Nintendo says the Switch won’t follow Sony’s PS5 price hike
Nintendo’s Switch console will not be added to the list of price increases of tech products affected by inflation. The company gave a statement to Eurogamerrepeating what company president Shuntaro Furukawa told shareholders in June, saying it had “no plans to increase the trading price of its hardware”.
Here is the full statement shared with Eurogamer:
“As our President, Mr. Furukawa, stated at the 82nd General Meeting of Shareholders in June:
“While we cannot comment on pricing strategies, we currently have no plans to change the price of our hardware due to inflation or higher purchase costs in each country. We will determine our future pricing strategies through careful and ongoing consultation.’
“While the final price to consumers is always determined by retailers, as Mr. Furukawa said, Nintendo has no plans to increase the retail price of its hardware.”
This comes at the end of a week with a surprising price hike on Sony’s PlayStation 5 console in several regions, including the UK, Europe, Japan, China, Australia, Mexico and Canada. Earlier this month, the $100 price hike of Meta’s Quest 2 VR headset went into effect.
Last week, my colleague Dan Seifert wrote about how the impact of inflation on tech products is already there, but generally harder to spot compared to more widespread supermarket price hikes. He’s still right about that: many companies increase the cost of new products and, in rare cases, of existing products slightly. Whether products are sold at a loss or not, it’s hard to know which gadgets might affect next. But for now, that doesn’t include Nintendo’s Switch.
