Two days after the Nintendo Direct event where the company announced the pre-order window and price of the highly anticipated Switch 2, I was picking up some things from the mall. Since I’m the video game reviewer for Houston Press, I stopped into GameStop to ask for details of the April 9 pre-order launch.
“There aren’t any,” said the manager, who asked not to be named. “That guy’s stupid tariffs got it cancelled. We literally just got the notice from corporate. So many people are going to be pissed.”
April 2 was both Nintendo Direct and what President Donald Trump called Liberation Day. As fans tuned in to see the upcoming line-up for games on the new system, Trump announced sweeping tax increases on imported goods from nations all across the globe, with a base of 10 percent. The formula was allegedly AI-generated and badly so, which explains why tariffs were levied against islands inhabited only by penguins for instance. However, Japan also saw a 24 percent tariff.
That tariff had immediate consequences for Nintendo, who cancelled their American pre-order set for April 9 on April 4. The company was already under fire for the price of the Switch 2: $449. The original Switch launched at $299 in 2017 ($393.76 adjusted for inflation). A new baseline Sony PlayStation 5 retails at $399, and while the Switch 2 is more powerful than its predecessor in terms of graphical fidelity and processing power it is more comparable to a PlayStation 4.
The comparison isn’t totally fair. Switch 2 will be able to run some intense third-party games like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Elden Ring, just not at 60 or 120 frames per second. For a handheld system dedicated mostly to Nintendo’s stellar first-party games which don’t aim for photorealism it’s incredible, but $449 as the economy tumbles because of Trump’s economic policies is asking a lot of gamers. Increasing the price to $556 because of a 24 percent tariff would likely doom the system in the American market for all but Nintendo diehards.
Within a week, Trump began backpedaling on some of his trade war initiatives. On April 11, the Trump Administration paused some of its tariffs, including electronics. Most coverage of the pause focused on PCs and smartphones, but it includes the Switch 2. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the pause was only temporary, but it seems to have been enough for Nintendo to pull the trigger on a new pre-order window: this Thursday, April 24. Outlets like GameStop and BestBuy are anticipating big crowds as gamers rush to secure systems while they can.
Video game consoles aren’t like many other products. They rarely go on sale, often maintaining their original price points for years after launch. The cost of a system becomes part of its branding, a complicated matrix of declaration of value and regard for the consumers’ pocketbooks. For all intents and purposes, a console’s price is fixed in stone like a divine order.
It also serves to establish market dominance. Almost all video game consoles are sold at a loss so the manufacturers can lock in a player base. Nintendo has the advantage in a few areas because they are the sole source of many intellectual properties like Mario and The Legend of Zelda, and they have generations of trust in the industry. However, the Switch competes directly with the Steam deck and other gaming tablets, some of which get faster access to the growing indie game scene that Nintendo is actively courting. There’s a reason Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong were both announced at Nintendo Direct alongside games like Mario Kart World.
Wild market fluctuations are especially bad for the video game industry because this balance is delicate. If the pause ends in the near future while gamers are already reluctantly paying $449 for the Switch 2, Nintendo will have to either break faith and raise the price or curtail the number of systems it sends stateside to avoid catastrophic losses.
My personal guess is they’ll do the second if Trump resumes his tariffs on electronics. During COVID-19, both Sony and Microsoft suffered during the launches of the PlayStation 5 and XBox X/S because of severe chip shortages from China. It was months before the shortages were fixed, leading to a slow, sloppy start for the new generation of consoles. That situation is only just now fully recovered, but it likely set game development back years as everyone in the industry struggled to catch up.
Like all game console manufacturers, Nintendo heavily relies on China for parts and assembly. The company has sought to diversify and move some of their processes, but dealing with China to make any kind of consumer electronics is a virtual necessity in 2025. Since China remains the largest target of the Trump Administration, as well as a powerful country able to reciprocate in a trade war, it’s probable that extended trade war with China is going to increase prices one way or another.
Another wrinkle is the fact that Nintendo is now shipping Switch 2 systems from Vietnam rather than China. The company started moving manufacturing there in 2019 specifically because of Trump’s threats of tariffs on China during his first term. Thousands of units are already in the U.S., but Vietnam is one of the Liberation Day targets. In fact, they have even steeper tariffs than Japan at 46 percent. Any hope to fully sidestep Trump’s tariffs from the Land of the Blue Dragon is likely lost.
Nintendo continues to rely on cartridge technology as opposed to discs, and the cartridges are mostly made in Japan according to the CEO of Serenity Forge. Full package assembly may take place elsewhere depending on the publisher and market, but the core of the game is mostly under Japan’s control unlike discs, many of which are made in Trump’s other favorite target, Mexico.
Game pricing is very contentious right now. Nintendo’s announcement that Triple A games would retail at $80 set gamers’ on edge, especially just four years after the industry announced a widespread $10 increase to $70. It’s contributing to a growing wealth gap in gaming that divides players from each other based on economic status.
Even if the tariffs on all physical games are just the base 10 percent that Trump levied against the world, it will drive the price even higher. Buying digital is no escape, either. The prices between physical games and digital ones are the same, at least at launch. Major increases to one form spill over to others. Gamers who are mad about $80 base games now should prepare themselves for $90 or $100 if Trump’s trade war continues.
Remember, Nintendo is selling the Switch 2 at a loss. They can’t afford to do the same for the games themselves, and first-party games are where Nintendo makes a lot of money. Something will give, and if gamemakers start seeing bigger pricetags on the Switch 2 they’ll put those same pricetags on other systems, or vice versa. Conversely, if Sony and Microsoft have to jack up prices because of disc tariffs, Nintendo will as well, at least to match third-party games.
One way or the other, the Trump tariffs have made the business model of the Switch 2 far less stable. Game consoles need stability so that gamers continue to invest in them through buying titles. With almost nonsensical tariffs threatening every pricing model and profitability margin, who knows what the actual launch on June 5 will look like. What is near-certain is what that manager told me: people are going to be pissed.
