Nintendo Switch 2 Direct April 2, 2025

Kikki · Post Posted: Apr 02, 2025 9:30 am

Gaming is really the only thing I spend money on, other than rent and food and gasoline...and the occasional purchase of some crafting supply like markers or paper. I'll squeeze out the money for the things I most want, though I AM worried about that game pricing. It sounds like digital games are $20 USD more than before. That's an increase of 40%

!!!

I assume then that CAD prices will also see a 40% increase, so somewhere around $110-115. (Without tax, of course.)

That's absolutely wild. Prices DID need to go up for games. Everything is so much more expensive for the dev companies, so their prices have to go up, too. Cost of living, everything...way up. It was inevitable. But 40% is a lot more than I thought. I thought it'd go up $10 USD like TotK...that games would probably all be $90 digital, in CAD.

It's a bit horrifying. That's a bigger concern to me than the console price. You pay that once and have it for a decade. The price hike in the games themselves is what is crushing.

The sale shopping is going to get even more intense than it has been the past year or two, for everyone, I think. And people are going to get more choosy. This is going to make it harder for companies to make money, so...I dunno. I think this big a price increase may be shooting themselves in the foot. Guess we'll see!

This may make me get more games on Steam, where sales are frequent and huge, and may not see the same price increase. Well. Well, well! Dunno.

Still getting the S2, though. Not sure if I'll go through with a pre-order, but I saw no harm in registering my interest, since I'm the only one in my family who qualifies (I'm the only one who has purchased NSO, and we all belong to my family group.)

EDIT: Oh wait...IS that a 40% increase on the USD price? Were games...$60? um then that's actually a 33% increase. Though I'm not sure of the US prices, tbh. But if that's right, then the likely CAD price will be about $5 lower than I said. Slightly better, but still a pretty big hike when I was thinking more like 15%

Kikki · Post Posted: Apr 04, 2025 1:49 pm

Hmm, so...tariffs. Pre-orders delayed in the US. Nintendo of Canada has directly confirmed that pre-orders are NOT delayed in Canada, which MAY mean that our price is not going to change. (No guarantee of that, though.)

Or maybe it's not about price, maybe it's something else. I'd hate to think the price could be even higher. Though I still say the price of the console is the least of our worries. Even if it's one or two hundred higher than desirable, it's a one-time price. Pay it and then the item is used for 8 years. (That's how long I used my launch Switch, no upgrades, no servicing.) Those extra 1-2 hundred dollars no longer mean much, if anything. Wait an extra month or two to save up for whatever cost went above expectations.

But super high GAME prices...that's different. That's a price increase you pay every single time you buy a game from then onward. The price may even ripple out and affect game pricing on other platforms.

I'm still not clear on if $70 USD is going to be the standard new AAA price, or if it's just for Mario Kart and select other first party games.

JustABeautifulGuy · Post Posted: Apr 04, 2025 4:08 pm

Nintendo's probably scrambling a lot right now.

First, they got immediate bad PR after the Direct regarding the prices. Viral social media posts and videos on Youtube with millions of views dragging and calling them greedy and so on. The Treehouse livestreams were raided with drop the price spam in the chat. Then, all this sudden another tariffs situation happens.

Very unfortunate timing for this console's release imo. I'm sure they're going to get over this extremely rocky start but who knows... it really might end up becoming another Wii U situation.

PaleSunflower · Post Posted: Apr 04, 2025 8:11 pm

Some people are hoping it's more like the 3DS than the WiiU. The not-great response to the console results in a significant price drop. I don't think it'll be like the 3DS (which dropped around a forth in price), but fans can dream. I certainly wouldn't mind that to be the case.

This isn't a great time to dropping a new console, is it? It kind of feels like the whole world has been facing economic uncertainty recently, so Nintendo being about to release a console that has garnered at least a reputation for being expensive is going to be a big headache for them regardless. Even in the world where the Switch 2 and its games are 100% reasonably and comfortably priced for customer and creators alike, with the price of necessaries going up in many places, many people are going to have less money for entertainment such as video games.

