$399. I can't imagine they'd go over that. I had been thinking perhaps as low as $350, cuz I figured they'd knock Switch down to like $150/low-$200/high-$200 before next gen launched but now it seems unlikely they are going to do anything to Switch pricing so there's no way they bring next gen out at the same price as the OLED.
Switch was rumored to have cost like $260ish to produce at launch, I'm guessing Switch 2 hardware won't cost more than $100 more than that, so at $399 they'd be making a nice profit on every system sold.
It'd be a huge mistake for them to go over $400, since they always come out with affordable systems and $399 would really pushing that idea of affordability already, and I can't see any reason they would cram so much tech into the system that would force them to go above $399.
I think the people saying it could be $450-$500 are getting a little bit warped just because Nintendo never dropped the price of the Switch. They are definitely making profit hand over fist with all models of the Switch and have been for years. After 7 years the Switch is no doubt wayyy cheaper to produce than it was when it launched, if these were the days of old when the hardware makers competed with competitive price cuts the hybrid Switch would probably be selling at $200. Only reason they haven't dropped the price is because they didn't need to because it was so dang popular. Also it's not 2022 anymore, the world isn't in a severe chip shortage. And they aren't going to release some large Steam Deck-like monstrosity with barely any battery life that is barely even handheld. They are going to go with something in an affordable range that is powerful FOR A PORTABLE SYSTEM. It'd be crazy for them to launch over $400.
Everyone is basically expecting S2 to be able to output performance perhaps a bit better than PS4, but don't forget that system is super old now and with advanced features in chips these days Nintendo won't have to put together anything expensive to reach that level. Nintendo has the advantage of using chips that are more efficient than the ones MS and Sony use for their current gen systems, and releasing over 4 years after those systems came out, and some what like 12 years after PS4 came out. It is not going to take anything over $399 for Nintendo to put out a portable with decent battery life that can outdo PS4 and XB1 output and represent a generational upgrade to the Switch.
Last edited by Slownenberg - on 12 September 2024
