Nintendo’s Switch 2 momentum is still strong, but the console is about to become more expensive in the US — and yes, this is the kind of move Malaysian gamers should watch closely.
According to Nintendo’s latest earnings report, the company is increasing the US price of the Switch 2 by US$50, bringing it up to US$500. That works out to roughly RM2.3k before local taxes, retailer margins, shipping, or any Malaysia-specific pricing changes. Nintendo pointed to rising memory costs and US tariff measures as key reasons behind the higher price.
To be clear, this is not as brutal as the PlayStation 5’s price climb over the past year, which Engadget notes has gone up by US$150. But Nintendo is in a different lane. The Switch audience includes a lot of younger players, families, students, and more casual buyers — basically the exact crowd that notices every extra RM100 when choosing between a console, a phone upgrade, or a semester’s worth of makan money.
For Malaysia and SEA, the bigger concern is not just the US price itself. Console pricing here often gets influenced by supply, import costs, currency movement, and what grey-market sellers think they can charge. Even if Nintendo has not announced a Malaysia-specific price change in this report, a higher US benchmark can still affect parallel import pricing and launch-bundle behaviour in our region. If you were waiting for Switch 2 prices to settle down, this news is not exactly comforting.
The price hike comes after a massive first year for the console. Nintendo shipped 2.49 million Switch 2 units in the latest quarter, pushing total shipments to 19.86 million units across just three quarters of its previous fiscal year. That is a seriously strong start, especially for a system that had to follow one of the most successful consoles ever made.
But Nintendo is now guiding lower for the next fiscal year, forecasting 16.5 million Switch 2 units sold. Some analysts reportedly expected a number above 20 million because of how hot the launch was, so this forecast feels cautious. Nintendo, however, described 16.5 million as a solid second-year adoption level for the Switch 2.
Software is doing a lot of heavy lifting too. Nintendo sold 185.62 million software units across Switch and Switch 2, up from 155.41 million Switch-only software units in FY2025. The big hitters include Mario Kart World at 14.7 million units, Pokemon Legends: Z-A at 8.5 million, and Donkey Kong Bananza at 4.5 million. On the movie side, the Super Mario Galaxy film has already grossed more than US$800 million in its first four weeks.
Financially, Nintendo had a monster year. Revenue for fiscal 2026 jumped 98.6 percent year-on-year to 2.3 trillion yen, or about US$14.7 billion. That is nearly double the previous year’s 1.16 trillion yen, around US$7.4 billion. Still, the company expects revenue to fall by about 11.4 percent next year, even while operating profit may improve slightly thanks to stronger software sales.
The key line for hardware buyers is Nintendo’s forecasted extra cost of around 100 billion yen, tied mainly to memory component prices and tariff measures. In simple gamer terms: chips and trade costs are squeezing console margins, and players may end up absorbing some of that pain.
For Malaysian fans, the smart move is to watch local pricing over the next few months before panic-buying. If official Malaysia pricing stays stable, bagus. But if import shops start adjusting upwards, the Switch 2 may become a tougher sell for budget-conscious players — especially when the original Switch library is still huge and second-hand units remain tempting.
Source: Engadget