Fans have eagerly awaited news of the Nintendo Switch 2 for months, with rumours swirling on social media about the possible price of the console and the lineup of games it would offer at launch.

The wait was over on April 2, when the release date was revealed in a Nintendo Direct live showcase.

Amid exciting news about hardware and upcoming games from first and third-party studios, the main takeaway from the event was the high price of both the console itself and the games.

The console will be available for $449, with certain games costing $80.

High prices have been a long time coming

Mario Kart World, the latest in the long-running series, will set shoppers back an eye-watering $80. This took many people by surprise. Not long ago, there were debates about games costing $60 or $70, and now Nintendo has gone even further.

It is no secret that video game production has become increasingly costly. The long-awaited GTA 6 reportedly cost upwards of $1bn to develop, leading many to half-joke about a $100 price tag when that title is eventually released.

However; as with developer Rockstar’s previous games, GTA 6 promises to be a game-changer for the industry. Meanwhile, could the development cost of Mario Kart World possibly justify such a hefty price tag?

The price of the console itself is less of a shock, but it has raised some eyebrows. The $449 price tag is lower than the Xbox Series X and PS5 at launch, but the Switch 2 is noticeably less powerful than those consoles.

Also, the Switch 2 only has a meagre 256GB of internal storage in an industry where 1TB is the norm, and it will ship with an LCD screen despite the release of an improved OLED version of the original Switch in 2021. For many, this feels like a backward step.

The wider industry may Switch 2 higher prices

The real concern is what this news means for the wider gaming industry. Nintendo may be charging $80 for Mario Kart World just to see if it can get away with it while testing the waters to see what buyers will tolerate.

If buyers still bite, Nintendo’s competitors will likely follow suit.

With the console itself, industry experts suspect that Nintendo looked at the $700 price tag and subsequent success of the Sony PlayStation 5 Pro in 2024.

Inevitably – tariffs

On top of this is the issue of President Trump’s tariffs. People are split on whether this has had much of an impact.

Some experts think that Nintendo is pre-empting the cost of these tariffs, with NYU Stern professor Joost van Dreunen telling IGN that “Nintendo appears to be building in a buffer against these potential trade barriers.”

However, it is still too early to predict what impact these tariffs will have on the sale and production of video games and consoles.

Nintendo is a leader in the console space. It probably feels like it can get away with the higher prices and that its huge in-built audience will stick with it for another generation.

However; it has overestimated consumer enthusiasm before with the ultimately doomed Wii U. Amid rising costs, perhaps gamers will have had enough. Only time will tell.