Every first-party Nintendo Switch 2 game will cost $70 or $80 – even the old ones

Daniel Sims

Daniel Sims

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The big picture: Nintendo's first-party lineup for the Switch 2 has not only embraced the trend toward $70 games, but some titles also push the price to $80, including upgraded versions of titles that initially launched on the original Switch years ago. Several factors are likely involved, including manufacturing costs, additional content, and tariffs.

One of the most shocking announcements from Nintendo's Switch 2 unveiling is that the flagship launch title, Mario Kart World, will retail for $80. The increased pricing also applies to enhanced versions of Super Mario Party Jamboree, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The previous Zelda title, Breath of the Wild, also received a price hike to $70.

Third-party titles show more varied pricing. Street Fighter 6, which includes two season passes, will retail at $60. Square Enix will also release a remaster of Bravely Default for $40, the same price as the 2013 3DS version. Notably, the two games come in empty cards serving as physically transferable license keys for digital downloads.

Nintendo's scheme for upgrading older Switch titles to take advantage of the Switch 2's superior hardware partially explains some of the new prices. Similar to cross-generation or remastered titles on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, users who purchase games for the original Switch can receive improved Switch 2 versions, but Nintendo's take is more complex.

Microsoft and most third-party developers release upgrade patches for free, while Sony charges $10 to upgrade first-party PlayStation 4 games to PS5. Some Switch games will receive free patches to improve the resolution and framerate, such as Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario 3D World, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. However, upgrades for games like Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the Wild, Jamboree, Civilization VII, and other titles, called "Nintendo Switch 2 Editions," are paid.

Nintendo didn't specify the price for Switch-to-Switch 2 conversions, but the difference between the MSRP for each generation suggests that it might vary based on what the enhanced editions add. The Zelda games, offering improved graphics and performance, cost $10 more on Switch 2, so a $10 upgrade fee would be unsurprising. Meanwhile, Jamboree and Kirby are $20 more expensive on the new console, likely because they include expansion packs.

Furthermore, inflation alone could account for most or all of the differences between AAA games that sold for $70 a few years ago and $80 Switch 2 games in 2025. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, $70 in 2021 or 2022, when publishers began adopting the price point, could equal between $75 and $80 today.

Nintendo also likely aims to offset tariffs and rising console manufacturing costs with pricier games. Anticipation of looming U.S. tariffs almost certainly influenced the decision to sell the Switch 2 for $450 and games for $80. However, on the same day Nintendo unveiled the console's launch lineup and price, President Trump announced sweeping duties that were probably far worse than the company anticipated.

The 24% tariff on Nintendo's home country, Japan, and 46% tax on goods from Vietnam, where the firm shifted Switch 2 manufacturing to avoid anti-Chinese duties, could be particularly troublesome. Nintendo has likely already shipped many units into the U.S. ahead of the tariffs, and Trump has wavered on the practice before, but the company is seemingly hedging its bets in an increasingly chaotic market.

Avoiding tariffs by building Switch 2s in the U.S. is also untenable. Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad estimates that building factories and hiring personnel might take five years, and American-made consoles would probably still cost more. Additionally, tech supply chains run through numerous countries targeted by the new tariffs, which could compound on each other.

It remains unclear how, if, or when the video game industry will respond. A heavier focus on digital marketplaces (where Nintendo still charges $80 for some games) would be unsurprising.

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Every first-party Nintendo Switch 2 game will cost $70 or $80 – even the old ones

 
... they live in their own world. This would be a stretch even without competition, now with mane great handhelds on the market this is a pure madness. Steam Deck with access to all low price sales is an obvious choice, incoming xbox - painted handheld would be as well better choice, and other companies have as well better options than overpriced, limited and power-hungry system with freaking ancient games for nearly 100 bucks........
 
It's super convenient than the final push to raise video game prices coincides almost exactly with the current tariff war: The one type of media that could easily bypass all the tariff nonsense by being digital only (Or at least, being able to obtain digitally to save a great deal of money) is going to time well with every single physical item including the hardware needed to play said games being severely affected by tariffs.

Let's get real for a second: Nintendo probably knew this was bound to happen as Trump threatened tariff war for some months now and instead of their usual tactic of actually having some margins on hardware itself on its own they'll probably follow what Microsoft and Sony do and sell Switch 2 at close no margins or even negative and try to make up for it on software sale revenue instead.

I'm just glad my kid is a bit older so he probably wont pester me for 80/90 dollar Nintendo games anymore now that he's getting to enjoy more 'grown up' titles instead.
 
