guess i will stick with this one🥲
╔══════════════════════════╗ ║ OFF+ +ON ║ ║ ┌──────────────────────┐ ║ ║ │ ┌──────────────────┐ │ ║ ║ │ │ │ │ ║ ║ │ │ │ │ ║ ║ │ │ │ │ ║ ║ │ │ │ │ ║ ║ │ │ │ │ ║ ║ │ │ │ │ ║ ║ │ └──────────────────┘ │ ║ ║ │ │ ║ ║ └──── ⊏GAME BOY⊐──────/ ║ ║ ║ ║ ┌─┐ ( Nintendo ) ║ ║ __│ │__ """""""""" ║ ║ [__┤+├__] ║ ║ │ │ ._. ._. ║ ║ └─┘ ( ) ( ) ║ ║ ''' ''' ║ ║ B A ║ ║ ║ ║ ╭──────╮ ╭─────╮ ····· ║ ║ │SELECT│ │START│ ::::: ║ ║ ╰──────╯ ╰─────╯ ::::: ║ ╚══════════════════════════╝Formatting looks wonky, but the message comes through. Awesome effort. 😀
I see a lot of people ragging on the switch and comparing it to the Steam Deck. I own both but
I’m gonna say this: they’re not even direct competitors. They don’t offer the same experiences at all.
The beauty of the Switch is the ease of use, modularity of control, and communal nature of it. Even if switch online sucks, playing with other switches or 8 people in the same room with certain games is unbelievably easy. The plug and play usability and every single game you can buy from the internal store just works.
Not to mention the dock is flawless and literally easy to use. For all its problems, the switch is a surprisingly well executed idea. There’s a reason they sold hundreds of millions of them.
Steam is catching up, but there’s still a ways to go between proton compatible games, connecting controllers, plugging into a dock without having to bend down and plug a cable etc. The Switch is simply put: easy.
That said, Nintendo is stupid for pricing the Switch 2 out of the “no brainer” casual gamer territory.
Removed by mod
That’s a bit unnecessary. I’m just pointing out people are trying to compare two things that aren’t the same.
By that logic though, I think Nintendo has a “dumb cock” for charging as much as they are for Switch 2, so I’m not really sure what it tastes like.
As owner and early adopter of both - disagree.
Switch is gathering dust for me and everytime I pull it out i feel like getting my steamdeck instead.
The only exception I can think off is low profile traveling but that’s a very small niche if people.
I see a lot of people saying they shouldn’t be compared, but it still does make sense to do so as most can’t afford both.
And outside of coop couch, the switch pales in comparison on just about everything else.
Game prices: higher
Feel in hands? Awkward
Removable controllers: pop off or loosen during solo gameplay causing everything to pause in order to fix it, which can, but isn’t always, be a quick easy fix.
Plus, games like Animal Crossing that allow coop couch still demand individual switch consoles if you want the full experience for multiple people.
outside of coop couch
Couch coop is pretty much the only reason we have a Switch. If it was just for me, I wouldn’t bother.
As it stands, I have both: Steam Deck for me, Switch for family couch coop.
you can fix the online problems with a USB-to-ethernet adapter on the dock
Yeah, people are bitching about first party titles never going down in price, meanwhile I’m here enjoying my 300Eur indie machine.
Also most of Nintendo’s target audience has no idea that the Steam Deck exists. Like if a kid asks their parents for a Switch 2 the parents aren’t going to suggest the Steam Deck since they don’t know what it is. Nintendo does a shit ton of traditional advertising, the Nintendo brand has an enormous mind share among the general audience. The mind share for Steam is almost non existent outside of PC gamers.
And many kids I know who play PC games don’t even have Steam installed. Since they only play Roblox and Fortnite on their PC. Nintendo is not competing with the Steam Deck. Their real competition is Apple and Android because of Fortnite, Roblox and TikTok.
*in the USA
I would never had imagined that in my lifetime I’d see gringos reverse-smuggling game consoles from Mexico. I guess you could smuggle them from Canada too, but Mexico has always smuggled merch from USA. We even have a term for it: “fayuca”.
The lucky ones that live near the border can cross, shop switches 2 at non-orange prices, open them and smuggle the back as personal devices.
Oh, you think Canadians aren’t going to get in on tariff evasion? They 100% will.
The tremendous irony is America was founded to evade massive tariffs, sorta… and now we’re doing it to our self.
You can tell Americans think their country is the Internet, and the Internet is oriented for Americans.
