Nintendo has provided a little more context for the high prices of the Switch 2 and its games, and the reason might surprise you. The Switch 2's reveal erupted in controversy after the console's starting price of $450 USD - along with the pricing of some of its games at $80 - was revealed. Many were quick to blame tariffs recently instituted in the United States, but as a matter of fact, those were never the sole cause.
According to an interview in Polygon with Nintendo's Vice President, Player & Product Experience Bill Trinen, this was a more complicated decision based on various economic factors. For one thing, he says, "inflation is affecting everything." That's certainly no lie, but perhaps more revealingly, he also notes that Nintendo considers "local market circumstances" in the territories where it releases games: "What are the market circumstances in different territories, how are things impacting those market circumstances, and what options do we have to try to appropriately price the product based on the local market circumstances?"
Inflation is definitely part of the cause here; Trinen notes that Donkey Kong Country, released in 1994, cost $59 at launch, saying "The price of video games has...
