Thanks to Donald Trump, gaming is becoming a seriously expensive hobby.
Nintendo has joined Microsoft and Sony as the latest company to raise the price of its console, after jacking up the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 globally, citing “changes in market conditions” as its rationale.
Nintendo also anticipates slower sales due to its new $500 price, up $50 from $449.99, which officially goes into effect on September 1.
Canada also saw a $50 price increase ($679.99, up from $629.99), and in Europe, € 40, raising the hybrid console’s price to €499.99 (about $587).
Japanese gamers will feel the sting of these price increases sooner, as they go into effect beginning May 25, for other Switch products.
Per The Verge:
The Switch 2 will increase from ¥49,980 (about $318) to ¥59,980 (about $382), with similar increases being applied to the original Switch, Switch OLED, and Switch Lite models.
Other price hikes will also impact Japanese Nintendo customers, with sweeping increases to Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions and uncapped pricing for playing cards also due to take effect on May 2May 25
In a statement shared with its financial earnings, Nintendo said: “The impact of various changes in market conditions is expected to extend over the medium to long term.”
“We sincerely apologize for the impact these price revisions may have on our customers and other stakeholders, and we deeply appreciate your understanding.”
Things Aren’t Any Better Over at Sony
Sony, which recently raised the price of its PS5 console by $100, announced that console sales had plummeted, revealing that only 1.5 million PS5 consoles were sold in its most recent fourth fiscal quarter, down 46 percent year over year.
The company says its current slump and price hikes are a direct result of “continued pressures in the global economic landscape,” specifically, Trump’s stupid and unjust war with Iran and the memory crisis.
Sony expects annual gaming revenue to drop 6 percent and could be further impacted as memory prices continue to rise.
We plan to base our PS5 hardware sales in FY26 on the volume of memory we can procure at reasonable prices, and we expect hardware profitability to be essentially the same as FY25.”
It’s not looking any better for Xbox, which also saw its hardware revenue nosedive 33 percent year over year and its Xbox content and services revenue drop 5 percent.
Bruh.
These price increases more than likely wouldn’t be happening if Kamala Harris were president, just saying.
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