Earlier this week, Nintendo released their annual financial report which confirmed that their Switch system (originally released back in 2017) had finally become the third best-selling console of all time. With that being said, however, it was hard to deny that while this might have been the silver lining, there was still a very notable dark cloud lurking in the Mushroom Kingdom sky. – Namely, while the Switch undoubtedly cemented its place as one of the most popular consoles of all time, sales of it had fallen quite significantly over the course of 2022.
At this point though, it’s hard to say what Nintendo can do really before the release of their next console (which isn’t expected for another circa 18 months). You would think that most people who were going to buy one probably already have by this point. – The only last resource left for Nintendo, in the grand scheme of things, is to drop the price in a final effort to attract those who would potentially consider it as a casual purchase.
Following a report via Eurogamer, however, Nintendo has categorically confirmed that there are no plans to discount the Switch any further!
Despite the fact that the Switch is now nearly 6 years old, Nintendo has always been highly-resistant when it has come to lowering the price tag. Yes, there have been retail sales or bundle deals on occasion, but the official MSRP has always been held at £299 for the original model and £309 for the OLED revision. – The problem though is that up until last year, demand for the Switch was still incredibly high. It was, without a doubt, one of the biggest winners during the ‘lockdown’ period.
Speaking in an interview on the subject, however, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa still seems adamant that they will continue to maintain these MSRPs moving into 2023. And yes, despite the fact that sales will undoubtedly falter even harder this year than they did in 2022.
“As we continue the Nintendo Switch business over the long term, we have tried to preserve the value and prices of both hardware and software as much as possible. We do not believe that policy needs to be changed at this point.”
With that being said, however, I daresay that by the Summer Nintendo will be fully aware of how well (or poorly) the Switch is doing with consumers. Additionally, it’s impossible to ignore the strong probability that they might just be holding the current prices until the release of the new Zelda title this May. You know, just to see how much this boosts system sales. You do, however, start to suspect that sooner or later Nintendo is going to have to blink on this price point.
What do you think though? – Let us know in the comments!
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