I bought a Steam Deck earlier this year and haven’t touched my Switch since. Nintendo hardware and games were already obscenely overpriced imo, so this is essentially a nail in the coffin for folks who were already questioning Nintendo’s prices and value proposition.
Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? In the past this was more the case, but with the Switch 2 the hardware bill of materials is actually more costly relative to previous products like the Switch 1.
Poor timing of market forces (Sam Altman spending VC money to purchase all the world’s memory chips). Ouch.
> Effective Date of MSRP Revisions in Japan: May 25, 2026
> Effective Date of Price Revisions in the United States, Canada, and Europe: September 1, 2026
interesting, i wonder what the cause of such time lag in us vs japan is for... maybe the super low japan price is hurting them badly so they need to up the price there sooner?
The value of the yen compared to other currencies has fallen through the floor since 2022, so this isn't unexpected - Nintendo had to do something to equalize prices somewhat. The dollar's global value has also weakened noticeably since (checks notes) April 2, 2025 and Canada has had currency struggles as well the last few years.
Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2
(nintendo.co.jp)231 points by razorbeamz 8 May 2026 | 234 comments
Comments
Does Nintendo intentionally make its hardware really underpowered and cheap in terms of chips to juice profits? In the past this was more the case, but with the Switch 2 the hardware bill of materials is actually more costly relative to previous products like the Switch 1.
Poor timing of market forces (Sam Altman spending VC money to purchase all the world’s memory chips). Ouch.
But then why are they also increasing the price of their online services? The games run locally!
Fuck you, Nintendo.
People need to go to the classic class warfare methods:
- Do not buy anything new, especially graphics cards. Buy on Ebay but avoid bidding wars.
- Use adblockers and do not pay for any company's services if the company promotes AI.
- If it is true that Nintendo is lobbying against AI in Japan, still buy Nintendo of course.
The AI people think they don't need us, let their stocks crash.