Thoughts on Nintendo delaying Switch 2 preorders in US to “assess tariffs and market conditions”

[Plainbluetees]

Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders in U.S. delayed over Trump's tariffs

The fallout from the president's far-reaching tariffs trickles all the way down to video games.

www.nbcnews.com

It’s been announced that Switch 2 is no longer going to be available for pre-order on April 9th in the USA because Nintendo needs to re-assess market conditions and the president’s new tariffs. However, they promise to keep the original release date.

What are your guys’ thoughts on this?? I’m concerned that the already steep console price is going to go up. I was only considering buying it, but only if/when a new Animal Crossing is announced. But a potential price hike might make me reconsider that.

 

[-Apples-]

I don’t want this console to be a failure because of some trade war started by an immature, fame-hungry dictator.

I have no plans to pre-order a Switch 2 this time. I won’t collect as many games as I did for the previous Switch.

 

[AccfSally]

Lame. I wasn't planning to pre-odered it, I have no intention of buying one until there's a game I want to play on it. My old Switch is fine for now, I just need to get the joycons and 'A' button repaired.

Shame for everyone who is excited here in the US for it, but now going to have to wait thanks to the trainwreck that's going on right now.

 

[nightglow]

I think they are planning to increase the prices.

Basically, the impression I have is, Nintendo is waiting to see how the tariff war between Japan and the United States turns out. If Japan drops all tariffs, then the United States will drop theirs too. If that happens, Nintendo will probably keep the initial prices they had for the United States. I don't think they will lower the costs of anything if the tariffs are 0.

If Japan and the United States cannot find an agreement, then Nintendo will raise the prices accordingly to how the tariff is decided to pass the costs to the consumer, understandably.. but I don't know how well they will actually sell their units.
Edited to add..
Maybe they won't even send any over if the tariffs are really high. It costs less to send larger amounts of something to another country vs smaller amounts. And the units of consoles or physical games would be at risk of theft.
I highly doubt that Nintendo would do production here. I did see someone in YouTube mention that in 2019, that sony Nintendo and one other banned together to get tariff exemptions on video game related stuff and the Trump administration was perfectly fine with that.

 

[Holla]

I feel really bad for Americans right now. So far the Switch 2 is not being impacted in Canada due to this thankfully but I know of so many upset Americans as the price was already quite expensive in general.

Many were blaming the high price on tariffs already on the initial pricing, but I knew that wasn’t the case as the price of the Switch 2 in Canada is comparable to the initial US price once you consider the exchange ($630 CAD) and that already hurts as it is.

I hope prices don’t further go up for Americans but I honestly don’t know what will happen from here.

 

[matt]

The price is bad enough now - the existing price tag on switch and playstation 5 games puts me off already, I certainly won't be paying £70+ for games.

Just paid £60 for atomfall on ps5 it's the first game I've bought in about 3 years more than £40

 

[Croconaw]

They are definitely planning on raising the price. I was actually going to place my pre-order on Wednesday, but it looks like I’ll have to wait.

It’ll be interesting to see how much the price increases.

 

[Aznoth]

I'll probably still preorder the switch 2 even if the price goes up due to the tariffs. I'm just going to bank on Nintendo giving some sort of compensation to those who ordered early if the price manages to go back down to something more affordable.

 

[Hyoon]

i already wasn't planning to buy the switch 2 anytime soon so them raising the price won't mean anything to me. i know the tariffs isn't nintendo's fault but it doesn't change my view that they have been always been greedy so a little part of me wants to see the switch 2 to fail so that hopefully people don't see $80 games as the norm.

 

[a potato]

I don’t like this timeline! I’m expecting a $50-100 increase, but I’m really curious to see how the sales are. I’m still planning to preorder, though. Honestly, I feel really bad for them. They had the best possible timing for the ACNH release, and the absolute worst time for this. With how much discourse was already going on surrounding the (admittedly high) original price, this isn’t doing them any favors.

 

[ShawnFuzz]

I voted no because I am trying to be more optimistic in life. I tend to be pessimistic, contradictive, cynical, and generally doubtful.

But THIS time I am being upbeat!!! (But it doesn't look good.... )

 

[Snek]

Lately, Nintendo has been finding ways to make everything expensive. Its very disheartening. I need to save money anyway so maybe this will work out for the better.

