Nintendo's Switch 2 Price Hike May Have Been Inevitable, But It's Still Hard To Stomach

Nintendo announced in a press release on May 7, 2026, that the price of the Switch 2 would be going up by $50 to $499.99, effective September 1. This, of course, joins price hikes for the PlayStation 5 that were announced earlier this year (now $649.99 for the standard edition), and Microsoft increased the price for the Xbox Series S and Series X late last year. The Series S 512 now costs $399.99, followed by the 1TB version at $449.99, and variants of the Series X ranging from $599.99 to $799.99. 

Looking at other consoles, it's not a big surprise that Nintendo is raising prices. It's keeping up with the gaming business and with worsening market conditions. All three consoles are still less expensive than buying a gaming PC, if you're looking for a bit of a silver lining. 

Still, the price increase for the Switch 2, fairly shortly after its launch, is a tough pill to swallow. The biggest reason is that there aren't many big first-party mainline franchise games on the console that can't also be played on the original Nintendo Switch.

The Switch 2 is backward compatible, which means there are plenty of games to play. That's good, but it can discourage players from upgrading to the new console, given that the game selection is largely the same. Games like "Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" and "Breath of the Wild" have gotten remasters to play better on the Switch 2, but the lack of new "Legend of Zelda" or "Mario" games is starkly evident.

In the world of "Pokémon," "Pokémon Legends: Z-A" and "Pokopia" made their respective debuts on the console, but the "Legends" series is playable on both the original Switch and the Switch 2. "Pokopia" is a Switch 2 exclusive, but it's not a mainline franchise game. The "Pokémon Winds" and "Pokémon Waves" pair of games will fill that gap, but they're not set to launch until 2027.

This puts gamers in a tough spot. If you want to save a not inconsequential chunk of change, you might want to spring for buying a Switch 2 now before the price hike, but even then, you'll be stuck playing a few new games and the old Switch catalog. Not that the Switch catalog was bad, quite the opposite, but if you're paying $500 for a console, some new exclusive titles would be nice.

Both the price hike and the lack of first-party AAA games for the Switch 2 follow a bit of an odd path carved by consoles this current generation, namely the PS5. When the PlayStation 5 launched back in 2020, it was expensive ($499.99) and didn't have many true exclusives to entice players to upgrade. One of the biggest titles was "Demon's Souls," a remake of the 2009 action RPG that first launched on the PS3. 

Gamers had to wait for more PS5 titles to roll out over time. "God of War: Ragnarök," for example, didn't launch until 2022, and even then, it was available for both the PS4 and PS5. The last generation's PS4 remains popular, although the PS5 was able to pull some impressive sales numbers since launch, with 93.7 million consoles having been shipped as of March 2026.

With the price hike, it looks like the Switch 2 might be headed for a similarly slow upward curve as the PlayStation 5 was. However, there's a lot of time between now and the upcoming price adjustment, so Nintendo still has this summer to announce new titles for the console to sweeten the deal for anyone on the fence about buying a Switch 2. 

The onus is on Nintendo to make the Switch 2 a worthwhile console to drop $500 on. Backward compatibility and future AAA games planned are great, but it will take more than that to move consoles for anyone but diehard Nintendo fans.