Nintendo did not offer a price for its Switch 2 during its hour-long showcase. Instead, customers found out through the grapevine that the console would cost $450. But for many, the real eye-watering surprise was the price of launch title Mario Kart World at $80. It’s the most Nintendo has ever asked customers to pay, but more than that, it’s a message to the world: stop expecting cheap games. It will only get more expensive from here.
The Switch 2 bundled with the new Mario Kart costs $500, but only the most out of touch Lucille Bluths of the world wouldn’t find that pricey. We’ve had hands-on with several Switch 2 games, including Mario Kart World, and we’re already enamored by its chaotic energy of 24-player multiplayer, but its not just the games with massive multiplayer options that have gone up in price. Almost every single first-party Switch 2 game will cost you more than they have in the past.
A few exceptions, like Donkey Kong Bananza, will ask for $70 at launch, but older titles are also costing $70 bucks. If you want to buy the Switch 2 updated version of the original Switch launch title Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it will set you back $70. Both Super Mario Party Jamboree—a game that cost $60 on the Switch 1 when it launched late last year—and Kirby and The Forgotten Land will retail for $80 (though they should have some extra features and modes thrown in). Same goes for the Switch 2 edition of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the new Mario Kart World.
Given newer games and the majority of new releases will be going for $80 it seems like this is Nintendo’s new standard. That means Nintendo will now be the barometer for whether gamers will accept $80 games, rather than the standard $60 set by AAA games over the past several years. Karl Kontus, the co-founder of analytics firm Video Game Insights (which was recently acquired by Sensor Tower) told Gizmodo over email that “there’s a world where this will hurt Switch 2 sales.” Still, Nintendo rarely does discounts for its games, and its legion of fans are “not that price sensitive,” he said.
He suggested that what’s more likely is that we’ll see games at many different price points going forward. It also may lead to gamers being more selective in their purchasing habits. All those games you could call “just good” enough will suffer if they can’t find a price consumers are willing to pay.
Multiple analysts we talked to said publishers are swooning over Nintendo’s pricing choices. Wedbush Securities digital media analyst Michael Pachter previously told Gizmodo that the industry is waiting on Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI to push a $100 price point. Nintendo’s $80 games “dramatically increase” the likelihood of $100 GTA VI. He’s now “75%” sure what will likely end up being the biggest game of the 2025, both for sales, and for gamers’ wallets. Nintendo has opened the game pricing floodgates, and unless the console bombs there’s likely no going back.
“This can be the catalyst that other publishers have been waiting for (tied with GTA VI price point) to follow quickly and also go $80 as a standard price,” Kontus said. “It’s historically been very hard to increase prices for games compared to any other form of media or consumer items, so I’m sure publishers will jump at the chance to do it.”
The price gouging couldn’t come at a worse time for gamers. The same day as the Switch 2 reveal President Donald Trump hosted his long promised “liberation day” bringing us a massive sweep of tariffs on practically every major manufacturing base used by tech firms. A report from The Financial Times last week cited analysts who said Nintendo’s hardware is made in Vietnam and Cambodia. Trump’s tariffs now put a 46% and 49% tariff on both countries, respectively. That would potentially increase the price of the Switch 2 significantly.
© Nintendo
Nintendo may have planned for U.S. tariffs ahead of time with the Switch 2’s $450 price tag, but it seems few could have been prepared for a near-50% tax on imported goods. According to MST Financial analyst David Gibson, seeing the flames on the horizon, Nintendo may have already shipped 383,000 units to the U.S. But that won’t be nearly enough for demand.
If hardware is getting more expensive, software is sure to follow suit. Still, Nintendo’s pricing push has been in the works for a lot longer than the Trump Tariffs. Publishers from all over the industry have moaned about the cost of games since before the 1990s. A major first-party title like Super Mario 64 launched for $60 in 1996. Adjusted for inflation, that’s the equivalent of $124 as of February this year. Publishers have resisted the urge to ask for more out of fear of a player revolt.
Beyond inflation and tariffs, the reason for the game price increases is down to rising development costs from big-budget titles with the latest graphical fidelity and enough features to fill 120 GB of storage. Nintendo avoided the industry’s obsession with pixel pushing for while as it let the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 peacock around with their 4K, 60 FPS capabilities.
Now things are changing. The Switch 2 can do 4K on some games when its plugged in, its display has bumped from 720p to 1080p. It’s carrying traditionally graphically intensive titles like Cyberpunk 2077. Some Switch 2 game ports are so large they will now use “Game-Key Cards,” which are essentially empty Switch 2 Game Cards with a link to download the digital version. The Switch 2 ecosystem is starting to feel more like that of other big consoles.
Ex-PR managers for Nintendo, Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang, suggested in their latest podcast that the Nintendo might feel the pressures of rising costs with its push into higher resolution gaming. “With them moving into this kind of 4K era where games are bigger, cost a little bit more to make, and take more time—in some cases maybe a lot more,” Ellis said. “Is that going to change the types of games [Nintendo’s] going to be willing to invest resources in?”
Meanwhile Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier noted the rising costs of game development are exacerbated by know-nothing management. He cites several examples where bosses let workers linger unproductive for weeks on end while publishers flip flopped on projects. That’s bound to push up costs.
Nintendo is pushing forward with what’s long been an industry sticking point. That doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. Is Mario Kart World worth $80? We don’t know, we haven’t played it in full, yet. But is any game worth $80, or—hell—$100? The only thing consumers have left is their wallets, and that’s what has to do the talking.
