Thanks to part shortages, manufacturing costs are rising but if you’re worried about a potential Nintendo Switch price increase, there’s good news.
Addressing concerns about the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa recently spoke with Nikkei. Telling the publication that “the problem is that demand exceeds supply”, Furukawa was questioned on whether Nintendo would consider price increases for its popular hybrid console. Thankfully, he ruled out this option at this time.
“We’re not considering that at this point, for two reasons. In order to offer unique entertainment to a wide range of customers, we want to avoid pricing people out,” Nintendo’s president confirmed. Raising the point that Nintendo has sold “more than 100 million Switch units so far”, Furukawa insists that it’s important to “maintain the momentum of our overall business”.
However, he wouldn’t be drawn on whether Nintendo can reach its sales target for Nintendo Switch this fiscal year. That’s unsurprising due to the ongoing global chip shortage, which factored into a 23% drop in console sales during Q1 2022. Still, Furukawa believes it’ll see a boost from new games like Splatoon 3 and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which launch this September and November respectively.
A different quest
Since launching five years ago, Nintendo’s mostly resisted changing the price of its Switch consoles. The only real drop has been for the original variant back when the Nintendo Switch OLED model launched, with Nintendo decreasing the RRP by £20/$25. That said, it’s been offering the cheaper Nintendo Switch Lite since 2019, which removes docking functionality for a handheld-only experience.
Still, the pricing question’s been raised thanks to Meta’s recent price increase for its Oculus Quest 2 VR headsets. Going up by $100/£100, Meta blamed rising costs, claiming on an official blog post, “By adjusting the price of Quest 2, we can continue to grow our investment in groundbreaking research and new product development that pushes the VR industry to new heights”.
Even with Beat Saber now bundled in, it’s a move which faced significant criticism, and some believe this is now the worst time to buy a Quest 2. Sony and Microsoft hasn’t commented on similar price increases yet, so it’s a relief to see Nintendo making its views clear. Of course, saying “at this point” gives wiggle room for an increase later, but at least it’s not immediately on the cards.