Nintendo has increased the price of its licensed Switch 2 microSD Express cards in Japan, with the products now costing ¥8,980 including tax instead of the previous ¥6,980 price.
The price change took effect on August 17 and applies to the Nintendo-licensed microSD Express cards manufactured by SanDisk and Samsung. At the time of writing, the SanDisk version was already listed as out of stock on the Nintendo Store.
The ¥2,000 increase adds to the cost of expanding the Nintendo Switch 2’s storage. Unlike the original Nintendo Switch, the new console requires microSD Express cards to take advantage of its high-speed storage interface. Standard UHS-I microSD cards can therefore not provide the same high-speed performance.
Switch 2 Storage Comes At A Premium
MicroSD Express cards offer substantially higher transfer speeds than conventional microSD cards, with supported products reaching read speeds of up to 900MB/s and write speeds of up to 600MB/s.
Prices for these cards vary considerably depending on capacity and manufacturer. In the US, 256GB models generally cost between $50 and $100, while 512GB cards can range from around $115 to $260. High-capacity 1TB models can cost more than $300.
The price increase comes as Nintendo is also preparing to raise the price of the Switch 2 itself in several markets. In the US, the console is scheduled to increase from $449.99 to $499.99 from September 1, 2026, while the eurozone price is set to rise from €469.99 to €499.99.
The wider hardware price increases have been attributed to rising memory and DRAM costs, which have increased manufacturing expenses for hardware companies.
For Switch 2 owners, the combination of higher console pricing and more expensive storage could make expanding the system’s available space considerably more costly, particularly for players purchasing larger-capacity microSD Express cards.
