Why are Switch 2 games so expensive? Trump’s tariffs may not be the only factor

On Wednesday’s revelation about the Switch 2, Nintendo caused a lot of buzz around its successor to the Switch. However, the shocking point is the high price of its games. There is a lot of chaos, especially about President Donald Trump’s tariffs on many trading partners, including Japan.

Following Direct Direct, Nintendo has released all details of the upcoming consoles and games on its website. The Mario Kart World price shocked gamers and led to some disdain, as the $80 retail price is $10 more than most new games today. This has led many to wonder if this is due to Trump’s tariffs or if Nintendo is just greedy, whether it will become the new normal. However, the answer may be completely different.

Is the Nintendo Switch 2 game price hiking?

First, some details need to be cleared. Some people posted on social media the price of Nintendo’s Switch 2 game, at least $90 in the United States. As of now, this is incorrect.

One X user released 2 Mario Kart World’s Switch 2 EU price, with a digital version of 80 euros and a physical copy of 90 euros. Typically, the price of the game in the United States and the European Union matches, which leads some to think that this pricing is American.

However, U.S. retailers have released their Switch 2 game prices, while Nintendo’s list of games published is $80.

Will Trump’s tariffs make the Switch 2 more costly?

As for Trump’s tariffs, it is unlikely to be the driving force for this price increase. Tariffs do not apply to digital goods, and Japan does not have tariffs when prices are published. In addition, games are also expensive in other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom.

With this clearance, why is Nintendo games so expensive on Switch 2? One possible reason is game storage.

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The Switch 2 uses what Nintendo calls the game key card, which is the Switch 2 cartridges that don’t have all the game data on the cartridge itself. This helps save production costs because storage is expensive. The original switch cartridges hit 32GB of storage, which doesn’t seem to be much today, and some games take up 100GB or more of storage, but this is for the original switch. Only a few games (such as the Witcher 3) have exceeded 32GB, because the Switch’s graphics are not on the high end, such as PC, PS5, or Xbox series consoles, where the Witcher 3 installation size starts at 50GB.

The Switch 2 game will be larger in size – no doubt. CD Projekt Red confirmed that it will put its Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition on a 64GB cartridge and that there may be other games over 64GB. As the maximum size of the cartridge size doubles, it increases the price of the physical card, because the storage must not only be larger, but also requires data transfer faster. Unlike discs, this physical copy may become more expensive, while discs are still the same, whether it is having 20GB or 100GB on discs.

What does this mean for gamers?

This leads to the publisher’s dilemma: put the entire game on a physical card and sell it at a loss, and use the full game to increase the price of the physical copy on it, or use the game key card to own the card with minimal storage space, requiring gamers to download the entire game.

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It seems that Nintendo went with the second door. It’s not surprising to know the company. Anyone who wants to save on games knows that Nintendo rarely lowers the price of its own games. For example, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is 8 years old and is still the full price on Nintendo website.

According to industry analysis by Niko Partners, this new pricing could become the new normal for physical cartridges in a few years.

“Although the gaming price increases from $60 to $70 or $80, these prices will become industry standards over the next two years, especially for Nintendo first-party games, which will become industry standards,” Niko Partners said in a statement Wednesday. “One of the reasons for the higher prices is the increased cost of the new and faster gaming cards themselves, with higher manufacturing capabilities than the PS5 Blu-ray disc.”

Nintendo did not respond to a request for comment about its higher priced game.

That said, this does not explain the lower prices of donkey bananas released in July. This is listed on Nintendo’s website for $70. This may mean that the game does not use a larger memory card, but this is not sure until the game is released. It is not clear how things will change in the future.