Nintendo Will “Likely” Price The Switch 2 At $399, Says Analyst – Nintendo Life
GuestGuestLogin | Sign UpNintendo LifeGuestLogin or Sign UpAbove the Switch, but below its competitorsAn analyst has predicted that Nintendo will “likely” price the upcoming Switch 2 at $399.Joost van Dreunen, author of ‘One Up – Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games’ and co-founder of the Nielson-owned games market research firm ‘SuperData Research’ has presented his reasoning for this prediction in his latest ‘SuperJoost Playlist’ newsletter.In it, he states that a $399 price point would comfortably straddle the line between affordable and premium, positioning it below its direct competitors but above the current Switch.”Based on current market dynamics and platform positioning strategy, Nintendo is likely to price the Switch 2 at $399. It represents a critical psychological threshold that balances premium hardware aspirations against mainstream market accessibility.”At this price point, Nintendo would maintain its traditional positive margin on hardware while positioning the Switch 2 distinctly below rival premium gaming devices yet above the original Switch’s launch price. It signals a meaningful technical advancement without alienating its core family demographic.”He also notes that at a time in which a potential trade war might present some unfortunate obstacles, Nintendo will be focusing more on platform sustainability over raw unit economics. As such, its move to promote backwards compatibility and a seamless transition from the OG Switch likely means the firm is leaning toward player retention and software attachment rates over immediate console sales.Nintendo’s ability to maintain premium price points for its software over multiple years means that it doesn’t need to leverage Nintendo Switch Online quite as much as Sony and Microsoft do with their own respective subscription services. With the Switch 2 being backwards compatible, Nintendo will be looking to focus on maximising software revenue and digital engagement over a much lengthier console lifespan, as evidenced by the Switch.Finally, Joost also mentions that PC handhelds like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally likely won’t encroach on Nintendo’s territory much thanks to their higher price points. He states that data suggests the audience overlap between these devices and Nintendo is minimal thanks to the latter’s exclusive line-up of first-party games, meaning that most owners of premium PC handhelds likely maintain multiple gaming platforms.See ya, savings!Or $50 trade-in at GameStopDo you think this prediction might be accurate? What would you be willing to pay for the Switch 2? Let us know with a comment.About Ollie ReynoldsNintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry.Comments 65Sounds realistic. I hope it comes this way.I’m expecting $450Finally, Joost also mentions that PC handhelds like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally likely won’t encroach on Nintendo’s territory much thanks to their higher price points. He states that data suggests the audience overlap between these devices and Nintendo is minimal thanks to the latter’s exclusive line-up of first-party games, meaning that most owners of premium PC handhelds likely maintain multiple gaming platforms.And what happens when PC Handheld manufacturers cut back on the prices of their prior iterations, which will likely still be more powerful than the Switch 2? No overlap my assThat sounds like a reasonable price given the SWOLED is already $349.99 USD. Will it happen?Eh…..I’d be fine with this, honestly. It’s pricey but not TOO priceyIt’s what makes the most sense also to me as I’ve already said several times and the same goes for the price in Euros (although I’d say give or take $/€50 at most – seriously doubt it will be higher than 449 or lower than 349) and I have my fingers crossed that will be the case!Which would translate to about £399 and €429 with the way Nintendo prices things in Europe.My guess is still €350 to stay competitive$399 is the same as the base digital PS5 so on par with PlayStation@Spider-Kev same@Lightsiyd Still probably won’t have any impact, PC handhelds remain super niche and the most popular one (SteamDeck) doesn’t even have a retail presence.@KBuckley27PS5 Digital retails at $449.I’ve always maintained that it’ll be priced at $399. Anything higher may be too much for some people to consider buying it despite whatever new features and games are available.Don’t care about the dollar price and besides, that’s like one of the safest predictions you can do. Basically everyone was parroting each other about how they found that to be a reasonable price.What I am hoping for is a bundle or limited edition right at the start!can they make the switch 2 look more fun please? can we bring colorful buttons & colorful consoles backMake it 399€ and I will get it as soon as possible. Make it 449€ and I will still buy it but will feel bad about it. 499€ is too much and makes me look into buying a used PS5 and play through the backlog.This feels reasonable and I think most people would accept a $400 price. I could see it as low as $350 and as high as $500It won’t be any cheaper than the switch OLED. And it won’t be as expensive as the PS5 on release or the XSX. Nintendo often try to get their consoles on the cheaper side. So 400€/$ is a safe bet and you don’t need to be an self proclaimed analyst to reach this conclusion.The amount of horse manure folk like this talk about how much something should be without knowing how much it costs to make and proft margins lol. ‘Critical Psychological threshold’? I don’t know what’s worse. This intellectual word salad or folk thinking it makes ‘perfect sense.’ hahaha.£299.95 for base switch 2switch 2 oled re-fresh in 2/3 years for £324.95like they did with switch 1I already expected it to be 399. Good price. I am already saving some money to go all out with the switch 😎Oh well if an analyst says so…Seriously though, I’d also put my money on $400.£350 for the switch 2 in the UK is too much in my eyes. But does feel like the price Nintendo will go with. The oled is £310 with a game.Unless there is a Capcom monster hunter entry of some sort I’ll wait until then before purchasing. I’d much rather a £300 price point and with a switch backlog I’m happy to wait and sit it out.Life in the UK is so frickin expensive at the moment they will have to work hard to get families onboard if they price it wrong.The biggest problem that Nintendo has to face right now, in the US, is the effect of tariffs on the total price. Given that they don’t want to screw over their audience I think that they will look to bundle in a game (and/or longer free trials to the online service) to make any higher price points feel more reasonable to buyers.If I was a betting person that’s roughly the price I would guess at…It’s clearly going to be slightly more the the Switch 1 and as it likely won’t complete with the PS5 on a graphical basis it makes sense to be slightly cheaperSounds reasonable. Can’t be too much more than that but also not too much less unless they do cut the price of the current Switch model.Seems low considering how expensive everything has become…However, may be feasible since Nintendo knows the economy is tightening and will make their money with software sales.@nomither6 I am almost certain the Switch 2’s colour is intended to help make it look different to Switch 1 (avoiding a Wii U situation), and it’ll either come in other colours at launch (like the Switch 1 was launched in grey/Red and Blue) but the “black” one being the “face” or will appear for Christmas.I had a dream where the white Switch 2 was $349, and the black Switch 2 was $449.All I remember is the white Switch 2 had bigger L buttons.@nomither6 Or even just sleek would be better than boring. I want the Switch 2 to be silver like thisI’m voting for £299/349 as £399 you can get a base ps5 for that much. Coupled with the extra cost of the games being £70 rather than £45 it will soon mount up. I wonder if they will do a Mario kart 9 bundle either £349 or £399 for the bundle.That would be extremely reasonable, hope they’re correct.400 makes sense to me and I’m okay with that. I’m just excited to find out how it handles old switch games. FPS boost, resolution upgrade, handheld equivalent of the dock, or maybe even nothing at all. Lol. Either way, my 800+ game backlog will be getting a lot of attention on the new system.I still say it’ll be around $350-$400 as the sweet spot for a launch unit. By that point they should price dropped every Switch 1 console by $100.399.99 euro is max price, over it it will definitely fail because of competition, both internal: Switch (fewer people moving from it), and external: PS or SD (and other future PC handhelds), and the loss of the casual and family market.
349.99 euro would be much nicer for a console that ideally gets bought in multiple quantities for more family members (dad + child, etc.). It must be cheap.It’s hard for me. Nintendo obviously uses older tech for the Switch consoles to cut down on production costs. However, there has never been any official price drops over the last 8 years; a first for Nintendo. Riding on the sustained popularity and sales of the Switch, there has been no need. It’s a fine line with consumers at this point. In a perfect world the Switch Lite would drop to $130 USD, the OG Switch would drop to $200 USD, and the OLED would drop to $250.00 USD. Leaving the Switch2 to launch at $300-$350 USD. I feel that this would be the best price point to entice new users and early adopters. That being said, Nintendo sees people in the Apple ecosystem regularly upgrading products for premium prices. And since the “value proposition” of the original Switch has not wavered, I can see them keeping prices where they are and dropping the Switch2 at a solid $400-$450 USD. This may keep families away for awhile, but the Nintendo faithful will snatch it up. Any higher, and I think many people will hold off for a bit. Of course, that new killer 3D Mario will definitely drive sales. They are probably hoping MARIO KART 9 will do the same for families. It will be interesting to see their strategy moving forward. At the end of the day $399.00 USD is the sweet spot.Just think, somebody is paying this guy to say the same thing most of us have been saying for like 2 years.And here I was thinking meteorologists had it easy. 😂Some suggestions are splittings hairs in my opinion. £50 more or less isn’t going to hit hard when you are already able or looking to pay the minimum estimates that have been put out there. If you can afford £350, chances are you can afford £399.Never before have they done such a steep price increase from one console to the next.From the NES up until the GameCube, their systems all released at the same price of $199.
