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Nintendo delays Switch 2 pre-orders in US due to tariffs and "evolving market conditions"
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- Title
- Nintendo Delays Switch 2 Pre-Order Date in the U.S. to Assess Impact of Trump's Tariffs - IGN
- Published
- Apr 4 2025
With Japan threatening reciprocal tariffs on the USA with a Unified response from China and South Korea.. that's pretty understandable. That's a lot of unknowns on final costs. With Trump in office I wouldn't doubt the costs of the Switch 2 to be higher in the USA in USD than it will be here in Canada in CAD. A lot of things could end up that way.
FAFO I guess.
There's an article on the Atlantic today called Make Smuggling Great Again
The black market for these games and pretty much everything else will be out of control. $600 blackmarket nintendos is just a tiny taste of the fun we are in for.
Of course, it won't just be high prices, there will be a lot more people out of work. And in the summer when there start to be massive protests, expect huge crackdowns and martial law.
Maybe it will get bad enough for the republicans in congress to actually stop the tariffs and kick him out of office.
Can't wait till it's time for me to "move back to the states" and I get to just ship an apartment full of Switch 2s to my parents' house. I guess I've got my future made. Thanks, President Trump, sir, for giving me such a great economic opportunity. Your economic policies are a great way for we forward-thinking few to provide much-needed services to our soon-to-be impoverished neighbors due to these cruel Japanese tariffs!
Well, pre-ordering is usually pre-tty silly anyway. It's unlikely that you won't be able to get one when you want. I know for my budget, we're going to wait until the drop the price anyway.
The PS5 had supply constraints for a long time after launch. The Switch had supply constraints well after launch, once covid hit. GPUs today are very supply constrained. It's reasonable to assume that it will be hard to get a Switch 2 soon after launch, unless reception is very negative.
The Switch had shortages at launch too, back in 2016. People were running around to different retailers and asking employees for tips on when shipments would come in, and I recall there being tracker sites like there was for the great Raspberry Pi shortage as well.
Nintendo underestimated demand, the internet was out of touch as usual, and the real demand for them eclipsed expectations.
I fully expect the initial run to sell out quickly and then it'll be difficult to obtain for awhile.
Thanks, I didn't know that. Checking my receipts, I didn't get a Switch till 2018 so I must have skipped all the supply constraints. Or maybe that's why it took me so long :)
It's not really the pre-order itself that's the issue, it's that it's a sign the price will go up - otherwise, why would they push it back?
It's definitely not a given that you'll be able to get a hot new gaming console on release. In many cases demand is higher than supply.
There's some solace in it that at least the "Gamers(tm)" are actually getting hurt by their choices at least
Nintendo gamers don't generally strike me as the Trump voting type.
r/Asmongold posters and anybody who follows Grummz on X are definitely the Trump voting type though.
I know very little about either of those two (although I am aware of how obnoxious Asmongold is), but is there actually much overlap between their followers and "nintendo gamers"? I specified nintendo gamers because, while I have no doubt that a significant portion of the most toxic kind of PC/XBOX/Playstation gamers are likely Trump voters, Nintendo usually gets shit on by those sorts. So OPs statement implying this news about Switch 2 delays and price increases is just deserts against gamers for Trump being elected doesn't strike me as accurate.
probably not, but i imagine that sony and nintendo price hikes aren't too far behind
Even amongst US Playstation owners, how many are likely to have actually voted for Trump? I can see a certain segment of COD players (you know the type) having done so, but even then, probably not the majority.
Gamers are pretty much an even cross section of the whole population at this point, with the things skewing the distribution being that it leans much heavier to the side of children than the side of 80 and 90 year olds.
A majority of Americans didn't even vote for Trump, because a majority of the population didn't vote (~60% of eligible voters and many people are not eligible, e.g. children). Approx 152 million votes cast vs a population of over 340 million.
I don't think it's numerically reasonable to cast that aspersion at all.
In fairness, most Nintendo gamers won't be able to vote until 2036.
Humour aside, as a 40+ year old Switch owner myself who is likely to buy a Switch 2 as well, I don't know how true that stereotype is anymore. In a 2017 survey, Nintendo themselves found that 19+ year olds apparently account for ~83% of US Switch owners.
I couldn't resist the low-hanging fruit. 40 is just around the corner for me and I proudly owned a Switch until I lost it a few weeks ago. Still, I didn't expect those numbers to be that high. I guess the young kids are all playing Roblox on their tablets.
If my 11yo nephew and his friends are anything to go by, that's definitely the case. He has a Switch, but barely ever plays on it. They are all constantly on their tablets playing Roblox and Minecraft together though.
I'd wager a lot of owners, in the strictest sense of the word, are parents that let their kids play on the switch too.