Nintendo promise better Switch 2 games line-up as boss apologises for price hike

The Switch 2 may now be being sold at a loss, as Nintendo insists that the upcoming price hike doesn’t completely compensate for the rising cost of manufacturing.

There are always several mysteries revolving around Nintendo at any given time but the most perplexing at the moment is why they haven’t had a first party Nintendo Direct, to lay out all the games coming out for the rest of the year.

Sony and Xbox have both had their equivalents and usually Nintendo has an event in January or February. But despite six separate Directs so far, all of them have been minor affairs and no major new games have been announced so far this year.

One could go mad speculating as to why, but the most important question is whether this is all according to plan, from Nintendo’s point of view, or if they view it as a mistake. We don’t know the answer to that, but they have now promised to do better in the future.

We still don’t know how what the new UK price of the Switch 2 will be, when it comes into effect in September – because Nintendo has only announced it for Japan, the US, and Europe – but it’s likely to be roughly a £30 increase, to around £430.

Nintendo is following in the footsteps of Sony and Microsoft, who have both increased the cost of their consoles multiple times, with everyone being at the mercy of the current memory crisis, where RAM chips are being bought up in bulk to power AI data centres.

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The Switch 2 is already unusually expensive for a Nintendo console, and it seem clear the company is not happy at having its hand forced in this way. In fact, president Shuntaro Furukawa has issued an open apology to fans:

‘We sincerely apologise to our customers for the considerable inconvenience and trouble this will cause. While we wanted to prioritise a wide adoption, it was challenging to bear the rising costs over a long period. The [new] pricing does not fully account for all cost increases.’

That last sentence implies that Nintendo is still making less money on the console than they were, even with the price increase, and they may now even be selling it at a loss. The comment could also hint at more price increases to come, which is what happened with Sony and Microsoft as well.

Furukawa didn’t offer any detail on the Switch 2’s upcoming line-up, or a future Nintendo Direct, but he did say the following:

‘We will prepare a robust software lineup to enhance the Switch 2 ownership value. We will work diligently to overcome this barrier.’

Although you can never tell with Nintendo – especially considering the Star Fox annoucement last week came out of nowhere, with just 10 minutes warning – it’s now very likely they won’t have a major Direct until their usual not-E3 time slot of mid-June.

We’d normally say there’s no way of knowing what they’ll announce but unusually there have been quite a few Nintendo rumours lately, including Star Fox. The most believable at the moment is of a Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake, which many reliable sources claim will be out this year.

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