Nintendo confirms Switch 2 games will have variable pricing

Nintendo says it will adopt variable pricing for games on the Switch 2.

Speaking to The Washington Post, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser was asked about the higher US$79.99 (about C$113) price tag for Mario Kart World, but the US$69.99 (about $100 CAD) cost of Donkey Kong Bananza. (Official Canadian pricing has yet to be revealed.)

“What you see right there is variable pricing,” Bowser told The Washington Post. “We’ll look at each game, really look at the development that’s gone into the game, the breadth and depth of the gameplay, if you will, the durability over time and the repeatability of gameplay experiences. Those are all factors, and there’s many more that go into consideration of what is the right price point for the game. So I think you can anticipate that there will be variable pricing, and we haven’t set a benchmark.”

Historically, “breadth and depth of the gameplay” hasn’t mattered when it comes to the price of a standard AAA game. Instead, companies have generally adhered to the same manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). For current-gen games on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, that’s been US $69.99/C$89.99. Meanwhile, almost all Switch games cost US$59.99/C$79.99, although Nintendo did experiment with US $69.99/C$89.99 pricing for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in 2023. At the time, it just said, “we determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis.”

Many likely assumed Nintendo would adopt the same pricing for Switch 2 games, given that this also aligns with the cost of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S games. After all, the Switch 2’s power still doesn’t quite match those consoles. Unfortunately, though, Nintendo Switch 2 games like Donkey Kong Bananza will probably cost close to $100 in Canada, while the likes of Mario Kart World could possibly reach $110 due to conversion rates.

MobileSyrup has reached out to Nintendo of Canada for official Canadian pricing for Switch 2 games and will update this story once we learn more. In the meantime, the company has confirmed that Switch 2 pre-orders have been delayed in Canada to align with the U.S. The company says the console is still set to launch on June 5 for $629.

For more on the console, check out our hands-on impressions of both the console and its games, as well as our interviews with the main hardware architects and Nintendo of America’s Nate Bihldorff.

Image credit: Nintendo

Source: Nintendo