Nintendo is probably "seriously considering" a Switch 2 price increase in the US, but former marketing leads "very hopeful" that it will ultimately "eat the cost"
Given the games are like $90 each, that's some copium shit right there.
They're not even giving away the tutorial game. The chance of them eating the tariffs is nil. They're just trying to work out the maximum amount they can sell it for.
I'm not buying. I think they could have it be $499.99 and have that pass well enough. Once that leading number says 5, the consoles screwed in my opinion. Not just tariffs, it's partially their own doing with how everyone has come to understand that buying Nintendo means you're not going to get good digital sales comparable to Steam and probably not PS5. You'll get re-releases of games from PS4/Steam that released a decade+ ago at $60+ while you can get them $10 regularly on Steam. Nintendo first party games physical copies barely go down in price and their digital sale prices suck. Nintendo set the tone for games being priced premium even when they're old old
So much fixation with the console price, but I'd rather have a more expensive console and games that actually get cheaper over time like Sony consoles where if you are patient enough can get up to 3-6 first party exclusives for the price of 1 full priced game. Game costs easily surpass the price of the console for avid gamers who like playing through multiple titles a year.
Unless you really, really feel the need to play the Nintendo exclusives, a Steam Deck is a way better deal. It even has an OLED, more storage and can be upgraded via standard SD cards.
And in terms of games: the only '80' you're gonna see is the discount percentage during the constant sales.
However, this is the first time they've had a console that is this expensive, and pretentiously more.
They're also nickel and dining the fuck out of the new games, upgrades, etc . Not to mention their big games never drop in price, while other publishers usually discount their games months after release. So they still have an avenue for generating profit.
They've also have no qualms with releasing $80 games. There's nothing stopping them from making $90 ones to recoup.
Given the margin they make on games, and their absolute control of games for the platform, they could get away with a razors-and-blades pricing model of making a loss on the consoles and making it back from software. (IIRC, some game consoles historically were sold on this model.)