Nintendo has confirmed that the Switch 2 will retail for $500 in the United States — a 67% price increase over the original Switch's $300 launch price. It's the most expensive Nintendo console ever and puts the company in direct price competition with PlayStation and Xbox for the first time in decades.
The End of Nintendo's Budget Strategy
Nintendo built its modern success on a simple premise: while Sony and Microsoft competed for the hardcore gaming market with expensive, powerful consoles, Nintendo would offer something different — affordable hardware with exclusive franchises that you couldn't play anywhere else.
The original Switch launched at $300 in 2017, significantly cheaper than the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X. That price gap was intentional. Nintendo wasn't trying to compete on specs — it was competing on accessibility and innovation with the hybrid handheld-console design.
At $500, that strategy is over.
The Switch 2 is now the same price as the PlayStation 5 and more expensive than the entry-level Xbox Series S. Nintendo is betting that its exclusive franchises and portable form factor are worth the premium.
What You're Getting for $500
To be fair, the Switch 2 is a significant upgrade over the original. Early reports suggest it will feature a larger OLED screen, improved performance that can actually run modern games at acceptable frame rates, and backward compatibility with original Switch titles.
But here's the thing: those are table stakes. Consumers expect hardware improvements in a new console generation. The question is whether those improvements justify a 67% price increase — especially when the original Switch is still widely available and has a massive library of games.
Nintendo is also facing a very different market than it did in 2017. The original Switch launched when portable gaming meant compromising on performance and graphics. Now, Steam Deck and other handheld PCs offer near-desktop gaming performance in a portable form factor. The Switch's hybrid design is no longer unique.
