The US price of Nintendo Switch 2 is likely to remain at $450 if president Donald Trump’s global tariffs remain at 10%, an analyst says.
Last week Trump introduced a blanket 10% tariff on all imports, with countries like China, Vietnam and Japan – which Trump calls among “the worst offenders” – getting larger tariffs of 54%, 46% and 24% respectively.
Since most of Nintendo‘s imports into the US come from Vietnam and Cambodia, Trump’s decision to apply a 46% tariff on Vietnam could potentially have an effect on the price of Nintendo hardware, most notably the upcoming Switch 2.
As a result, last week Nintendo said it was delaying Switch 2 pre-orders in the US (and later Canada) so it could assess market conditions due to the country’s turbulent financial situation.
However, while Trump has since increased China’s tariff up to 125%, he has decided to pause all other tariff hikes for 90 days, meaning his 10% tariff applies to all other affected countries, including Vietnam.
According to a new report at Bloomberg, Trump’s decision to pause the hikes means it’s likely that Nintendo will keep the US Switch 2 price at $450, at least until the 46% tariff kicks in.
Speaking to the publication, Bernstein analyst Robin Zhu said: “If the tariffs stay at 10%, Nintendo probably keeps pricing at $450 and just takes the hit on margin. At 46% Vietnam tariffs, I expected them to raise by $50 to $100.”
The report states that Hosiden Corp, a Vietnam assembler which is one of the three main Switch 2 assemblers, has been shipping almost all of its stock to the US since January, as opposed to between 11 and 66% over the course of the previous 12 months.
It’s believed, then, that Nintendo is stockpiling millions of Switch 2 units in the US so it can have plenty in supply by the time the console is released on June 5, then it can analyse the situation should Trump’s tariff hikes kick in come July.
Last week US video game trade group the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) warned that the trade tariffs imposed by US president Donald Trump “are going to have a real and detrimental impact” on the games industry, especially if the hikes beyond 10% are also implemented.
In a discussion with Stephen Totilo for his Game File newsletter, ESA senior vice president Aubrey Quinn said that game hardware, including consoles, could take a big hit as a result of these tariffs, given that some of them often have parts sourced from multiple countries.
“Any one product that a consumer would buy is likely to be subject to many of the tariffs announced, all compounded on top of one another,” Quinn explained.
