Nintendo didn’t offer its Switch 2 price during its hour-long showcase. Instead, customers know through Grapes that the console is $450. But for many, the real intoxicating surprise is the price of launching the championship Mario Karting World $80. This is the most Nintendo has ever asked customers to pay, but more than that, it’s the message to the world: Stop expecting cheap games. It will only get more expensive from here.
Switch 2 is tied to new switch Mario Kart It costs $500, but only the most Lucille Bluths in the world find it so expensive. We’ve already started several Switch 2 games, including Mario Karting Worldand we’ve been fascinated by the chaos energy of its 24-player multiplayer game, but not just games with a large number of multiplayer choices, the prices have risen. Almost every first-party switch 2 game costs more than in the past.
Some exceptions, e.g. Donkey Bananawill require $70 at the time of release, but the older titles also cost $70. If you want to buy the original switch startup title for the updated version of Switch 2 The Legend of Zelda: Breathing in the Wildit will get you sent back $70. Both Super Mario Party Jamboree– A game that sold for $60 when it was launched late last year – Kirby and the Forgotten Land Retail price is $80 (although they should have some extra features and modes). The same is true for Switch 2 version The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and new Mario Karting World.
Given that newer games and most new versions will be made for $80, this seems like Nintendo’s new standard. This means that Nintendo will now be a barometer of whether gamers will accept $80 games, rather than the standard $60 set by AAA Games over the past few years. Karl Kontus, co-founder of the company’s video game insights (recently acquired by Sensor Tower), told Gizmodo via email that “there is a world that will damage the Switch Switch 2 sales.” Nintendo rarely discounts for games, and that its fan corps is “less sensitive.”
More likely, he suggests, we will see the game for many different prices. This may also lead to gamers being more selective in terms of purchasing habits. If you can’t find the price the consumers are willing to pay, all games you can call “justice” will be affected.
Several analysts we spoke with said publishers are shocked by Nintendo’s pricing options. Wedbush Securities digital media analyst Michael Pachter previously told Gizmodo that the industry is waiting for Rockstar’s Big Theft Automatic VI Launch a price point of $100. Nintendo’s $80 game “sharply increase” $100 possibilities GTA VI. His current “75%” ensures that it will eventually become the largest game of 2025, both for sales and for gamers’ wallets. Nintendo opened the game pricing floodgates unless the console bomb may not turn around.
“This may be the catalyst other publishers have been waiting for (joint with the GTA VI price point) to follow quickly and as a standard price of $80,” Kontus said. “It’s historically difficult to raise the price of games compared to any other media or consumer item, so I’m sure publishers will take the opportunity to do so.”
For gamers, the time for price fraud could not be better. The same day on Switch 2 revealed that President Donald Trump hosted his long-standing promise “Liberation Day”, which brought us a lot of tariffs on nearly every major manufacturing base used by technology companies. A Financial Times report last week quoted analysts who said Nintendo’s hardware was made in Vietnam and Cambodia. Trump’s tariffs are now 46% and 49% higher tariffs on the two countries, respectively. This may greatly increase the price of Switch 2.
Nintendo may have planned ahead of schedule for the U.S. tariff plan on the Switch 2’s $450 price, but few seem to be ready to impose close to 50% on imported goods. According to MST financial analyst David Gibson, seeing the flames on the horizon, Nintendo may have shipped 383,000 units to the United States, but that is not enough to meet the demand.
If hardware becomes more expensive, the software will definitely follow suit. Nintendo’s pricing drive is still longer than Trump’s tariffs. Since the 1990s, publishers from across the industry have been moaning about the cost of games. Major first-party champions like the Super Mario 64 were launched in 1996 for $60. Adjusted for inflation, which as of February this year was equivalent to $124. Publishers have resisted the urge to fear the player’s uprising.
In addition to inflation and tariffs, the reason for the price of gaming is also due to the latest graphic loyalty and the rising development costs of sufficient features to fill 120 GB of storage. Nintendo avoids the industry’s pixel obsession, as it makes the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 Peacock feature 4K, 60 fps.
Things are changing now. Switch 2 can be 4K when some games are plugged in, and its display is raised from 720p to 1080p. It is traditionally carried with graphically intensive titles Cyberpunk 2077. Some Switch 2 game ports are too large and will now use “game key cards” which are essentially an empty Switch 2 game card with links to download the digital version. The Switch 2 ecosystem begins to feel more like other large gaming consoles.
Nintendo, Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang’s former PR managers suggested in their latest podcast that Nintendo may feel the pressure of rising costs as it drives higher resolution gaming. “As they enter this 4K era, the game is bigger, and it takes more time to spend more time — and in some cases it may be more,” Ellis said. “It’s about changing the genre of the game,” he said. [Nintendo’s] Willing to invest in resources? ”
Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier pointed out that the rising cost of game development has been exacerbated by the management of knowledge management. He cited several examples in which the boss kept the workers on for weeks and the publisher poured out on the project. This will certainly increase the cost.
Nintendo is pushing the long-standing industry crux. This did not make swallowing easier. Is Mario Kart World worth $80? We don’t know, we haven’t played in full yet. But, any game worth $80 or – hell – $100? The only thing left for consumers is their wallet, and that’s what has to be said.
