Nintendo says it has no plans to increase Switch prices
Company shares statement after Sony raised PS5 prices
Nintendo has told VGC that it currently has no plans to increase Switch prices.
Citing the challenging global economic environment, on Thursday Sony said it had “made the difficult decision” to raise PS5 prices in Europe, Japan and parts of North America.
Microsoft subsequently told VGC that it doesn’t intend to raise Xbox prices, and Nintendo has now told us that it also has no plans to increase the price of its hardware.
The company’s UK arm provided VGC with the following statement:
As our president Mr Furukawa stated at the 82nd Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in June:
“While we cannot comment on pricing strategies, we currently do not have any plans to change the price of our hardware due to inflation or increased procurement costs in each country. We will determine our future pricing strategies through careful and continued deliberations.”
While the final price to consumers is always determined by retailers, as Mr Furukawa stated, Nintendo has no plans to increase the trade price of its hardware.
Earlier this month Nintendo claimed it wasn’t planning to raise Switch prices in Japan, despite a weak yen causing other tech companies like Apple to do so.
Nintendo recently reported a year-on-year hardware sales decline for its first quarter ended in June, which the company blamed partly on component shortages.
It also stuck to its 21 million hardware sales forecast for its current fiscal year ending in March 2023, which would represent a 9.8% decline from the previous year and a 37% decline from the year before that.
Nikkei recently reported that Nintendo will not be announcing a Switch Pro or the successor to the Switch this year.
The report claimed that because of Nintendo’s focus on achieving its current sales plan, it’s concentrating entirely on building enough Nintendo Switch units with the components it’s been able to secure.