 

[Snap Crackle Pop]

I think that Nintendo will increase the price due to the tariffs sadly but people seem to think Nintendo ships their consoles from Japan to the USA when they manufacture most of their games/consoles in Vietnam. Japans tariff rate is 24% compared to Vietnams now 46% (previously it was lower which is why Nintendo manufactured out of Vietnam.) I am not sure how much it will increase in price but I told myself if the console is 600+ dollars I will hold off but I think if its a 50 dollar increase only I will consider but if its $100 increase I will wait. I'm sad about it, but all we can do now is wait and see.

 

[Holla]

Canada has just been told our preorders are also being delayed. Not for the same reason as the US however. They just want to wait and make our preorders available at the same time as the US. There was a lot of concern of Americans buying up the Canadian orders when we already get less due to our smaller population size. So while inconvenient it’s a smart move in the long run.

 

[a potato]

Canada has just been told our preorders are also being delayed. Not for the same reason as the US however. They just want to wait and make our preorders available at the same time as the US. There was a lot of concern of Americans buying up the Canadian orders when we already get less due to our smaller population size. So while inconvenient it’s a smart move in the long run.

If they weren’t pushed back, I can’t begin to imagine how chaotic it would be. That said, sorry for the frustration that will follow.

 

[-Raven-]

I thought AU $700 was bad and to me it still isn’t worth it whatsoever, but at this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if the console was close enough to US $700 over there. Seeing almost the same number on the price tag + tax, unconverted would be crazy. I’m so sorry, it’s terrible and while gaming is far from the only thing that will be impacted like this I never thought I’d see the day. How the heck is Aus the one getting a “good” deal on gaming relative to America for once?

Frankly the availability of hobby products is something I was always incredibly jealous of America for- I spoke about this with a friend last week or something, the only time I really got to enjoy something like that and didn’t feel guilty about buying for my hobbies was in the early 2010’s when our dollar outdid USD. That friend collects hobby figures he gets for around US $20 a pop and I genuinely just have to dream about things like that becuase shipping on its own is exhorbitant. Nothing is simply available here like in the USA without paying premiums for the tiniest things. Branded hoodies are AU $70 and shipping on things like basic blankets can be AU $60. I gave up on buying card packs for certain things because the shipping was going to be AU $40. Yes I mean for random openable card packs. You’d think you could just fit them in an envelope and then assume they’d be $15 or $20 tops to ship out?

I remember back in the day I could get international shipping for AU $5-10 on similar items and I wasn’t bemoaning the process to get things to my country and knock on effects from other countries and customs making everything so expensive. Back in the day royal mail UK to Aus was absolutely godly and sometimes faster than local, US to AU $60 would have made me balk and now I expect It on anything I would want. From what I hear in the US worrying about things like that just wasn’t a thing. Your government is throwing away that strength your country had and this is really just symptomatic of that and governments scheming for increased isolationism, which is a net negative. Things are going to get worse for everything and everywhere.

I’m done with consoles of all sorts, but genuinely very curious to see how this console does across all markets. I’ve been following gaming forums/posts on this console way more than I was expecting to, I thought it was just gonna be an obvious conclusion for me and I’d move right on but I want to see how much people will prioritise this next to other expenses in practice.

 

[Jhine7]

I voted for yes, it will be more expensive. However now that tariffs have been paused for 90 days, hopefully the original price will stay put. $450 was more than I expected, but I’m willing to pay it. Now just need the pre-orders to come back

 

[matt]

I voted for yes, it will be more expensive. However now that tariffs have been paused for 90 days, hopefully the original price will stay put. $450 was more than I expected, but I’m willing to pay it. Now just need the pre-orders to come back

Surely that'll mean the price will go up after launch meaning people will start buying from Canadian stocks?

 

[corlee1289]

It is likely going to make the consoles even more expensive and push it even further out of people's affordable price range. Already as it is, it is very expensive and people's wages have not kept up with the market

 

[a potato]

So many people don’t understand how tariffs work or what profit margins are. If the tariffs did stand, they wouldn’t be 46% (for Vietnam) of the MSRP, it’s on the import value. And that’s assuming tariffs aren’t already factored into the margin, which exists in part to, you know, help protect against price fluctuations in unstable economic times.

I’ve seen someone attempt to calculate a potential new MSRP for physical games based on a flat 46% increase, as well, causing Mario Kart to go up to about $120. I chuckled when I saw it.