You’re not wrong. But OP just wrote what the title said and the article quickly clarifies its for the US.
$442Wait, new us price (since its built in china, for a Japanese company) is $1000You can still get a Steam Deck and save a ton of games.
I delayed my preorder when I saw the bullshit price gouging for game prices.
Have you seen that nowhere is selling switch games for $90?
Look into it.
Where did I say $90?
Look into it
I’m sorry, i guess i took it as implied. I think that’s a fair assumption because what else could you mean by price gouging when all people have been talking about is the $90 games?
If that’s not what you meant, then what did you mean?
$80, $90, and even $100 games lmao. Even $70 is too much.
I guess it is. But why pretend this is something new? Games have always been expensive. Ps1 games were between 40 and 60 dollars when they came out. That’s almost 110 dollars accounting for inflation on about 50 dollars then.
The ps1 itself would cost almost 800 dollars today, accounting for inflation.
Game prices haven’t really followed along with inflation. The 60 dollar game has been a thing since i was a child in the 90s.
I agree that perhaps 80 dollars is a lot for a game, and maybe they should be priced lower than 1 quarter the cost of the console, but thats a different argument.
What i am saying, again, is this is nothing new, and i think this outrage is symptomatic of “short-term memory loss”.
I wish games were cheaper. But ragging on nintendo for charging less than they used to for n64 games (when accounting for inflation) and selling a console that plays ps5 games for less than a ps5. Is a bit strange. I also think the portability of the switch is something neither of the big 2 have. The playstation portal is half the cost of a ps5 and has to be on the same wifi as the ps5.
I just dont see why people think this is so egregious.
Because it is egregious. Wow solved that for you. Write an essay somewhere else about how you love Nintendo so much.
In fact. I dont care if you realise it or not. I dont need your validation. Im in my 30s. I’m nearly 40. i have been gaming since the sega master system. That’s fairly early doors for gaming. Its super early for console gaming. I know what i am talking about, i have been alive for long enough and paid for enough games to know what i am talking about.
The fact that you are just going to downvote me and offer absolutely nothing to counter my argument is enough for me to know you are EITHER too young to k ow about any of this, or being purposfully ignorant to jump on the rage wagon.
The fact you automatically think i am schilling for nintendo because my argument passively defends them (its actually an argument defending all game pricing) is just evidence of your immaturity.
Grow up, eh?
So after reading about how, when accou ting for inflation, games are actually cheaper today than they should be. Your whole counter is. “Hur dur, because no, dont write paragraphs, me not read more than 20 seconds. Hur dur” yeah good one…
The Switch 2 looks like absolute garbage so they can keep it.
My next console purchase with be a Steam Deck.
Ask about your use case
You might do better with just a htpc
And many smart TVs can use the Steam Link app, so you may not need any new hardware at all if you just want to connect your PC to your TV.
i have a steam deck and it’s awesome but it’s silly to think that it looks like garbage. the switch 2 looks pretty awesome.
I’ll probably get the Switch 2 eventually, but not for a year or two. I also have a Steam Deck, and they’re both great.
I’ll be interested to see a comparison between the Steam Deck and Switch 2 since the Switch 2 could have better performance (but probably comparable).
That’s the thing. It’s 2025. The Switch came out in 2017 and the Switch 2 is barely a step up from the Switch OLED. Which, BTW, isn’t even and option on the Switch 2. And 256 memory? Is that a joke? Plus their new scheme is to not have the games on the physical cartridge but to only have a key code on the cartridge that transfers to the console. And that’s not even looking and the drastically inflated price of the games. Not just new games but all the old ones are priced out at $80 to $90 a piece as well.
Uh, what?
The Switch OLED was a slight improvement in battery, a better screen, and a nicer kickstand. That’s it.
The Switch 2 is an all new SOC, 1080p (more than the 1200x800 on Steam Deck) @ 120 hz, and a few other improvements. It’s pretty comparable to the Steam Deck, just in a smaller form factor with a larger screen. We don’t have direct head-to-head testing yet, but I expect it will trade blows with the Steam Deck, perhaps surpassing it in some games.
only have a key code on the cartridge that transfers to the console
That’s not the only option on Switch 2, it’s just an additional one. I imagine most games will still have the classic game card available.
I’m not happy about it, but I can see people preferring it to regular digital purchases for things like gifts.
Not just new games but all the old ones are priced out at $80 to $90 a piece as well.
That’s a completely separate complaint from the console, and I’m really not sure why you brought it up. Nintendo doesn’t compete on price for its games, they compete on IPs, gameplay, and overall experience.
