Shuntaro Furukawa, the president of Nintendo, said that the company would not increase the price of the Switch. Normally that would be expected of Nintendo since once a console has been in the market for a while, its cost of manufacturing tends to decrease. But because of the supply chain issues and some other factors, Nintendo’s internal costs of manufacturing Switches are increasing. But even so, the company will not pass those costs onto the consumers.
Speaking to Nikkei, Furukawa said that Nintendo does not want to “price people out” and will not increase the Switch’s price. He said that raising the price of the Switch is not being considered “at this point.” Furukawa also said that Nintendo’s competition is with a variety of entertainment, and pricing is decided based on the enjoyment the company can offer.
He added that the Switch OLED will still be “less profitable” than the standard model of the Switch. Saying that the costs relating to shipping by air or sea have “undoubtedly increased.” Something every tech company has had to deal with.
Nintendo’s Plans for the Switch
Nintendo recently shared that Switch sales have decreased by 23% compared to last year, owing to the chip shortage. Furukawa said that even with the drop in sales, Nintendo is still sure to reach its 21 million sales goal by the end of this fiscal year. Their goal is to continue selling consoles at the same pace. He added that upcoming games like Splatoon 3 and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet would cause a spike in sales and help Nintendo reach its sales targets.
“All I can say is that we’ll try to keep up sales at the same pace. Having hit software also gives a boost to hardware,” he said. “We have a lineup of new games that will allow us to take a crack at meeting our sales forecast, including Splatoon [3] coming out in September and Pokemon [Scarlet and Violet] in November.”
At the end of June, Nintendo had sold 111 million Switches globally. In other Nintendo news, Toy Soldiers HD has been delayed indefinitely, and Nintendo Online has made some quality of life improvements.