The Switch 2 starting with over half of its games being either ports or releases from other platforms will really set it back against the competition, too. The Steam Deck in particular has been out long enough for a secondhand market to have formed. Looking at Ebay, I can easily get a used Steam Deck for less than $400. In other words, I can get a comparable handheld console for less money with a bigger game catalogue, famous periodic discounts on said catalogue, and the base price of many games in that catalogue being cheaper than $70 without a sale. The Switch 2 doesn't have a lot of exclusives at the moment, which really doesn't help it here.

On the topic of having few exclusives, the bold choice to have many of the Switch 2's launch titles have Switch 1 ports being released on the same day (or is it the other way around - a bunch of launch titles for the Switch 2 actually being ports of Switch 1 games) kind of makes me wonder whether Nintendo themselves aren't sure about the Switch 2. I looked up the announced games on Nintendo's US website for the Switch 2. I found 7 exclusives (ignoring the "Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour" which is basically just a fancy manual). Out of those 7, only 2 will be available to the Switch 2 on release, with those being "Survival Kids" and "Mario Kart World". (I could count "Survival Kids" as a expanded remake of the GameBoy Color game of the same name, but I'm going to count it as a sequel for now.) Everything else is either a port, rerelease (including remakes and remasters), or will be released sometime after the Switch 2's launch. I find this lineup for the Switch 2's debut to be shockingly lean for a main console. I suppose that I should look up other console's launch titles for comparison, but, with such few games like this, why would I want a Switch 2 on release? It kind of makes me speculate that Nintendo might be rushing the launch of the Switch 2 with such meager offerings when the Switch 1 and the Steam Deck are already here.

PSI_Nightshade · Post Posted: Apr 04, 2025 11:02 pm

I can help you with a few examples.

The Nintendo Switch launched with:

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

1-2-Switch

Super Bomberman R (which funny enough came out a day before the Switch itself)

Just Dance 2017

Skylanders: Imaginators

I Am Setsuna

Snipperclips

Shovel Knight Treasure Trove (with about 1 month of Specter of Torment exclusivity)

Fast RMX

The Wii U launched with:

New Super Mario Bros. U

Nintendo Land

Tank! Tank! Tank!

ZombiU

Little Inferno

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two

Game Party Champions

Rabbids Land

Roughly around 20 ports

A couple of other titles I cannot determine if brand new or ports.

The Wii launched with:

Wii Sports (as it was included with the Wii)

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Excite Truck

Rayman Raving Rabbids

Red Steel

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz

Trauma Center: Second Opinion

11 ports

The GameCube launched with:

Luigi's Mansion

Wave Race: Blue Storm

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron: Rogue Leader

Super Monkey Ball

6 ports

The Nintendo 64 launched with:

Super Mario 64

Pilotwings 64

The SNES launched with:

F-Zero

Super Mario World

The NES came out with 15 games, most of them had launched way later in the Famicom release schedule but the NES was late to the party. If you want to count the Famicom though, all it had at launch was Donkey Kong and Popeye.

If we go back to the Switch 2, right now we know for sure:

Mario Kart World

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour (putting it in there because I added Nintendo Land for the Wii U

Fast Fusion

Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition (apparently launching at on NS2 and PS5 at the same time so not sure if I can call this one a port of not)

Survival Kids (which I wasn't even aware it's considered part of the Lost in Blue series)

Around 13 ports including the Nintendo Switch 2 Editions of the two Zelda games

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma's launch date has shifted to match the Switch 2's launch date even for Switch and PC so I guess i'ts in the same boat as Nobunaga's Ambition.

So yeah, I don't know. At a quick glance, the launch lineup seems relatively business as usual from the previous consoles since the Wii.

PaleSunflower · Post Posted: Apr 05, 2025 3:20 am

... I have realized my folly for not being clear enough. The 2 games I listed were exclusive launch titles. This means that those games can only be played on the Switch 2 when the Switch 2 launches. Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition and RF:GoA are launch titles, but they are not exclusives. I bring up the exclusive launch titles as reasons to buy the Switch 2 to play, for example, RF:GoA instead buying a cheap Steam Deck to play the same game. (That game might be cheaper on Steam than on Switch 2, too.)