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Dimitriid said:
It's super convenient than the final push to raise video game prices coincides almost exactly with the current tariff war: The one type of media that could easily bypass all the tariff nonsense by being digital only (Or at least, being able to obtain digitally to save a great deal of money) is going to time well with every single physical item including the hardware needed to play said games being severely affected by tariffs.

Let's get real for a second: Nintendo probably knew this was bound to happen as Trump threatened tariff war for some months now and instead of their usual tactic of actually having some margins on hardware itself on its own they'll probably follow what Microsoft and Sony do and sell Switch 2 at close no margins or even negative and try to make up for it on software sale revenue instead.
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Those prices will be same in EU, which do not apply any tarrifs to Japan. It is simply Nintendo loosing their sanity, nothing else.

No sane person will support that movement as third party will use this as an excuse to increase prices on other platforms. The only good thing is this will make steam deck and other even more attractive to anyone in control of their finances. Remember, you cant even watch netflix or listen to spotify on switch....
 
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kira setsu said:
Nintendo aims at a completely different person than pc gaming, why dont pc people understand that?

nintendo sells nintendo games on nintendo systems, thats who they are, the games will just work, even at that price, it'll sell well.
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Because it's simply not true: Nintendo has it's own proprietary coat of pain that puts on their games to pretend they're super original and different but for every single type of game or gameplay out there in Nintendo land there's a fairly close equivalent on the PC.


See what Nintendo fans on the other hand never understand is that PC gaming is technically compatible with over 40 years of PC games at this point and almost any type of game you can think of has been made and it's still mostly available on PC.

That doesn't takes away from some high quality Nintendo and Nintendo-console-exclusive games out there as there are solid and very fine choices on most generations of their hardware, but they're just nowhere near as groundbreaking and creative as you'd like to pretend they are, they just feature recognizable, exploitable IPs aimed straight at the heart of aging Milennials that can't get over their childhood memories, that's mostly it and you pay quite a bit for that, too much if you ask me.
 
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I'll say more later, but for now people should know the US of asses tariff war affects everyone globally. Prices won't just affect US consumers, it'll affect all those other countries that buy the same products from those other countries. Globalism isn't just a 1-1 causal relationship! Its a 1-many relationship and its gonna f*#k with a lot of people, business, and very likely slow down the future.
 
Remember: it is morally correct to pirate nintendos stuff.
Xelions said:
I'll say more later, but for now people should know the US of asses tariff war affects everyone globally. Prices won't just affect US consumers, it'll affect all those other countries that buy the same products from those other countries. Globalism isn't just a 1-1 causal relationship! Its a 1-many relationship and its gonna f*#k with a lot of people, business, and very likely slow down the future.
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It's not tariffs. Game prices are not affected. This is plain, simple greed. Nobody should be surprised, they took a bunch of $40 wii u and 3ds games, made them worse (hi Luigi mansion 2 and paper Mario) then released them for $60+.

Nintendo has gotten greedy since the business types took over after iwata's death.
JohnRambo4 said:
Pretty sure I paid $70 for Goldeneye 007 at Sears in 1998. So accounting for inflation, this is a bargain!
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Except it's not. Cartridges made up the bulk of that coat. Digital distribution costs peanuts by comparison and games sell orders of magnitude more today, with potentially unlimited digital lifespans and no expensive reprints.

One million copies was absolutely insane in 1995. Mk8 has sold 65 million. And unlike those N64 carts, selling a million copies doesn't bring with it an increase in distribution costs, just pure profit. The game industry and it's various publishers continue to set record profits, they're not hurting. They could sell the games at $30 and still make wild profits.
 
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Dimitriid said:
Because it's simply not true: Nintendo has it's own proprietary coat of pain that puts on their games to pretend they're super original and different but for every single type of game or gameplay out there in Nintendo land there's a fairly close equivalent on the PC.


See what Nintendo fans on the other hand never understand is that PC gaming is technically compatible with over 40 years of PC games at this point and almost any type of game you can think of has been made and it's still mostly available on PC.

