Last week, Nintendo announced more details on its upcoming game console, the Switch 2, including its price and release date. While pre-orders for the console have launched in regions including Europe and Japan, pre-orders in the US have been postponed following the announcement of Donald Trump’s tariffs on several countries around the world.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is currently manufactured in Vietnam, having previously moved production from China in an attempt to avoid Trump-era tariffs. Despite this, the President has imposed a 46% tariff on products from Vietnam, meaning that the Switch 2 will likely face an extra charge when sold in the United States.
Nintendo had previously announced that the Switch 2 would cost $450, and controversially revealed that Mario Kart Worlds, a new game for the console, would cost $80. This will be the highest price Nintendo has set for a game in recent years, being $10 higher than the current average of $70 for a triple-A title.
The game’s pricing has sparked fierce debate online, with several fans of the Nintendo brand feeling it’s too expensive, particularly when many consumers are struggling in the current economic climate.
It was initially believed that Nintendo had set such high prices for both the console and its games in anticipation of the tariffs. In a recent interview, however, Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser stated that the tariffs did not influence the $450 price tag. Bowser further says that the company is ‘actively assessing’ the impact of the tariffs. Despite this, the Switch 2 is still scheduled to launch in the US on 5th June.
In the broader political sphere, Vietnam has offered to remove all tariffs it currently places on American products if the US agrees to do the same. White House trade advisor Peter Navarro responded, stating that simply removing tariffs would not suffice, and that ‘non-tariff cheating’ is the more pressing concern for them.
Within days, it has become clear that Trump’s tariffs will affect not only the global economy but also various international industries in unpredictable ways. The Switch 2 will likely not be the only console impacted, with PlayStation, Xbox, and Valve’s Steam Deck all being manufactured in China.
We’ll have to wait and see how the price of gaming products evolves over the coming years, but it is clear that gaming is set to become more expensive to some extent.
Words by Alex Daud Briggs
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