Still, despite Nintendo not mentioning Fast Fusion on their website (for some reason), the Switch 2 now has 3 exclusive launch titles.

My message got long, so into the spoiler tag it goes.

Spoiler:

Besides noticing a trend of Nintendo seemingly moving away from exclusive launch titles over time, the Switch 2 still has fewer exclusive launch titles than the 4 consoles that came before it. If I put aside my bias against it and pretend that the "Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour" is a game, then I guess the Switch 2 has the same number of exclusive launch titles as the Switch, but it still loses to the 2 home consoles after the Switch and ties with the Gamecube.

Kikki · Post Posted: Apr 05, 2025 4:48 am

The Switch 2 is NOT going to be as successful as the Switch. I think that's just about a guarantee. I think we all know why...it doesn't take a lot of analyzing to see a few key points immediately:

The world economy is in turmoil and people were ALREADY scrambling to save, and now it's going to get worse.
The Switch 2 was always going to be more expensive because inflation is huge, but it's a bit above even expectations. And game prices are disastrously high. (They haven't shown if ALL of them are that high yet or if it's just select ones.)
It's a second edition of an existing console, and competitors exist. Good competitors. The chat features are new (and nice!) and the game cartridge stuff is new, and the joycons being mouses (mice?) as well is new, and otherwise, it's a big tech upgrade...but it's the same system. IT IS NO LONGER UNIQUE. (Switch launched into a world with a better economy, and where it was unique. No Steam Deck in existence, and no predecessor like it.)

However, I'm pretty sure it will still do decently over time. Games are one area that sees disproportionately less shrink in bad times. Probably because it is a form of escapism...and forms of escapism profit from times of anxiety. Gaming is much better escapism than most things, imo, because it lasts longer than a movie or a book and you can put more of yourself into a game than either of those things, which contain nothing at all of you. Gaming is more like living, actually DOING something, than watching a movie or reading a book, where you are just an observer instead of a participant. In a game, you get to participate.

I do think it'll have a very underwhelming launch period, though. Nintendo doesn't reward their early adopters...it punishes them. They pay the highest prices and get the worst console, since there always seem to be upgrades later, like the battery life in the Switch, and then the screen, when they introduced the OLED. So you pay more for an inferior product if you buy at launch. (Though Switch never dropped in price, I don't think.) And the economy is starting out bad and it's going to get a lot worse before it's got any chance of getting better.

They're going to need to bust out some really impressive exclusives (TRUE exclusives, available nowhere else, including PC) to do well, I think. Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, a new Mario, etc.

I want this new console, but I don't know about at launch. I registered my interest, but that just gets me a potential opportunity to pre-order, it doesn't commit me to anything. We'll see what the world looks like in a month, if the opportunity actually manifests, for me.

I certainly don't want Nintendo to go under, so I hope they do well enough to survive decently, but I think they're going to have to make some adjustments. Things have no choice but to get more expensive with current world events, but...

PaleSunflower · Post Posted: Apr 05, 2025 6:15 am

The Switch proper didn't drop in price for brand new consoles. A cheaper version was released instead: the Switch Lite. The 3DS also got a budget version in the form of the 2DS. Something similar for the Switch 2 is possible.

Alternatively, the Switch 2 might go down the route that the WiiU or the even Gamecube did. Switch 2 dies with a whimper, and the amazing revolutionary new console with the new feature happens from Nintendo. For the Gamecube, the Wii with motion control was that new console. For the WiiU, the Switch with its ability to be handheld or hooked up to a TV was that console. Even the 3DS struggled heavily after the huge success of the DS and only recovered after a lot of support and a price drop.

Among other factors behind the Switch 2's gloomy outlook, Nintendo seems to struggle with their follow-up consoles, it seems, and the Switch 1 is proving to be a tough act to follow for the Switch 2 already.

