Current Events > Nintendo Maintains Switch 2 Pricing, Retail Pre-Orders to Begin April 24th in US

(+) Yeah! (+)

Trumpo posted...

Amiibos got a price increase

Was surprised to find that out when wishlisting the Street Fighter 6 and new Zelda TotK Amiibo... $40 and $30 each is nuts...

Best Buy confirmed preorders go up at midnight ET.

Tanthalas posted...

PPP is irrelevant here. Nintendo is just setting prices based on how much they think they can charge without losing sales.

Of course it's relevant, though you're not wrong either. $350 in Japan is worth about $490 today in the US. They're priced similarly when comparing purchasing power, with the US as the cheapest.

Tanthalas posted...

And what is the point?

Even if people want to (wrongly) bring PPP into this, Portugal has a lower PPP than Japan but the Switch 2 costs 50% more over here.

You misunderstood. I was using PPP only to explain why Japan's $350 is more than meets the eye, and to show the US is the cheapest. Not that they're all appropriately PPP adjusted. Nintendo is a Japanese company and they're only helping Japanese people (and the US due to how big and competitive of a market it is). I know other countries are way more expensive. The EU model is the most expensive at $663 ($213 more than the US) when adjusted for PPP, which like you said, is almost 50% more.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Again, address my actual point instead of gaslighting. You claim that a weaker yen is one of the factors why the Switch 2 is 50% more (or even more) expensive overseas than in Japan. I gave you a simple example showing why thats complete nonsense.

Unlike you, I dont ignore what doesnt suit me. I know perfectly well that other things are taken into account when local prices are decided, and yeah, the Switch being more expensive in some countries is natural. What isnt natural is having a 50% higher price (or more!) in certain countries without justification.

Let me remind you that the cheaper Switch 2 in Japan has the same hardware as the expensive Switch 2. The Japanese language and region lock is there to prevent people overseas from buying it, because it would be cheaper to import it instead of buying locally. Thats a huge thing showing how overpriced the Switch 2 is overseas.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Im a biased, prejudiced and ignorant hypocrite because I say that practice is shit regardless of the company doing it? Lol!

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Bungie is smaller than Bethesda, and AB dwarfs them both combined. Not to mention that MS has made plenty of exclusivity deals too, hell, they might have started that practice. MS bungling the XBox Brand doesnt change that.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

You guys were the ones that brought PPP into this, not me, dont complain just because I pointed out another huge flaw in your argument.

There are no economic, currency or transport logistics that justify a 50% markup in the Switch 2s price in Portugal. Nintendo is just as much as it things it can get away with.

InfinityMonster posted...

Of course it's relevant, though you're not wrong either. $350 in Japan is worth about $490 today in the US. They're priced similarly when comparing purchasing power, with the US as the cheapest.

PPP is irrelevant (or mostly irrelevant*) because:

• it doesnt affect how much it costs to produce a Switch 2.
• No company is forced to adjust prices to PPP
• And Nintendo doesnt adjust prices to PPP either, as shown in the case of Portugal.

* Nintendo has factories producing the Switch 2 in southeast Asia, because its cheaper to make them there. Though, I imagine that they also have factories in Japan, where assembling the Switch is likely more expensive. S PPP may indirectly affect how much it costs to produce a Switch 2.

Tanthalas posted...

PPP is irrelevant (or mostly irrelevant*) because:
* it doesnt affect how much it costs to produce a Switch 2.
* No company is forced to adjust prices to PPP
* And Nintendo doesnt adjust prices to PPP either, as shown in the case of Portugal.

* Nintendo has factories producing the Switch 2 in southeast Asia, because its cheaper to make them there. Though, I imagine that they also have factories in Japan, where assembling the Switch is likely more expensive. S PPP may indirectly affect how much it costs to produce a Switch 2.

I literally just explained this. I only brought it up to explain that the Japanese price is not really cheaper than the US. That's it.

I also explicitly said Nintendo did it only for their own people to throw them a bone, and that they're not doing it for anybody else. I never made the argument that PPP adjustments explain the different prices around the world.

And yes, it's no secret countries outside the US get fleeced, including Japan. Almost everything is like that. PPP actually helps to explain how badly one is getting screwed over. The iPhone 16 is $800 here. It's $1.1k in the EU. $1.3k when adjusted for PPP.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Here is the example again:

To use simple numbers, imagine that Nintendo is selling the Switch for 1 and Microsoft is selling the XBox for 1$, and we'll also ignore shipping costs.

If 1 = 1$, then it would cost a Japanese person 1 to buy an XBox, and a person form the US 1$ to buy a Switch.

If the yen is weaker, say 1 = 0.5$, then it would cost a Japanese person 2 to buy an XBox, and it would cost a person from the US 0.5$ to buy a Switch.

A weaker currency makes it more expensive to import things, and cheaper for others from other countries to buy your product. So, once again, a cheaper yen would make the Switch 2 cheaper to buy in other countries, not more expensive!

It makes no sense for a weaker yen to drive the prices of Japanese products up in foreign countries, so that does not explain the 50% markup.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I went back to check my posts, and indeed I did say that the weak Yen should make the Switch more expensive in Japan than overseas, which is obviously wrong. What I really meant to say, as my example above clearly shows, is that a weaker Yen should make the price of the Switch 2 to go down overseas, not up like you claim.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Except it isn't irrelevant. There's a 50% (or more!) increase in the price of the Switch 2 overseas, that simply can't be explained by tariffs (of which there are none in Europe), difference in taxes (14% in the case of Portugal) or by shipping.

The region lock isn't to fight scalpers, it's to prevent regular people from getting the Switch 2 cheaper directly from Japan (and paying for transport!), because Nintendo makes a lot more money if they buy the Switch 2 locally.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Given that you've been bringing Sony into this repeatedly to gaslight, if anything, you clearly just hate Sony.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Yeah, yeah, and you think buying a developer is equivalent to buying another developer that's 10 times bigger.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

And I didn't say you brought in PPP, I pointed out how it was irrelevant to the argument.

Again, PPP is irrelevant because:

• it doesnt affect how much it costs to produce a Switch 2.
• No company is forced to adjust prices to PPP
• And Nintendo doesnt adjust prices to PPP either, as shown in the case of Portugal.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Funny fact: The Switch 2 is only 29 cheaper than what the digital PS5 slim is currently selling for. It's insane.

InfinityMonster posted...

I literally just explained this. I only brought it up to explain that the Japanese price is not really cheaper than the US. That's it.

But it is cheaper.

Sure, you can make the argument that it takes roughly the same amount of effort for someone in Japan to buy it as it does for someone in the US, but that doesn't change the fact that the Switch 2 is substantially cheaper in Japan than in the US. Maybe for the US the 50% increase in price might be justified by Trump shenanigans, but that certainly isn't true for Europe.

Nintendo clearly has a much higher profit margin in Europe, and could still make a tidy profit with a more reasonable price.

Honestly, great move on Nintendo's part. They tend to have shitty business practices, but this is one of the better ones.

MabinogiFan posted...

Probably gonna get a new TV for Switch 2 but IDK what size to get. My chair is about 93 inches away from my current 40" TV so I was thinking of getting a 43". But I've read that from that distance I could get a 55" so I'm not sure.

I ended up going with the 55" inch. Haven't mounted it yet but it should fit on my wall.

Really Nintendo?

Who's the pricing wizard that thought this would be a good idea? :/

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/676b3195.jpg