I agree.
While many expected $399, paying $50 more isn’t a big deal for the majority of people. However, it’s the perception. Nintendo has branded and marketed itself as the family friendly gaming platform, and breaking that $399 price point for the first time in modern times (aka the last 2 decades) with a $450 price tag is damaging to their image. It opens the door for “You have Switch 1 at home”.
However, the bigger issue is going from $40 games with the 3DS, to $60 games with the Switch, to now “up to” $80 ($90 in some regions) with the Switch 2 is egregious. On top of that some of these games are very old, and instead of launching at a discount they are launching at full price for inferior versions just to have on the go (this part isn’t Nintendo’s fault completely, but cartridges do cost more than disc so…).
Not only that it’s a smack in the face to the rest of the world, to see Japan get a region locked version for basically $350. I live in the US so I can understand the tariff fear mongering excuse of Nintendo and others, but what does that have to do with the rest of the world’s pricing? Charge the US more and keep it $399 for everyone else, because clearly you can do it if you wanted to. Meanwhile, you’re selling a Switch 2 for more than a PS5 digital bundle, and a Switch 2 Mario Kart bundle for $500.
It might suck to their financial team, but being too greedy has almost NEVER worked for a company and back fired in their faces especially in the console gaming industry.
Switch 2 could have easily been $399 with at most $70 games, and people wouldn’t have liked it, but it wouldn’t have caused this level of outrage.
It is absolutely dastardly and diabolical that the Switch and Switch OLED are still $299 and $349 this late into the generation using decade old hardware at this point (Tegra X1 was 2014/2015), both devices should have had a $50 price drop down to $249 / $299 in 2024, or at the very least just before the announcement of the Switch 2 or during the announcement (Switch Lite is fine, but even that could have gone from $199 down to $179).
It’s corporate greed, it’s Corporate Greed, it’s CORPORATE GREED.