Yeah, bullshit. They’re just using tariffs to further increase the price.
100 bucks cheaper in Japan than any other region? 90 dollar games that never go on sale?
Get bent, Nintendo, I’ll stick to the steam deck and wait for emulation.
Someone doesn’t understand the full story. The Yen is weak. Super weak when compared to the US dollar. Hence the price difference for their country.
Additionally, those special consoles will be soft region locked. Only JP accounts can be added to them and will display Japanese only if the game supports that language.
Games never go on sale, what are you on about? We see Nintendo games go on sale frequently. Sorry they’re not the $5 dumpster trash that EA/Ubisoft shits out every year with their latest madden or CoD/Just Dance games riddled with bugs.
The Nordic prices are ridiculous though. It’s the equivalent of adding ~200 euro to the regular European price. I bet lots of people here are going to import from other EU countries
Nordic prices are high mostly because of Bergsala, the monopoly importer. Why let the scalpers profit when they could be the ones doing the scalping instead, eh?
Power in Norway have said pre-orders have been “fantastisk bra”. So doesn’t seem the price bothers us.
Norway is richer on average though. Let’s see how sales go after the initial introduction
They should absolutely be selling their NES games for $5 or less instead of the original prices innthe 90s lol
Quit sucking corporate cock
Snap out of it fanboy
Tariffs causing price increase would be good for me politically
Looks like it has some promising titles but I don’t think price wise it can compete with the ryzen based handheld pcs like the steam deck etc. It doesn’t make much sense so far as I can tell but I’m still curious what titles it gets and how the battery life compares
The Switch 2 chip is effectively older than the now aging (but fantastic for the price/size) Van Gogh chip in the Steam Deck. It shouldn’t be expensive to make.
It’s not competing with the Steam Deck though.
The Switch 2 is competing for casual gamers and puts the couch experience first. That’s why detachable controllers are such a big deal, and why graphics quality never was a major concern.
The Steam Deck is targeting the PC gamer crowd who pretty much never play on the couch or local multiplayer. It’s far more important to be ergonomic to hold, have greater compatibility with PC games, and give the user more control (tinker with settings and mods).
They’re two very different products targeting two very different groups of people. I own both, and the Switch is mostly for family time while the Steam Deck is for me time. I wouldn’t buy a Switch if I was single, and I wouldn’t buy a Steam Deck if the goal was party games. They’re very different products.
No OLED screen at that price point was the deal-breaker for me.
Yeah I get that it’s obvious they are going to introduce an oled later. Very predictable imo and yeah if I ever buy one it’s going to be oled as well.
But yeah I’m at least waiting to see if the battery life is decent and what other titles it gets beforehand, right now I feel it has potential But at this moment in time I’d rather have a pc based handheld.
Are we tired of winning yet America ?
Unfortunately, we’ll probably keep winning for at least the next few months, it looks like the party is just getting started.
most americans are tired, honestly. source: I am very fucking tired.
I am too and I’m also tired…
Still, almost half are OK and happy about this 😮💨
why do you think the rest of us are so tired?
Tbh I was tired way before any of this.
Are… Are we great again, yet?
Brown people can still drink from the same fountains still, so no. /s
The jury is still out it seems
Not until Nintendo picks up and moves to America.
This is a rare case where a piece of consumer electronics is going to be quite a bit cheaper in Australia compared to the USA! Usually stuff costs more in Australia.
The Switch is currently US$450 and will probably go up with tariffs. Meanwhile, it’s listed as AU$700 in Australia, which is AU$630 before tax (all advertised prices include tax), which is US$385.
I imagine this is going to happen for a lot of devices. I’m an Aussie living in the USA and I never thought I’d see the day when buying stuff in Australia would be cheaper. Australia has better consumer protection too, around things like repairs/refunds due to major issues even outside the warranty period.
In Europe it’s €385+taxes (all advertised prices must include tax) which is $425+tax, with two (mandatory) years of warranty included in price
I’ve got* no idea how this’ll work out. Nvidia is American.
Regardless of price, Nintendo is a shit legacy company that is riding on the coattails of the 90’s.
They never have games on steep discounts like their competitors, ensure emulations and artistic expressions are shut down immediately, and barely change shit to their flagship games such as Pokemon. They’re creatively stale and are blessed to have a rabid fan base who can’t see through it.
I got a switch since my kid brought grades home, but that’s the last piece of electronic device I’ll ever buy from Nintendo. This is someone who has played back in its heyday the N64.
