The Switch 2 situation is well, a situation. We all know Trump has now, at least temporarily, backpedaled on some of the new tariff levies directly affecting the pre-order and likely launch of Switch 2. This prompted financial analysis firms to present a potential price hike situation only to they themselves course correct the supposedly incorrect deductions of this data to suggest it is unlikely we see major price hikes on Switch 2 at launch. This sounds like good news to me and a recent report courtesy of Bloomberg suggests Nintendo has been stockpiling Switch 2 units in the U.S. for months now to help soften the blow Trump might (will likely) have on its bottom line.
The Switch 2 hoarding has already begun
Initial reports from earlier this week suggested we could see a massive 20% price hike on Switch 2 over the first two years, but it appears that may not be the case now. Having said that, with the way things are going, and how fast Trump and the gang seemingly change their mind on the drop of a dime, it’s hard to say this won’t happen at some point – Sony and Microsoft both introduced price jumps in the middle of their current console cycles, and that was before Trump found his way back to the Oval Office.
All of that said, most reports and industry analysts are now suggesting it is likely Nintendo will not change course and launch the Switch 2 at prices higher than it has already announced – $450 for the base bundle and $500 with Mario Kart World.
A quick browse of the headlines over the last few days have seemingly taken the excitable hype and whimsy out of Switch 2’s sails, but it’s not all bad news here.
Much like we have been reporting with Apple doing everything it can to get ahead of the game – Apple is racing to fly planes of iPhones into the US ahead of Trump’s tariffs, Nintendo has reportedly been battening down the hatches itself. A new report courtesy of Bloomberg suggests Nintendo has been re-directing shipments out of its Vietnam Switch 2 plants – a region initially getting hit with a sizable new 46% tariff that is also now getting a potentially brief 90-day reprieve – and elsewhere to the U.S. (maybe even for months now) – The U.S. is expected to make up at least one-third of all Switch 2 sales.
Bloomberg says that “Hosiden Corp., one of three main Switch 2 assemblers, shipped more devices in February to the US from Vietnam than in the previous six months combined” and that Nintendo might very well be in the process or will soon have stockpiled millions of consoles in the U.S. “in time for the June launch.” Units landing stateside courtesy of Hosiden has jumped from 11% to over 60% just over the course of 2025.
This sounds like good news to me, but it’s hard to say if that will even be enough to go around.
Nintendo has received its fair share of negative criticism over the announced launch prices for Switch 2 – despite remaining steadfast that the price has nothing to do with the tariffs just about all of us assumed were coming. While this, at first, seemed like just something Nintendo was saying to quell gamers, recent reports suggests it costs Nintendo roughly $400 to even make the thing and that even with the soften 10% tariff in place for now (never mind the originally proposed 46% number), it will still be selling Switch 2 at a loss if the price remains firm at retail.
The question at this point is whether or not Nintendo is going to honor the original retail prices it announced last week. It clearly knew the levies were about to get wild, or it wouldn’t have been diverting shipments at this rate to the U.S. in response, right? Is Nintendo going to favor gamers and truly believe in the power of next-generation Mario, sell the console at loss (at least in the early going) and keep the price firm? You would think it must have expected at least the 10% tariff before it announced the $450 starting price, suggesting it was indeed ready to lose to cash on what many have already suggested could be the biggest console launch in history.
The 90 day pause on the Vietnam tariffs perhaps won’t lift until Nintendo Switch 2 is already scheduled to release to the public, so what is Nintendo waiting on to begin taking pre-orders in North America?
More curated coverage for you
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments