The Nintendo Switch 2 is $700 – are video games getting more expensive?

While Nintendo’s reveal of its coming Switch 2 console was overshadowed in the US by the carnage of President Trump’s tariff talk, the subject of price has dominated the discussion around the world as well. In Australia it’s $700 for the system and $120 for major launch game Mario Kart World, or about a 50 per cent increase on the original Switch pricing set in 2017.

But while it’s difficult to determine if that increase is warranted per se, it certainly hasn’t come out of nowhere.

The Switch 2 is Nintendo’s first 4K-capable console, and it is planned to launch on June 5 for $700.Credit:

Looking at the history of console costs in Australia, the dollar price has trended up while the price adjusted for inflation has trended down, but alternating low and high as it goes. The original Nintendo system launched in 1987 for $300, but that’s the equivalent of almost $900 in today’s money. The adjusted prices dipped to $695 for the Super Nintendo in 1992, rose to $830 for the Nintendo 64 in 1997, and kept on in that fashion through the Wii at $645 and the original Switch at $586.

Now we’re back on an upswing, with what appears to be the largest increase in price over a decade that the industry has seen. But we’re currently not as high as Nintendo’s most expensive systems historically, and certainly not as high as some of Sony’s systems; the PlayStation 2 launched in Australia in 2000 for a stunning $750, close to $1500 in today’s money.

As for individual games, prices have followed largely the same trajectory of trending up in dollar amounts and down when adjusted, with the caveat that prices dropped radically with the introduction of optical discs. Nintendo’s launch games for the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 would be about $200 in today’s money, but certain cartridge games were much higher. Street Fighter II originally sold for $160, or about $364 in today’s money, so the current $120 is a significant drop.

These inflation figures will be of no comfort to people who want new Nintendo games this year but simply can’t afford the buy-in; there is, after all, an extreme amount of pressure on household expenses right now. But aside from the fact that everything’s more expensive, there are reasons Nintendo has raised its prices.

Mario Kart World will be exclusively available on the Switch 2, and will launch at $120.Credit: Tim Biggs

The Switch 2 itself is made from comparatively expensive components, being that it’s designed to support games for the next five to eight years. From the screen, which is now Full HD and supports HDR and 120Hz refresh, to the TV dock, which needs hardware inside to keep the powerful system cool, it’s a significantly more costly system for Nintendo to make. As other platform-holders have found, blockbuster game development also now takes much more time, money and person power because assets need to look good on a 4K screen.

Nintendo needs to build in an amount of cushion to the pricing to guard against the need to raise prices over the next few years as well, and that’s not only about the uncertainty of US tariffs. Nintendo is a small company compared with Sony and especially compared with Microsoft. It has the advantage of controlling many properties and some of the best game developers in the world, meaning the likes of Mario Kart will not be found on competing systems. But the downside there is that it cannot easily access the millions of players on other platforms, which both Sony and Microsoft can.

And, taking in the wider video games industry, Nintendo certainly isn’t alone in adjusting up prices in anticipation of headwinds.

Both Sony and Microsoft have raised the Australian prices of their latest consoles since their launch in 2020, which is practically unprecedented as hardware prices have historically fallen after five years on the market.

Sony, in fact, has recently raised local prices on the PlayStation 5 for a second time. Assuming no further price changes between now and the Switch 2 launch in June, and including the existing Switch systems, the 10 consoles on the market from the three major console-makers will have an average price of about $680.

This puts the Switch 2, as well as the all-digital version of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X, at the dead centre of the market at $700, with the $330 Switch Lite at the lowest end and Sony’s $1200 PlayStation 5 Pro at the other extreme.

Both of those machines do serve relatively niche audiences, but even if you argued that the 2025 market for mainstream game consoles starts with the Xbox Series S and ends with the PS5, Switch 2 is still in the middle.

In game prices, $120 for Mario Kart World puts the game clearly into the upper echelon but doesn’t quite reach the actual ceiling. Though it was $100 mere years ago, $125 is currently the ceiling for standard edition games.

That’s what Sony charges for its in-house blockbusters designed specifically for PS5, and all indications are that prices could rise again this year. Some publishers have signalled $130 for standard edition games launching in the second half of 2025, while all eyes are on Take-Two, which has not yet suggested a price for Rockstar Games’ hugely anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI. It could conceivably be $150.

Obviously, this will not be the case for all games. Especially now that hardly any games are packaged into physical media, prices of brand-new premium experiences run the gamut from $20 up. Microsoft and Sony are also diversifying, which in some cases can get expensive games to people without a huge budget. This includes publishing on PC and other platforms (where you might be able to get a Sony- or Microsoft-made game without an additional $700 console purchase), and subscriptions. Microsoft puts all of its games on its $22-per-month Game Pass Ultimate service on the day they launch, while Sony includes many of its older games on its PlayStation Plus service. However, the cost of those services is also rising.

Could Nintendo jump on the same practices? Its current subscription is very cheap and not competitive with Sony or Microsoft; it mainly covers online play and cloud save backups, plus access to retro games, and you can get it all at $60 a year for an individual or $120 for a family of up to eight. The company will not publish on PC nor give new games away on a subscription, though a member discount scheme could be more likely. Looking at current consoles, you can also see how a lower-cost Switch 2 could emerge in the future; Sony and Microsoft both sell versions with no physical media slot for about $100 less, and Nintendo removed the TV capabilities from its original Switch for the cut-price Switch Lite.

Overall, high-end games and systems are more expensive now than they were when the Switch debuted in 2017. But they’re also more diverse and more popular than ever, with more options for lower-cost play. And, if history is any indication, the prices will feel less painful before too long.

Get news and reviews on technology, gadgets and gaming in our Technology newsletter every Friday. Sign up here.