Nintendo feels relatively higher Switch 2 price will affect early adoption

Nintendo announced the price for the Switch 2 on April 2 and it came as a bit of a surprise for fans and the industry. The console costs $450 which is significantly higher than the launch price of the original switch at $300. It’s not just the fans who were somewhat disappointed, even Nintendo feels that this higher price tag will affect early adoption of the console, though it wants to popularize the system globally as quickly as possible. 

Nintendo had its earnings call for FY25 recently where president Shuntaro Furukawa answered some questions about the forecasts, tariffs, and other key aspects of the reports. The company expects to sell 15 million units of the Switch 2 in the fiscal year but Furukawa stated that early adoption could be challenging due to the relatively higher price tag. That’s why the forecast is on the conservative side. He added that even though there is a lot of momentum around the launch, maintaining that momentum is going to be challenging. 

Nevertheless, Furukawa feels that the software and hardware bundles will help with early adoption, along with the fact that the Switch 2 can play original Switch games.

Nintendo had temporarily paused pre-orders in the US and Canada to analyze the tariff situation. At the time it was expected that the prices for the console will go up, but the company came back with the same price points, at least for the console and the bundle. The accessories, however, did see a price hike.

The Switch 2 will go on sale starting June 5 and the response to pre-orders has been incredible. In Japan, the pre-order lottery brought in 2.2 million orders while in the US, pre-orders sold out almost immediately.