Is the Switch 2 getting more expensive soon? Nintendo says there’s no “immediate impact”, but will keep an eye on volatile memory market
Gaming can’t escape the shadow of global economic uncertainty, and things are going to get worse following 2025’s price hikes due to the memory shortages caused by the AI and data centre gold rush (which doesn’t seem to be producing much gold just yet). What about Nintendo Switch 2 following a strong summer launch but slow Christmas? Will it be safe from the price hikes?
According to an interview for Kyoto Shimbun (read and extracted by VGC), Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa isn’t ready to sound the alarm yet, but he acknowledges things aren’t looking too great at the moment.
“We procure from suppliers based on our medium- to long-term business plans, but the current memory market is very volatile… There is no immediate impact on earnings, but it is something we must monitor closely.”
Furukawa also went on to explain Nintendo is trying to reduce the impact of the annoying RAM shortages and fluctuating tariffs (not limited to the United Sates) by “advancing component procurement over the medium to long term.” Of course, at some point the company might run out of runway, which could lead to increased prices in line with PlayStation and Xbox’s unwelcome adjustments.
For now, Furukawa won’t comment on potential price increases, only saying it’s hypothetical talk until things get more difficult. He was more open about the impact of tariffs though: “While it’s difficult to accurately gauge the future impact, our basic policy is to recognize tariffs as a cost and pass them on to prices as much as possible, not just in the US.”
For those unaware, consoles’ profit margins have traditionally been lower than you’d expect, which is why they’re especially susceptible to sudden shifts in the market conditions around tech components and tariffs. Even before the hiccups caused by the madness around AI services and infrastructure we’ve seen over the past few months, we’d been facing a tricky decade when it comes to resources used for hardware production, so these are rough waters we’ll collectively have to learn to navigate in the future.