Bad news for Nintendo fans in the United States who planned to reserve the Nintendo Switch 2 on April 9: the company is delaying the purchases of the console “to evaluate the possible impact of tariffs and changing conditions of the market”. Although the release date, on June 5, remains the same, Nintendo states that it will update the opening of the reserves “to a later date.”
It is an unprecedented measure by a console manufacturer and is a direct response to Wednesday’s news that President Donald Trump will implement wide global tariffs. The stock market has already fallen, it is expected that the prices of important goods increase and the technology industry is staggering. Nintendo announced the reserves of the console along with its first presentation event to the press, the same day the news of Trump’s tariffs was known.
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The magnitude and scope of the tariffs have been surprising, says Mat Piscatella, video game analyst of the Circan Market Research firm. “My best assumption would be that Nintendo had some forecasts about what the tariffs would probably be, and that the announced tariffs were much higher and of greater scope than anticipated,” Piscatella tells Wired.
It is not clear if the price of Switch 2 —450 dollars, a figure that has already bunk to some fans – could increase even more. Piscatella points out that it is not impossible. “Every reasonable and responsible company depending on international supply chains will be reassessing its prices in the United States at this time,” he says. “They have to do it.”
There has been a lot of speculation by industry analysts and organizations such as the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) on how harmful Trump tariffs and video game industry would be. In February, ESA issued a statement by pointing out that tariffs “would negatively affect hundreds of millions of Americans and would harm the important contributions of the industry to the US economy.” Nintendo’s announcement on Friday underlines how disruptive the tariffs could be.
Piscatella comments that, historically, other territories have already been subject to higher prices in video games and that “the US could certainly join that group.”
“The erratic and chaotic nature of the tariffs and their announcement, obviously, has many trying to deal with the consequences,” concludes Pakella.
Article originally published in Wiredadapted by Manuel de León.
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