Kikki · Post Posted: Apr 05, 2025 1:48 pm

I don't know that it'll be as bad as 'gloomy', but I don't think it's going to be the smash-hit Nintendo is surely hoping for. And there's just no way it can match Switch 1. I will be absolutely stunned if, in 8 years, Switch 2 has sold as much as Switch 1 has.

If the world hasn't entered a post-apocalypse phase by then, of course. Heh heh... on that note, seems like my view may be even gloomier!

Bluie · Post Posted: Apr 05, 2025 11:34 pm

Hrm. With the delayed preorders and tariffs, here's hoping the hubs and I can at least get one Switch 2. We initially wanted two, because I'm a bit of a germaphobe gremlin who doesn't like sharing controllers AND we take care of a bunch of kids every month. We were thinking we'd get one for me to have and only be mine while the other would be for the hubs (who is almost a pure PC gamer) and the kids. We have the money, we both have decent paying jobs and really don't spend much on anything outside of food and games (we're very simple introverts). But depending on what's happening over here, we might just have to either settle on one and I get over myself (lol) or just wait. The only game I want to play day one that will be a Switch 2 need is Legends ZA, and it doesn't even have a release day yet.

I plan to play Silksong and Deltarune on PS5, because it's my main squeeze and they're available there, but as always, the Switch has them exclusives I want.

Kikki · Post Posted: Apr 06, 2025 4:33 am

You don't need to make any excuses or explanations for being able to afford a console

Whether luck or hard work or some of each...good for you!

Bluie wrote: ↑Apr 05, 2025 11:34 pm We have the money, we both have decent paying jobs and really don't spend much on anything outside of food and games (we're very simple introverts).

Me too! Well, Not the first two bits. I don't have much money and I make minimum wage on one job, and three dollars more than minimum on my other (tax season only) job. But the rest is true for me. Rent, food, games. (And occasional craft supply or medical item.) If the console is anywhere within modern console prices (and it is slightly less than the current PS5 price...which is lower now, from where it was at release...and quite a bit less than the current Xbox price.) then I'll jiggle the moneys around until I find enough wiggle room, even if it takes a few extra months. I have my necessities kind of...locked in. They're taken care of and nothing is ever spent that would put them at risk.

So the majority left goes to gaming. I'd find a way to make the console fit, if I really want it. And I DO. I'm just not sure if I need it at launch, since there's nothing I need to play on it at launch. I can get the same quality on Azuma and GrB on PC. Though I suppose the economy is only going to get worse, so maybe I SHOULD snap it up as early as possible. Hmm hmm hmmmmm...

We'll see. I'm definitely going to want it eventually, for SURE, because it's going to have 100% exclusives I can't stand not having, like Animal Crossing and a new Zelda. Plus...Xenoblade.

Anna_Lynn · Post Posted: Apr 06, 2025 5:50 am

Oh no, I only found out last night that the pre-orders are delayed in the USA.

Some countries like Thailand and the Philippines aren't getting the Switch 2 until late summer, like July-Sept but I think that's because Nintendo's creating eShop's for them? My worrying thought process is: what's stopping Nintendo from doing the same here in the States by delaying the USA release, and having the console release worldwide everywhere else on June 5 instead. At this point, there's probably no rational way for them to increase the price even further despite the USA tariffs......either they do increase the price and heavily damage their reputation with an already upset fanbase, or they stomach the unexpectedly high tariffs and face a financial loss (in the billions?) People online have mentioned that apparently the $450/$500 USD price was made in the first place with the mindset of a 10% tariff, but now that the tariffs are around 25%, that's why USA pre-orders are on hold until further notice.