People who ‘boycott’ and go back to buying what they boycotted because said company pushed out a halfass apology tweet deserve to lose their money.
Edit: lol at the Nintendo fan boys downvoting
You seem to be missing the point, the Nintendo Switch is handily the most popular game console in US gaming history. It has officially sold more units than the PS2.
I’m sorry that you don’t appreciate the switch, it’s an amazing general purpose gaming console.
Literally a lie. Also they have a point, you missed it not them
Switch is still behind PS2 and DS. Don’t think they’ll get that 3rd wind to get them across thr finish line for 1st place. Pandemic + AC releasing timing was a lightning in a bottle type of coincidence to help get the sales to the 150m mark.
It’s all right I wouldn’t say it’s groundbreaking. There are many portable computers including the steam deck that are far superior in terms of capability and openness.
Doesn’t think switch is groundbreaking. Proceeds to list handheld that wouldn’t exist without the Switch breaking that ground. lol
You’re going to need some evidence that that’s the case because my understanding is that Valve had been working on the steam deck for a while.
Hell the steam deck isn’t even the first handheld gaming computer, and the switch came out after the first handhelds, so even if Valve were influenced by the existence of the switch (which they weren’t), we would have still got the steam deck via other mechanisms.
Everything I can find still puts the switch behind not only ps2 but also the DS. Any chance you got a link?
They’re definitely creatively stale, but they’re also undeniably good at what they do. They have by far the best selling console of the last generation, and are the only console company to consistently post healthy profits on their operation.
Is it a bit naff that their next generation of games will almost certainly be yet another Zelda, yet another Mario, yet another Pokémon? Absolutely. But if their next Zelda game is yet another best-selling critically acclaimed success, who are we to say that they’ve got the wrong approach?
What’s this boycott and half assed apology thing? I completely missed whatever that was.
Fucking PREACH!
In the US. Key part there is “in the US”. You guys deal with this nonsense. I intend to be playing my MSRP Vietnamese/Chinese console at launch, thankyouverymuch.
Hell, I’ll take whatever stock you don’t, maybe we can get a tenner or two shaved off the price. I’m sure the “let’s sneak in the exchange rate and pretend it’s VAT” thing is starting to look less appealing right about now.
The Chinese release of the Switch has like 18 games in total
You misunderstood, I said it’s Vietnamese/Chinese because that’s where a lot of the components are manufactured and why the tariffs are a problem for US distribution in particular but not for other regions.
The launch date for the US remains the same.
Well, yeah, but if the final store price is 750 instead of 450 the number of consoles allocated to the US market, let alone sold through, may be much lower.
Given that tariffs could be lifted at random, just like they were set, not even scalpers would want to buy tech that could drop in price dramatically any day.
Presumably the same tariffs will apply to PlayStations and Xboxes too (both made in China with components from Korea, and the former being a Japanese company).
Also, most PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
American gamers aren’t going to be overwhelmed with cheaper choices.
This is true. That said, presumably at least some of those have either a pre-existing install base they can keep selling digital games and services to or built-up stock.
Nintendo has zero Switch 2 units in US households and will be expected to honor preorder prices. Who knows how much stock they have in the US at this point. Probably next to zero.
US gamers won’t have cheaper choices to buy new hardware, but they sure will have the obvious choice of not spending money on unnecessary new toys at all. Especially because for how messed up gaming hardware is going to get there are going to be entire other market segments getting much worse that you don’t get to just opt out of.
This is atrocious timing for Nintendo. But hey, Europe has 450 million people and you weren’t going to sell 100 million Switches day one. Shave fifty euros off that sticker and I betcha some of them will take that unused US stock out of your hands and even buy some games on top.
Everyone pissing themselves over Nintendo not putting the price in the Direct when the reason why was pretty obvious, I thought.
Nintendo going to suck trump dick so they can get the pricepoint they want.
No they won’t. They’ll just ship extra units to Canada and Mexico to account for fans going across the border to buy them.
Nintendo should open popup stores for the first year along the US border 😅.
Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions. Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.
Wonder if the price of the console and even the cartridge games will change.
I think they necessarily will. I can’t imagine retailers eating the lost margin.
Retailers won’t eat it all, consumers will
More like retailers won’t eat any of it and will take the opportunity to raise prices even more because they know consumers are expecting higher prices and they have pressure to retain or increase their margins to meet shareholder expectations.
Cartridge games for the Switch 2 aren’t even cartridge games anymore, haven’t you heard? There’s no game on the cartridges just a passkey.