The Wii bumped things up to $249, and the Wii U and Switch went to $299.Especially considering the fact that the Switch 2 is just a minor upgrade, an increase of 100$ feels a bit unwarranted.Personally, I feel that the standard Switch is about $50-$75 too expensive, even back in 2017 when it launched.If Switch 2 is again using old, outdated tech, I’ll feel the same again! No matter the price!350 would be much preferable and yes I know the OG OLED is currently that but it’s a massively inflated price in 2025 for 2017 tech.@Duncanballs not really, it’s psychological pricing. one game is gonna cost say £50 and you’ll want to buy one game at least with it.if the console is 350, you can say “nice”, i can get a game with that for 400 odd. if it’s 400 then 450 with a game, yeah people might be able to afford it, but with parents or some people there is a psychological barrier where you don’t want to pay.$400 is reasonable for switch 2.I’m fine with £350-£399, but times are tough and many families, Nintendos main market are struggling at the moment.I personally think £299 would be a superb price for a brand new Nintendo console and it would sell an insane amount of units if they could sell it for that price.Considering Nintendo’s comments about maintaining their image of a more affordable system compared to its competitors it makes sense. Any more and it would be too close to the competitionThat’s an amount I can deal with. If we’re looking at the usual NintenTax of stripping the $ and putting a £ in its place, that’s manageable. I can do that in a few instalments and still put dosh aside for Head-Spinner.I can also clear out one of my lesser (still half-tera though) micro-SD cards for a spell too; I’ll not need a μ-SD Express just yet.@Jack_Goetz and 4500 reais here in Brazil! That’s really not bad at all@sketchturner i couldn’t agree more. it would’ve been a smart move to make the switch 2 silver to really emphasize the “2” & new more advanced switch.No way. $399 is too much and will turn a lot of parents off. $349 is my guess.@westman98 Proof?I guessed between € 400-450, that feels about right. Especially when VAT is included. (like normally here)I was expecting £399 as well.Can’t wait for people’s reactions to the hands on events in April and the games nintendo shows off 😍I thought it was notable that Furukawa, in addressing Nintendo shareholders, mentioned affordability being important but made no mention of margins or profitability wrt console pricing. Like he was prepping shareholders for a lower margin console, where Nintendo will try to make up the difference with more sales and more presence for their software, IP and services.@ViewtifulCoolI agree. It’s a lot harder to justify, even though it’s peanuts in the long run. That 50-100 dollar difference is the difference between a lot of people buying at launch, versus looking at a more powerful console with better looking exclusives, and letting that at least weigh in on the decision.I’m expecting £399.Switch 1 launched at £280 in 2017 which is £368 with inflation now.They also have pretty much a unique market too. Steam Deck and the like are far too niche to be even vaguely relevant. PS5 isn’t portable. As long as they get the software right they’ll do really well.@GrailUK How is that even word salad?@BTB20 Oh, have I used the expression wrongly. I know what I meant lol.Sounds like a fair assumption. If so I’m waiting. I waited till the US equivalent of $300 not the $400-500 AUD of OG Switch, better battery or OLED and Lite was cheaper sure but not what I was looking for. I’m glad I waited I can barely see text on OG Switch let alone a Switch Lite or DSi compared to the New 3DS XL. I read manga just as small and can still make out what it says just enough. No glasses either. So devs need better scaling not “TV ONLY BECAUSE WERE TOO LAZY TO PORT PROPERLY AND PUT BETTER TEXT SIZE”.1080? 1400? what it goes for and other aspects making me wonder really. If justified then sure the price is justified.So I waited till 2021 to get one cheap. So you bet I’m not paying $500-600 AUD and waiting even longer. I’ve got plenty of Switch 1 game to still look into anyway let alone retro consoles so I’m good any time to wait.I don’t care for PS5/Series X anyway, others can buy them, I played them once to see what they are like, so PS4/Xbox One (still my least favourite consoles/libraries but I mean it’s better than nothing of worth on those consoles with the same game design and more visuals, how boring. Tell me when devs aka programmers/animators/designers actually put effort in, Indies have more then their inspiration/nostalgia and have a brain like the 1% of Indies that do have a brain and create better games or else gaming is just going to be PS3/360 boring and less refined then those were with less staff, better competition, and quality I know I’m buying them and comparing to garbage modern gaming, I know how they feel and how good the gameplay ideas are then nowadays being so empty, bland and worthless) has been fine till devs wake up and push gameplay first not everything else first and waste my time. I’m 1 purchase they don’t care about me anyway.I’ve played PS2/PSP/Wii/DS versions before and had way more fun on many (some are misses, but most are hits) then PS3/360 versions so I’m good, parity and garbage game design doesn’t get a pass. Weak hardware is not the problem, art style and level design/mechanics/movesets and execution are.Nintendo/some devs have tried but even Pikmin 4 was so boring and core design/additions some I liked, most I hated. Pikmin 1 with New Play Control or 3 on Wii U were better. 4 was terrible in tweaks to the formula besides the repeated caves of 2 and new ones. Night mode good, motion controls restrictive and I never used but wanted to. Other eh upgrades/things. Oatchi can’t swim till 5 days in…. Why?I’ve never paid 400 dollars for a game console, and I never will.Dude gets PAID for writing banal conventional wisdom like this? Nice work if you can get it, I guess.any special bundles with different colors?That’s awesome, have the last 5 years of people begging Nintendo for a pro upgrade of the switch but now that it’s effectively coming out soon people hoping it’s as cheap as possible or “starving families won’t be able to afford one for their dad and kids” I mean really, it’s one or the other, people who don’t have 400e can easily go buy a switch og or lite, leave the upgraded model for people with money to afford it. Don’t wish for them to cheap out on that pro model you’ve wanted for years.I’d prefer $350, but I’m expecting $400.Below the competitors? Lol not.I for one will be making the move to SteamDeck and ditching Nintendo’s greed forever after seeing how they treat their customers these days. From blowing on cartridges to being disgusted by their unethical lawfare and business practices, what a ride.I’m an analyst, here on analysiness. 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