Nintendo’s Switch console won’t be counted among the price-hiked tech products affected by inflation.
So the company stated to Eurogamer, reiterating what company president Shuntaro Furukawa informed shareholders in June, saying it had “no plans to raise the trade price of its hardware.”
Here’s the complete statement shared,
“As our president, Mr. Furukawa stated at the 82nd Annual General Meeting of Stakeholders in June:
‘While we cannot comment on pricing strategies, we currently do not have any plans to change the price of our hardware due to inflation or increased procurement costs in each country. However, careful and continued deliberations will determine our future pricing strategies.’
“While the final price to consumers is always determined by retailers, as Mr. Furukawa stated, Nintendo has no plans to increase the trade price of its hardware.”
It comes at the tail end of a week that saw a surprise price increase on Sony’s PlayStation 5 console in several regions, including the UK, Europe, Japan, China, Australia, Mexico, and Canada. In addition, earlier this month, the $100 price increase of Meta’s Quest 2 VR headset went into effect.
Last week, our associate Dan Seifert wrote about how the influence of inflation on tech products is already here but is generally harder to spot compared to more widespread price hikes at the grocery store. He’s still right about that — many companies are slightly bumping up the cost of new products and, in rare instances, preexisting products. Whether products are selling at a loss, it isn’t easy to know what gadgets might impact next. But for now, that won’t include Nintendo’s Switch.
The Nintendo Switch is a game video console designed by Nintendo and released worldwide on March 3, 2017. The console is a tablet that can be docked for use as a home console or as a portable instrument, pushing it into a hybrid console. In addition, its wireless Joy-Con controllers, with standard switches and directional analog sticks for user input, motion sensing, and tactile feedback, can hook to both sides of the console to reinforce handheld-style play.
They can also connect to a grasp accessory to deliver a traditional home console gamepad form or be used separately in hand, like the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, sustaining local multiplayer modes. In addition, the Nintendo Switch’s software keeps online gaming through Internet connectivity and limited wireless ad hoc connectivity with other consoles. Nintendo Switch games and software are open on bodily flash-based ROM cartridges and digital distribution via Nintendo eShop; the design has no region lockout.
A handheld-focused modification of the system, the Nintendo Switch Lite, was released on September 20, 2019. An altered higher-end version of the original design, featuring an OLED screen, was unleashed on October 8, 2021.
The Nintendo Switch was revealed on October 20, 2016. Known in action by its codename NX, the concept of the Switch reached about as Nintendo’s reaction to various quarters of financial losses in 2014 attributed to poor sales of its earlier console, the Wii U, and demand competition from mobile games. As a result, Nintendo’s then-president, Satoru Iwata, drove the company towards mobile games and new hardware.
The Nintendo Switch’s layout is aimed at a wide demographic of video game participants through multiple modes of use. As a result, Nintendo opted to use more standard electronic components, such as a chipset established on Nvidia’s Tegra line, to make the console easier for programmers and more compatible with current game engines.
As the Wii U had labored to gain external support, leaving it with a weak software library, Nintendo preemptively pursued the permission of many third-party developers and publishers. It is to assist in constructing the Switch’s game library alongside Nintendo’s first-party titles, including many independent video game studios. While Nintendo initially predicted around 100 titles for its first year, over 320 titles from first-party, third-party, and autonomous developers were released by the end of 2017.
As an eighth-generation console, the Nintendo Switch competes with Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4. Nearly three million console units were shipped in its first month, exceeding Nintendo’s initial projection of two million. Within a year of release, it achieved over 14 million units sold worldwide, outselling total lifetime sales of the Wii U.
By 2018, the Switch became the fastest-selling home or hybrid console in Japan and the United States. As of June 2022, all Nintendo Switch models have sold over 111 million units globally, making it Nintendo’s best-selling home console and the fifth-best-selling game console of all spans.