Is a Switch 2 price hike coming? Many are theorizing that this will happen at some point in the future due to the so-called “RAMaggedon” and other factors, and even Nintendo’s own top boss said he cannot rule out a price increase. Now, Dr. Serkan Toto of research group Kantan Games has said he believes the Switch 2 may see price hike, and it could happen by the end of the year.
“I would be very surprised if the Switch was still $450 in the US at the end of 2026,” he told GamesRadar.
He added that “people get used to everything,” and that includes price increases for gaming hardware. Or at least that’s what companies like Sony and others who have raised prices already are betting on, he said. Sony, for its part, just announced a second price hike for the PS5, while Microsoft raised Xbox prices in 2025.
Other experts concurred, including DFC Intelligence CEO David Cole, who said a price hike for the Switch 2 would be “likely” due to component costs and tariffs. Researcher and educator Joost van Dreunen, meanwhile, said Nintendo is likely to “lay low for a while” and keep Switch 2 prices intact, at least for now.
While Nintendo has yet to raise the Switch 2 price, the company did hike the price of the original Switch, as well as some Switch 2 accessories, in 2025. Additionally, Nintendo discontinued the $500 Switch 2 bundle that includes Mario Kart World (like the company always said it would), and this effectively amounted to a subtle Switch 2 price hike, another expert, Matthew Ball, believes.
Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics told GameSpot that a Switch 2 price hike is certainly possible, but he believes a more likely approach would be for Nintendo to use “indirect price increase” to hold margins. Raising the price to $450 for the base model would be a “PR disaster” for a console in its second year, Elliott said. Given that, he theorized a more likely scenario would be for Nintendo to create a new kind of Switch 2 bundle with a game or an exclusive cosmetic packed in. In related news, Nintendo recently made pricing changes to its games, further pushing people to higher-margin digital titles.
Although the Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle has been officially discontinued, retailers like Target and GameStop continue to sell it for the normal $500 price.
Nintendo’s official word
In February, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said the rise in memory prices has not materially impacted Nintendo’s financials, and isn’t expected to for the quarter that ends March 31. However, if the costs keep going up, Nintendo might pass that along to consumers in the form of a price hike.
“If this rise in component prices lasts longer than expected and runs through the next fiscal year and beyond, it may put pressure on profitability,” he said. “If the situation deteriorates significantly, we will carefully assess market trends and respond. As for any future change in the price of Nintendo Switch 2 hardware, no decision has been made at this time. Any decision to change the price will be determined comprehensively, taking into consideration not only profitability, but also other factors like the platform’s installed base, sales trends, and the market environment.”
The growing cost of memory is “happening at a pace that exceeds our expectations,” Furukawa said. Of course, Nintendo is not the only company affected by increasing memory costs, as many other technology companies are caught in the middle of it as well.
What’s causing the surge in prices? Experts agree that the chips powering the many new AI technologies need a lot of memory, which is one of the factors causing this spike. Another is that storage prices have surged as well.
Years 2 and 3 are “very important” for Nintendo
During the February investor presentation, Furukawa said the second and third years for the Switch 2 will be “very important,” and if Nintendo is able to sell enough Switch 2 units, then it can “greatly expand software sales.”
Also working in Nintendo’s favor is that Furukawa said the company began production on the Switch 2 “as early as possible” and has been stockpiling “a certain amount of components and products.” This inventory was obtained prior to the recent surge in memory prices, presumably, so Nintendo isn’t fearful of profitability issues, at least for now.
“While we currently expect some sort of impact on profitability if the increase in memory prices continues over the long term, we do not anticipate constraints in our production plans due to insufficient supply in the next fiscal year and beyond,” Furukawa said.
In other news, it was reported recently that Nintendo cut production of the Switch 2 following weaker-than-expected sales during the holiday 2025 shopping season in some places. The move to cut production was seen as an odd one by some, given the Switch 2 is selling exceptionally well.
In other news about price hikes, experts have said the PS5’s latest price hike was inevitable, prompting questions about what may come next.