They just replace the code-in-a-box releases we had with gen 1 of the switch. They’re still doing the regular cartridges with the game on the card.
Keep telling yourself that. It’s not like you’re dealing with a greedy corporation that has spent the last several years wiping out every alternative platform for playing their older games so that you have no other way to play their titles that they keep jacking the price up on simply because they can.
Yeah that’s a big no from me my last handheld console was the Vita and I felt even that was overpriced for games that were actually on the cartridge.
If everything is actually digital I’m simply not buying Sony killed my account with them because I didn’t login within 6 months and I’d actually bought games there so screw digital
Carts and console could very much change. Some estimates say up to 50% up.
Given that digital games will not this could make the Switch a de facto digital-only thing in the US.
I mean, assuming Trump isn’t beaten with a stick into submission in the next couple of weeks. We’ll see.
Either way, this situation is pretty damn funny to me. But then I do hate Nintendo for going against emulators and I won’t give them another cent ever.
He’s hanging out at a golf tournament today. I don’t think he’s feeling the pressure.
Absolutely. The console is manufactured in Vietnam, which now has a 46% tariff. I really doubt that Nintendo’s profit margin is high enough to allow them to just eat that cost.
The console is manufactured in Vietnam
Which begs the question of why the console is going to be $100 cheaper for Japanese than anyone else even before you factor in the tariff situation.
They already factored in some amount of tariffs into the US price. It’s not really that it’s cheaper in Japan, but rather it’s more expensive in the USA. It’s also US$65 cheaper in Australia, for example, and even cheaper in the UK.
(keep in mind that advertised prices in Australia and the UK include tax, so you need to subtract the tax to compare with US prices)
The tariffs are just a lot higher than everyone expected. Nintendo were probably preparing for a 20% tariff, not a 54% one.
Couldn’t they move it to another country first to reduce it a bit?
That would cost them enormous amounts of cash and hours of work just for one market.
There’s no point, the best option is just to ignore the US and let them pay more than the rest of the world, even if that means fewer sales.
Well does it cost them more or less than the tariff. That is pretty much the only question, its not that much work if it results in a lot of savings.
a lot of savings
Savings for who? If nothing is changed and manufacturers (and retailers) doesn’t make any kind of commercial gesture, the only ones paying more are the American consumers.
So moving the manufacture would be a saving for every Joe and Jane in the US, not Nintendo nor the ROTW.
Not moving the manufacture might be a loss of % in their US consumer base as prices will be too high there, but is it big enough to justify the enormous costs needed to move an entire industry workflow?
I don’t think so, specially when there is so many instability in the US politic, if you move to an other country at great cost and 2 weeks later a new tariff is declared (because why not), you moved everything for no reason but still lost your investment.
My belief is that no industry nor country will adapt, they will just increase the US market prices and keep on living like before with the ROTW. The only ones to suffer will be the American citizens and I’m sorry for them, but there is an all planet to trade with.
If you have a product that cost 500 with a markup of 50, but tariffs are pushing it to 750, it could easily be worth spending 50 to reduce tariffs to 650 and sell it at 700. You make just as much profit on each unit and you reduce the per unit cost which likely means more sales.
What?
You have a product that costs 450 to produce.
And you add a 50 markup so you are selling at 500.
Tariffs push that 500 up to 750. Which means a 50% tariff.So you remove your 50 markup and sell it at cost in that market. Which means a product at 450 with a 50% tariff will cost 675.
You don’t make any money on that sale. Fine, it’s a loss-leader. Hopefully you make up the profit of game sales and subscriptions. Which will also be tariffed.For a finished product, the tariff is applied to the selling cost. It doesn’t care about the value of the parts or the amount of markup.
A government isn’t going to pick through a device and apply Country of Origin tariffs on every part, or separate company profit from cost-of-product.If a company says a product is worth 500, that’s the amount the tariff is applied to.
I doubt Nintendo is going to eat the cost of tariffs.
It’s insane to. They could say “we will still launch at this price”, and have the us government cook up more tariffs or whatever. Then Nintendo is holding the bag, or has to renege on the price.
It would be smarter to mildly offset the cost. Like you say, knock $20-50 off but stipulate the final cost is subject to import duties.
I’d love them to say “well, you do you. This is the cost of the console. Your import duties are not out problem.” But I feel (despite their bullshit legal department) Nintendo is more passionate than that, and I think they will mildly reduce the price
Maybe! I’m sure there’s loopholes of some sort.
