Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has stated that the company will consider raising the price of the Switch 2 in the event that there is a major change in tariffs.
During a recent press conference (via Yahoo Japan), Furukawa said that the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 and the early spread of the hardware are the company’s top priorities. He also indicated his intention to increase advertising and promotional expenses for the upcoming console, which is expected to sell 15 million units during this fiscal year along with 45 million copies of games.
Although consolidated sales are forecasted to grow substantially by 63.1%, the smaller 13% rise in operating profit reflects lower profit margins on the new hardware and increased marketing costs. Furukawa mentioned that enhancing profitability would require increasing the average number of software titles purchased per console.
The current financial projections assume that U.S. tariffs introduced on April 10, 2025, will stay in place throughout the fiscal year. Nintendo expects these tariffs to negatively impact earnings by tens of billions of yen. Pre-orders in the U.S., originally scheduled for April 9 were postponed to April 24, 2025, in order to evaluate the effects of these tariffs. However, the price of the Switch 2 remains at $449.99.
Furukawa explained that the company usually considers tariffs a cost component when setting retail prices worldwide, but emphasized that the immediate priority is widespread adoption of the new console. He added that should there be major changes in the tariff situation, Nintendo would reassess and potentially revise pricing strategies after further analysis. Nintendo also acknowledged that additional tariffs or price hikes could weaken demand in the U.S. market. Furthermore, broader economic factors, such as rising costs for essentials like food, may limit consumer spending on gaming.
The goal of selling 15 million Nintendo Switch 2 units this fiscal year matches the initial sales performance of the original Switch, which also reached about 15 million units in its first ten months after its March, 2017, launch. In Japan, around 2.2 million people have already applied through Nintendo’s lottery system for a chance to purchase the console, and supply is expected to be limited on launch day. Furukawa noted that production has already been scaled up to meet demand and pledged efforts to fulfill orders promptly after release.
