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Hold on to your consoles — the Nintendo Switch 2 is about to get more expensive.
The price for the Nintendo Switch 2 in Canada will increase as of Sept. 1, Nintendo said in a news release Friday, jumping to $679.99 Cdn from its current price of $629.99.
Nintendo said it was raising the Switch 2 price in Japan to 59,980 yen, effective May 25, from 49,980 yen, “in light of changes in market conditions and after considering the global business outlook.”
Company president Shuntaro Furukawa said higher component costs, along with factors including exchange rates, were reflected in Nintendo’s decision.
All major Japanese exporters are having to cope with U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes and other higher costs that have been worsened by the war in Iran.
Nintendo and Sony are also both grappling with the impact of surging memory chip prices, Reuters reports, as the artificial intelligence boom constrains chip supply and deepens disruptions across the tech sector.
Memory chip prices doubled in the first quarter alone from the previous quarter and are forecast to climb up to 63 per cent in the current quarter due to AI data centre demand that has impacted supply for smartphones, laptops and automobiles.
The artificial intelligence boom is driving a worldwide shortage in memory chips that could soon drive up prices in everything from smartphones to laptops to video game consoles.
Nintendo said that higher component costs, particularly memory, and the impact of tariffs is expected to add roughly 100 billion yen ($874 million Cdn) to costs in the current financial year.
“The very fact that Nintendo felt compelled to act [price increase] suggests the rise in memory costs has become severe enough that it could no longer be absorbed internally — and, crucially, that there is little prospect of those cost pressures easing in the near term,” HSBC analyst Kazunori Ito told Reuters.
“This decision likely reflects a sober assessment that waiting for market conditions to improve is not a viable option.”
With the price hikes, profitability will be roughly unchanged from last financial year, Furukawa told an earnings briefing.
Switch 2 demand holds up
Nintendo recorded a 424 billion yen ($3.7 billion Cdn) net profit for the fiscal year that ended in March, up from nearly 279 billion yen the year before.
Annual sales rose 99 per cent to 2.3 trillion yen ($20.1 billion Cdn) from 1.2 trillion yen a year earlier, as demand for Switch 2 held up, although sales for the first-generation Switch declined.
Nintendo Co., which did not break down quarterly results, expects an 11 per cent decline in profit for the fiscal year through March 2027, to 2.1 trillion yen ($18.4 billion Cdn). The projection takes into account the planned price hikes.
Nintendo expects to sell 16.5 million Switch 2 machines in the fiscal year through March 2027, down nearly 17 per cent from 19.86 million in the last fiscal year. It also forecast that Switch 2 software sales will continue to grow, at 60 million, up 23 per cent from 48.7 million.
It’s common for game machines to sell briskly right after they are launched and then see sales decline. Game software tends to continue growing. The Switch is a hybrid game machine, functioning both as a home console connected to a display or as a portable handheld.
Nintendo promised more software titles for the Switch 2 this year, including from other creators.
Nintendo’s stock price jumped 3.6 per cent after earnings were announced.
A Calgary gamer was among the first to get his hands on the new console in the wee hours of June 5. He shares his thoughts after a solid session of gaming.