That doesn't takes away from some high quality Nintendo and Nintendo-console-exclusive games out there as there are solid and very fine choices on most generations of their hardware, but they're just nowhere near as groundbreaking and creative as you'd like to pretend they are, they just feature recognizable, exploitable IPs aimed straight at the heart of aging Milennials that can't get over their childhood memories, that's mostly it and you pay quite a bit for that, too much if you ask me.
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technically compatible is the issue,

people here on this site know how to play whatever they want on PC(I assume) the storefronts, the emulators, but thats something you have to figure out, you have to know which emu's work, how to rip disc, dump bioses etc etc etc.

how to deal with games that either work or dont work, startup with some weird issue, or something not working right that isnt even the game, now your audio is gone or the kb is missing, your controller is connected but not working, thats the other side of pc's and people dont wanna deal with all that sometimes.

although consoles are getting a bit more complicated they are nowhere near as complicated as pc gaming can be, nintendo makes a somewhat simple system and sells games made for that audience, and alot of people are willing to pay for that sorta simplicity.
 
Nintendo also received massive backlash about pricing at the Treehouse event where over 90% of the comments were people telling them it was too expensive and to drop the price of both the system and the games. Nintendo then proceeded to delay US preorders to 'assess the tariff situation'. Nintendo also is already charging the US $100 more for the console than the Japanese market, showing that they've already factored in a hefty "tariff" buffer. They even made sure region unlocked versions in Japan are the same as US so that people don't try to import the cheaper Switch units.

My guess is the delay is because of the backlash, not new tariffs. I bet Nintendo is trying to assess how they can lower the price not if they need to raise it. I could be wrong, maybe they come back and say it's $500 now. But, the reality is they need to sell NS2 to sell NS2 games and so it would be hard to imagine them raising the price when there is already massive amounts of pricing backlash.
 
Neatfeatguy said:
I recall some NES games hitting $70-80 ten+ years before Goldeneye.
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The reality is, even though these games were much more expensive back then comparatively, most people only owned a handful of games for their console. Some people owned a bunch of games, but the average SNES/N64 owner had less than 10 games at the end of the lifecycle. They would pawn games and trade them to get different games and borrow games. You were excited when your friend got a new game because you knew you'd eventually get to borrow it. You knew they were expensive, so you only bought the ones you really wanted, and you played them more than once for sure, you had better! There was also this thing back then called renting where you went and paid $2.50 on a Friday and didn't have to bring it back until Monday. The SNES had a total of 721 games released in the US, the N64 296. The Switch has had over 3200 games that were released in the US, yes some of those are indie or smaller titles. The Nintendo Switch has also sold 150M units, the SNES has lifetime of 50M sold the N64 only 32M. More people are buying more games, that's the bottom line. Gamer's libraries these days are often over 100 titles by the end of the cycle. Sure, they probably bought 75% of them on sale, but they still bought 25+ full priced titles over 7-8 years and these a lot more of them out there paying it.
 
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I will be interested in first 3 months of sales. I can not see if being more than average- been wrong lots of times, calling it though

Always those that will buy. But why should a young family upgrade from current Switch ?

That is a huge demographic over and above Nintendo tragics

8 year old kids don't need the new Kart , Luigi's mansion or whatever

arguments above with regards to Steam Deck , but also add in mobile, tablets it's not like only horse at the show. What to game with friends , that's a couple of families with disposable income

Parents have to buy a phone for their kids if they want their kids to be safe out and about. need to buy a PC/Chromebook for school etc

Let's see how tariffs go as well

Given the nature of nintendo games , how important really is updated this and that. The argument is platformers/pokemon etc needs very little. ie will Nintendo games A games change look that much an alienate players , so main adv is 4k , 60fps
 
I thought most of the people that own these are soy boys working tech jobs who can afford it anyways?
 
The proposed US price of the switch 2 is lower than that of the pricing of the switch 2 in the UK. And that's because the UK implements a 20% sales tax on all its goods and services. So, they effectively tariff themselves. I'm fortunate enough to live in a state with no sales tax (Oregon - the income tax is miserable though).

The thing is, with high demand items like these, if tariffs and taxes didn't jack the price up, scalpers would have.

 
Nothing says “America First” like paying more than every other country for a console that’s assembled with parts from six different continents.
 
dangh said:
... they live in their own world. This would be a stretch even without competition, now with mane great handhelds on the market this is a pure madness. Steam Deck with access to all low price sales is an obvious choice, incoming xbox - painted handheld would be as well better choice, and other companies have as well better options than overpriced, limited and power-hungry system with freaking ancient games for nearly 100 bucks........
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You are wrong. Nintendo games have no competition. They are the only games that are suitable for kids and families. The price is almost irrelevant. The memories that I got from playing Super Marion Bros with my 3 and 7 year old kids during lockdown are beyond any measurable price. I will buy the next edition regardless of the price.
Also, seriously… you are upset about 80 dollars??! Most people spend that much ob stupid stuff like takeaways…
 
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