Mario Kart World looks really fun though! I do feel pity for Sega, they're developing their own Sonic kart racing game...but come on Mario Kart just looks so good in comparison! It'll definitely be a scramble to find a Switch 2 + MKWorld bundle if the price is only an additional $50, rather than basically $85 for just the game after sales tax. I'm still debating on Rune Factory and Grand Bazaar for Switch or Steam. Depending on the weeks ahead for Nintendo, Steam might be a no-brainer. Maybe I wait for a potential black friday sale tbh. I'm still waiting for more Rune Factory gameplay to convince me....and no matter how hard the SoS team tries to say that Grand Bazaar is a "new game" as of now, it's still a remake in my eyes. A really good-looking remake!...but I have the original.

Kikki · Post Posted: Apr 07, 2025 2:16 pm

Um, so...this isn't about tariffs or the Switch 2 itself anymore, but the presentation.

What the heck kind of game is Kirby Air Riders? The big deal appears to be that it's directed by Sakurai, whom I know the gaming world luuuuuurves, but...what IS it? It looks like a Kirby-themed Mario Kart except with hover vehicles. But that sounds really boring and redundant, so surely there's more to it than that? I don't get what it is.

The graphics were so cute, though. Of course, since it's Kirby.

PaleSunflower · Post Posted: Apr 07, 2025 2:41 pm

"Kirby's Air Riders" is a sequel to the similarly named "Kirby's Air Ride" for the Gamecube, so I am assuming that the gameplay will be somewhat similar to its predecessor. I never played "Kirby's Air Ride" myself, so I can't really say with certainty how it differs from the Mario Kart series

The article for the Gamecube game on Wikipedia mentions one difference. "Kirby's Air Ride" has customizable vehicles, which the Mario Kart series at the time didn't have (or at least "Mario Kart: Double Dash" didn't). Since "Mario Kart 8" has since done customizable vehicles and will be playable on the Switch 2, I am guessing that "Kirby's Air Riders" will have to do something else in order to stick out from Mario Kart. The Wikipedia article also mentions that each available rider had different abilities (Kirby can copy abilities from other characters and is the only rider to actually use a vehicle, King Dedede can whack other racers with a hammer, etc.) in addition to having different stats, so I am assuming that the sequel will build on that. Maybe.

The Switch 2 already has a few of racing games ("Mario Kart World", "Fast Fusion", and "Kirby's Air Riders") already coming to it. Hopefully they can all stick out from the racing games already on the Switch 1.

Kikki · Post Posted: Apr 08, 2025 5:10 am

Thanks, Pale Sunflower.

Hmm. That's boring, lol. Not ANOTHER racing game I have even less interest in than the series that spawned it. (Mario and Kirby.) Oh well, I did think it looked like that...that's just not a very interesting thign to do, to pack a first-ever console presentation with multiple racing games. Not everyone likes them you know, Nintendo! Plus even people who do might want to see more variety.

I guess the big deal this time is that Sakurai is at the helm. I have no special feelings for Sakurai, but a lot of people do, so probably there's going to be lots of anticipation.

I read here and there how Nintendo genuinely thinks this console will do as well as the Switch. Of course it won't, Nintendo. Your console is no longer unique. It doesn't feel new. And the world situation is very against it at the moment, to boot.

I do think it looks like a very big upgrade. And people keep complaining that it's just a 'Switch Pro', but really, isn't that what EVERY new console is, from every brand? A PS4 is just an upgrade to a PS3. An Xbox 2 is just an upgrade to an Xbox 1. (Yeah, I uh...have no idea what Xboxes are named. X and S and stuff, but I don't know which is current and what was the last one, etc.) What's wrong with Switch 2 being a large upgrade to 1?

I do like the new stuff its doing, but this console is nowhere near as innovative as the first Switch. I think Nintendo is playing the ostrich if they really think 2 can perform as well as 1. (Sales-wise, I mean.)

Not that ostriches actually do that irl, btw. They dig with their beaks to create earthen nests for their eggs, but they don't 'bury their heads in the sand' to avoid danger. Still, part of the lexicon, now!

Well, it'll sell decently over time, I'm pretty sure. But they'd have to go mad with top-tier exclusives (TRUE exclusives!) to have any hope of matching Switch 1 sales. That's my opinion, anyway...the opinion of a complete industry outsider, just a lifelong gamer. *shrug*