Nintendo officially increasing Switch and Switch Online prices north of the border, is the U.S. next?

Ahead of the Switch 2 launch in the wake of Trump’s ugly tariff situation, analysts sent shockwaves through the gaming world after suggesting the price of the next-gen Nintendo console might end up being even higher than Nintendo initially revealed. Nintendo held the fort and stayed strong on the $449 and $499 launch prices nonetheless, but it still remains to be seen if it will remain steadfast into 2026, especially considering Nintendo Canada just officially announced what sounds a lot like hardware price hikes. 

Before you get too worried, the official press release that went out today was specifically from Nintendo Canada and only applies to consoles sold up north. It also specifically mentions that the pricing changes do not apply to the Switch 2 system. 

Here’s exactly what Nintendo Canada had to say today:

Pricing for the original Nintendo Switch™ family of systems and products in Canada will change based on market conditions. These include Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite, physical and digital Nintendo Switch games and Nintendo Switch accessories. Other Nintendo products, including amiibo and Nintendo Switch Online memberships will also experience price changes. Please note: This pricing change does not apply to the Nintendo Switch 2 system, accessories, or software. 

The statement doesn’t mention the actual new prices, it in fact doesn’t even specifically mention price increases, but I think we can all read through the lines here. Clearly price hikes are inbound for the Canadian market on what sounds like all of the previous-generation Nintendo console hardware and Switch Online, among other things. 

Pricing information specific to the Canadian market will be shared at www.nintendo.com/en-ca/store/ on 8/1.

The question is by how much and, perhaps more importantly, if this is some kind of an indication of what’s to come for Switch 2 in the U.S.

Analysts previously suggested Nintendo was making very little profit on Switch 2 at the prices it launched at, and perhaps even selling them at a loss. How long is Nintendo going to run its business this way? There is a chance we see it shovel the difference off to other markets just to appease its biggest one – make other countries pay higher prices so it doesn’t have to raise the price in U.S. – but it’s hard to say for sure. 

I’m no economics major or market financial analyst, but game prices are already going up, Nintendo has already announced the slightly discounted Mario Kart World Switch 2 bundle was a limited run (its $30 less than buying the console and the game separately), and it would seem that Nintendo might have to make adjustments at some point, and potentially here in the U.S. 

Scoring one now, if you haven’t already, is starting to sound like a good idea to me. 

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