Fears are growing among gamers that the cost of the Nintendo Switch 2 could rise to an eye-watering price.
This is due to the new tariffs put in place by President Donald Trump, which he announced at the White House yesterday (April 2).
On that same day, Nintendo unveiled a closer look at its highly anticipated Switch 2 that is due to be released later this year.
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After much anticipation, the console will finally be available to purchase on June 5th for the price of $449.99.
The original Switch, which was first released back in 2017, launched at $299.99 and remained at that price for years.
However, things could have changed for the second version of the Switch after Trump spoke to the press at the White House Rose Garden.
There, he announced an extensive series of tariffs impacting countries around the world and, unfortunately for Nintendo, this includes countries where it builds its consoles.
Now, gamers are worried that these tariffs, which are up to 49%, could end up hitting consumers’ pockets in the US.
Due to this, some people have raised concerns that the Switch 2 could end up costing buyers upwards of $550.
On Reddit, one user wrote: “Not trying to get political but I thought it was important to the price discussion. Some insiders are saying the new tariffs could push the price upwards of 550 dollars.
“Switches are primarily made in China, which now has a 51% tariff and Vietnam, which has a 46% tariff.”
This prompted a response from another user, who said: “$550, instead of playing games I’ll be forced to watch a YouTube ‘let’s play’ for free then.”
A third commented: “I do recall Nintendo saying some months ago that they were ‘preparing for tariffs’, so these prices might just be some early foresight by Nintendo, and it’s affecting other countries since of course Nintendo is not gonna make stuff cheaper in the UK compared to the US.”
Another user agreed, writing: “It’s much easier to announce a high price at launch vs telling us a price and then saying, oops nevermind it’s gonna be $600. I think the current $450 price tag is the inflated price because of the tariffs.”
Time will tell whether Nintendo do change the pricing for the Switch 2 and, of course, there’s every chance that these tariffs could be delayed or altered before they impact the new console.