Nintendo Execs Clarify Switch 2 Prices Decided BEFORE Trump Tariffs, Confirm “Variable Pricing” For First-Party Games
Thanks to the timing of the Switch 2’s announcement and US President Donald Trump’s roll-out of his new tariffs, many players have assumed that the console’s exorbitant pricing structure was a result of the sudden economic upheaval – but according to Nintendo executives, all relevant MSRPs were locked-in long before said tariffs were even on the table.
As previously reported, the news that Nintendo would be charging $80 for Mario Kart World and $70 for Donkey Kong Bananza, as well as $450 for the base console itself, led to many players balking at the sheer audacity of the veteran developer’s corporate greed.
And while many presumed (and even hoped) that these higher price points were the result of President Trump’s widespread tariffs, in particular those affecting Vietnam and China where Nintendo bases most of their physical hardware production, Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser recently revealed that this was simply not the case.
Speaking to The Washington Post‘s Gene Park shortly before the company chose to delay North American Switch 2 pre-orders in order to assess the current global economic situation, Bowser declined to speak directly on the tariffs themselves but did confirm that the company’s decision to raise their prices was intentional, internally-made, and their new standard going forward.
“What you see right there is variable pricing,” the NoA boss told Park. “We’ll look at each game, really look at the development that’s gone into the game, the breadth and depth of the gameplay, if you will, the durability over time and the repeatability of gameplay experiences.”
“Those are all factors, and there’s many more that go into consideration of what is the right price point for the game,” the former EA VP of Global Demand Planning continued. “So I think you can anticipate that there will be variable pricing, and we haven’t set a benchmark.”
Subsequently pressed by Park as to whether “breaking the seal on higher game prices is part of [Nintendo’s] role as an industry leader?”, Bowser responded, “I think it’s less about representing the industry…This is really about Nintendo deciding the right thing to do for its products or what the pricing should be for its products overall.”
“Even in the previous generation…we had some variability,” the Nintendo exec added, in doing so recalling how recent The Legend of Zelda titles were not sold for the same price, such as Tears of the Kingdom going for $70 while its prequel Breath of the Wild and the Link’s Awakening remake at $60.
Further rationalizing the move, Bowser posited, “I think for us, that’s really how we want to proceed and go forward.”
“I can’t speak for other games that might be released by other publishers or other platforms,” he said. “It’s more about what we think is right for our content, what is the right value for the consumers as they come into our platform.”
As their conversation began to wind down, Bowser ultimately told Park that despite the upcoming release of the Switch 2, the foreseeable future would see Nintendo continue in their support of the original Switch, with the exec even teasing that the company may consider a price-drop for the 2017 console.
“What I would say is that we’ll continue to observe consumers and how they engage and enter into the platform at various levels to try to really understand what the future may look like,” he asserted. “Here’s the other point. We have an install base [for the Switch] of 150 million plus units. We’ll probably announce more on May 8 when we have our next earnings call. We want to keep those players engaged. Not all of them may be ready to jump to Switch 2.”
Notably, it seems ‘insisting upon a game’s value’ is the company line.
In an interview given to IGN’s Logan Plant in the brief window after Trump’s tariffs were announced but before the delaying of NA Switch 2 pre-orders, when asked about the strategy behind their $80 Mario Kart World pricing, Nintendo of America VP of Product and Player Experience Bill Trinen followed Bowser’s lead and declared, “Well, I would say it’s less about the strategy of pricing Mario Kart World, it’s more just whenever we look at a given game, we just look at what is the experience, and what’s the content, and what’s the value?”
Addressing the specifc topic of Mario Kart World, the VP continued, “I think especially as you see from the Nintendo Direct, not to give you any hints or anything, but I did read your article this morning and I think you had mentioned that you didn’t find a lot to discover when roaming around. So I would say tune into our Mario Kart Direct to see what, maybe you’ll be able to find out about that.”
Yet-to-be-revealed-features aside, Trinen further insisted, “But honestly, this is a game that is so big and so vast and you will find so many little things in it to discover. And there’s still some other secrets remaining that I think as people end up buying and playing the game, they’re going to find this to be probably the richest Mario Kart experience they’ve ever had.”
Turning to address the pricing of their other games, including the aforementioned ‘Switch 2 Editions’ of original Switch games, Trinen stated, “Well, again, what I would say is that we just look at each individual game and we look at the content and the value of that game, and then we say, ‘what is the right price for the value of this entertainment?’ What I would probably counter to some of that is that really what you’re looking at is for the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, that’s the physical price for somebody that has not bought the base game.”
“For somebody who has bought Tears of the Kingdom or Breath of the Wild, the upgrade packs for those are $9.99. And if you happen to be a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack member, both of the Zelda upgrade packs are inclusive within that membership,” he highlighted. “So there’s no additional charge for those. But I think overall, our general approach is really just focus on what’s the content, what’s the value, and what’s an appropriate price based on that.”
As to the $450 price-tag for the Swtich 2 itself, the VP defended, “Obviously the cost of everything goes up over time, and I personally would love if the cost of things didn’t go up over time. But I think any time you’re building a new system that’s got new features and new tech, there’s costs associated with that. So again, we look at what is the experience on Nintendo Switch? What’s the experience on Nintendo Switch 2? What are the new features that it offers? And certainly there’s the cost of goods and things that factor into that, but we try to find the right appropriate price for a product based on that.”
Likewise, in regard to the $10 asking price for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which many have come to regard as a tech demo that should have been included with the console itself à la Wii Sports, Trinen said “For some people, I think there are people who are particularly interested in the tech and the specs of the system and things like that, for them I think it’s going to be a great product.”
“It’s really for people that want more information about the system rather than necessarily a quick intro to everything it does,” he concluded. ” And for that reason and just the amount of care and work that the team put into it, I think it was decided that, ‘Yeah, this feels like $9.99 is not an exorbitant price. It feels like a good value for what you’re getting out of the product.'”
To this end, while Nintendo’s pricing may have some effect on the Switch 2’s sales, it’s unlikely that the discrepancy will be particularly notable.
Per data analysed by industry research firm DFC Intelligence, while their forecast for overall Nintendo Switch 2 sales by the end of 2025 has dropped from 17 million to 15 million, they also note that there exists a potential for the console to sell that many units in just eight-months time, which if it comes to pass would mark the console as the hottest-selling consoles of all time (for reference, the original Switch, the PlayStation 4, and the Wii all took more than a year to reach that same metric).
All in all, the truth of the matter will ultimately come to light when the Switch 2 officially launches worldwide on June 5th.
NEXT: Nintendo Says Switch 2 Lacks Hardware Gimmick So More Devs Will Make Games For New Console
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