Wednesday’s Reveal of Switch 2 There’s a lot of buzz around Nintendo The successor of the switch. However, the shocking point is the high price of its games. There is a lot of confusion, especially about President Donald Trump’s tariff increase Among many trading partners, including Japan.
Following Direct Direct, Nintendo has released all details of the upcoming consoles and games on its website. price Mario Karting World Shocked gamers, leading to Some disdainbecause the $80 is undoubtedly $10 more than most new games today. This has led many to wonder if this is due to Trump’s tariffs or if Nintendo is just greedy, whether it will become the new normal. However, the answer may be completely different.
Is the Nintendo Switch 2 game price hiking?
First, some details need to be cleared. Some people posted on social media the price of Nintendo’s Switch 2 game, at least $90 in the United States. As of now, this is incorrect.
A x user Posted with Mario Kart World’s Switch 2 EU price, with a digital version of €80 and a physical copy of €90. Typically, the price of the game in the United States and the European Union matches, which leads some to think that this pricing is American.
The Nintendo Switch 2 game is more expensive in body than in numbers.
The Mario Kart world will be 90 weird euros. pic.twitter.com/ixurwzlfqh– Centro Leaks (@centroleaks) April 2, 2025
However, U.S. retailers have released their Switch 2 game prices, while Nintendo’s list of games published is $80.
Price of the Switch 2 game made by Nintendo.
Will Trump’s tariffs make the Switch 2 more costly?
As for Trump’s tariffsthis is unlikely to be the driving force of this price bump. Tariffs do not apply to digital goods, and when prices are published, there are no tariffs in Japan. In addition, games are also expensive in other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom.
With this clearance, why is Nintendo games so expensive on Switch 2? One possible reason is game storage.
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Switch 2 uses Nintendo to call content Game Key Cardthese are 2 cartridges without all the game data on the cartridge itself. This helps save production costs because storage is expensive. Original switch ammunition cartridge Up to 32GB of storageThis doesn’t seem to be much these days, with some games taking up 100GB or more of storage, but this is for the original switch. There are only a few games, such as The Witcher 3 More than 32GB Because the graphics of the switch are not on the high end, such as PC, PS5 or Xbox series consoles, where Witcher 3 installation size starts at 50GB.
The Switch 2 game will be larger in size – no doubt. CD Projekt Red confirms that it will be placed Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition On a 64GB cartridge, there may be other games over 64GB. As the maximum size of the cartridge size doubles, it increases the price of the physical card, because the storage must not only be larger, but also requires data transfer faster. Unlike discs, this physical copy can become more expensive, and discs are still the same, whether it is having 20GB or 100GB on discs.
What does this mean for gamers?
This leads to the publisher’s dilemma: put the entire game on a physical card and sell it at a loss, and use the full game to increase the price of the physical copy on it, or use the game key card to own the card with minimal storage space, requiring gamers to download the entire game.
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It seems that Nintendo went with the second door. It’s not surprising to know the company. Anyone who wants to save on games knows that Nintendo rarely lowers the price of its own games. For example, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is 8 years old and still Full price on Nintendo website.
According to industry analysis by Niko Partners, this new pricing could become the new normal for physical cartridges in a few years.
“While the price of the game has increased from $60 to $70 or $80, these prices will become industry standards over the next two years, especially for Nintendo first-party games, which will become industry standards,” he said. Niko Partners said in a statement Wednesday. “One of the reasons for the higher price is the increased cost of the new and faster gaming cards themselves, with higher manufacturing capabilities than the PS5 Blu-ray disc.”
Nintendo did not respond to a request for comment about its higher priced game.
That said, this does not explain the lower prices of donkey bananas released in July. Listed Nintendo’s website $70. This may mean that the game does not use a larger memory card, but this is not sure until the game is released. It is not clear how things will change in the future.
