the new list price of $500, but the selling price for the Nintendo Switch 2 is still sitting at $450—momentarily marked as a 10% discount on the console.
Long gone are the days where when a new gaming console releases, you can decide wait a year or two in order to pick up the system for a fraction of the price. It was once common that between holiday bundles and the regular discounts as the console matures, retailers would drop the price to move more inventory. However, this console generation marks the very first where this inventory is appreciating in value.
Price Increases Across the Gaming Industry
Nintendo held out until now to make changes to its pricing, but Microsoft and Sony have already pulled the trigger several times over. The Xbox Series X has had multiple price increases since it launched in the back half of 2020 at $500. Sales saw it reaching an Amazon all-time low of $349 in 2023 before steadily climbing back up. In 2025, Microsoft announced the price would be raised on two separate occasions, first bringing it up from is original MSRP of $500 to $600, then again just a few months later raising it to $650. After raising the price by $150 in 2025, Microsoft announced in 2026 to be doing it again. The six year old gaming console now sits at $800.
Sony’s story with the PlayStation 5 is not too different, with its original disc edition launching at $499, but now sitting at $649. The PlayStation 5 Pro is now $899.
A number of factors are contributing to the price increases. We are experiencing a global shortage of memory chips and RAM and storage costs are on the rise, affecting what Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony can comfortably charge for its consoles. RAM and storage are being hit so hard as a result of the rising demand for these parts in the construction of AI data centers.
So unless everyone in the world suddenly decides to agree that AI is lame and we don’t need it, don’t expect to see the Nintendo Switch 2 selling for $450 again any time soon.
