The original Switch at launch cost as much as a brand new PS4 (It actually cost more because PS4 got a lot of free-game-bundles and holiday price cuts). Millions of people including Nintendo fans were pretty much dooming it, thinking the price was too high. So Nintendo already broke from the success x price association in 2017. The OLED model saw a price hike like 5 years later and continued to sell very well.

Fastforward, and now Sony is proving that gamers are less price sensitive towards consoles than before, and I don't see any strong evidence of that not carrying over to Nintendo's systems. PS5's average price is higher than the PS4, and unlike the PS4 which got a $100 price drop during its 3rd year, PS5 instead got a price hike and crap ton of forced bundles (not free). Unless the recession significantly hurts gaming, gamers across the board are clearly willing to spend more for more.

A profitable Switch 2 at $350 or lower would certainly be disappointment, and lead to a much weaker 3rd party support in the long term. $400 should be the minimum (for the standard model), and I hope Nintendo realizes this.

Rather than launch a $300-$350 Switch 2 and lock the price throughout the generation, they should launch a $300-$400 (stripped-down) and $400-$500 (standard) Switch 2's and pricedrop them both in the middle of the generation. They'd still be fine with $300-$350, but the core gamer community would not receive the system as well as they would a more-expensive/more-capable Switch 2 with better and longer 3rd party support.

I can't believe we see stuff like "if Sony launch a 399$ PS5, Nintendo is doomed"

The Switch was already at the same price or even costed more than a PS4 Slim or an Xbox One S

You can't believe it because no one has said that.

I just checked again, and that was actually you

(PS: I didn't mean to put "MF" but this gif is pretty well known)

Where we disagree is bolded.  I don't see any evidence of that.  The switch is grossly underpowered and nobody cares.  Logically nobody is going to care if the switch 2 is under powered.  Fact is most people do not care about power on a Nintendo system, they care about software.  If people cared about power the steam deck would be selling better than the switch, it isnt.

Yes because "Also, not that I think PlayStation/Xbox have a significant impact on Nintendo sales, but it's worth noting that $399 would put them firmly in that territory." translates to "if Sony launch a 399$ PS5, Nintendo is doomed".

Lmao

Classic internet disclaimer 

"I don't say/mean to say that, but I actually say that"

If that's the case, why releasing new hardware? Just sell Switch again 

Nintendo needs to release a new machine that match at least some standards of power of they want to keep non indie third party support. Half of Switch software is third party, most of them are indies or ports from older generations, so Switch 2 needs to at least match PS4 power to ensure it will get ports of last gen

Nintendo can survive with only their own games, but this leads to software droughts. A couple of bangers will make Switch 2 successful enough even with weaker third party support, but if they want to avoid to compromise their current level of popularity they need to avoid the scenario where no third party can port their games.

If this means increasing the price of Switch 2 by 50-100 USD they should do it. Otherwise I predict Switch 2 to have a N64 situation, sell well specially at the start of its life but with a decrease of ~40% in lifetime sales 

Best name for the new console

For a handheld device the Switch wasn't grossly underpowered at launch and was a massive leap over the 3DS so power wise it actually impressed a lot of people when it came out since they were able to play big games like BOTW and Doom 2016 on it portability. It is really weak now but that hasn't really impacted it much since it was already past its sales peak by the time it started to really show its age and there was no other good options in the handheld or hybrid gaming space until pretty recently so people who prefer playing games that way have just had to put up with it. Cause of this I'd say the core gamer community does care about power, they'll just put up with the performance issues to play Nintendo games.

I do think if the Switch 2 runs games worse than the Steam Deck that'll cause at least a slight negative impact on its sales particularly software sales since the people who have stopped buying third party games on Switch cause of the Steam Deck won't see a point in coming back.