Out of the 153 millions of Switch sold, the OLED model is only 30 millions  25 millions for the Lite and 98 millions for the Base model.  The switch success is firt an foremost the base model success.

The 3DS suffered from a big pric problem and the lack of interest of 3D. Nintendo turned it around by slashing the price, but of course it never reached DS level success, but price was a big problem.

The Wii U was completely unappelling, priced quite high and people juste rejected the product.

Switch 2 on the contrary had a great launch with a lot of hype and goodwill contrary to 3DS and WII U. But the risk is killing its momentum with a price that turn away the mass market.

There are no easy solution for that as the  components have a price. I imagine Nintendo is unwilling to sacrifice its profits by selling the console at loss until the situation become too bad but at that point, the product image may be damaged a little too much.

The recent news about Steam Deck lowest priced SKU being removed from the market means there is no handheld better or that has similar level specs to Switch 2 that cost the same or less than Switch 2. So that shows the reality of the handheld market, if you want a handheld that can play some AAA games like the Switch 2 can do, that means it can't hit a lower price point.

You could argue that Nintendo should have made a worse Switch 2, mostly capable of playing indie games and Nintendo games with a bit better resolution and fps, and given up on getting bigger third party releases like Resident Evil 9 on their consoles. That would have allowed the Switch 2 to hit a lower price point, but it would also have invited even more discussion about it being just a Switch pro, and we will never know if such a Switch 2 would have had more success or less success than the current Switch 2 is having.

The Mario Kart bundle only softens the blow for those interested in the game. For everyone else, the bundle is a €40 tax. It's a barrier.

Prices being a concern is fair. But People were concerned about Switch 1 and PS5 prices as well, and both of them overperformed. Switch 1 easily outsold the generally cheaper PS4. I don't necessarily expect Switch 2 to repeat that against PS5, but it's too early to say the console is overpriced.

I mean, Nintendo IP and Nintendo games are expected to be among the bigger games in the industry, or you mean to tell us that in a span of a few months, Nintendo IP has gone from being incredibly popular to now be less popular than Oblivion and Expedition 33? Have you seen how much software Nintendo has sold over the decades of just their own first party games?

Isn't the reality more that for some reason, Nintendo has largelly filled the first year of the Switch 2 with smaller and mid size IP like Kirby and Donkey Kong? And even a mid size IP like Donkey Kong is selling great, will probably already be at 5M+ sales on a low install base when their next fiscal report happens.

This is when we come back to software, all the big holiday Switch 2 releases are Switch 1 games. 

For families especially, cross gen is just a reason not to upgrade. Only the most core gamers will care about resolution differences etc. For now I think people are comfortable with S1 outside of those eager to be early adopters, so same early adopters don't need to wait for the holiday for such an available system. But anyway I do agree with Louie that this is a whole lot of fuss over a soft november and we should wait to see a bigger pattern over the holidays and eventually the new year. 

I'm just projecting my feeling that the despite the system having hype at launch I don't think is a need amongst the general public to upgrade and price is not going to change that until the system gets some definitive games.

Its true that early sign shows that Switch 2 is selling less in the US now that early adopters have gotten it, and families are less prone to buy it this holiday, which led to a smaller than usual holiday boost. Some of it could be software related, but much of it is outside Nintendo's hands, we already have real statistics about US consumers themselves saying that they will spend less money this holiday compared to last holiday. Nintendo is obviously not immune to general consumers spending less money this holiday than usual. Consoles are a luxury and not a necessary item to buy. If that consumer reality continues into 2026, Nintendo has very limited ability to change that, even if they launch more appealing software, that will still mostly have a marginal effect unless consumer demand itself gets an upswing the coming months and years. Consoles used to be more immune to economic downturns, but now console gaming is just one part of the gaming industry, consumers can spend a lot on gaming and never have to get a console these days, while previously consoles were a dominant part of gaming which meant consoles were more immune from economic downturns, because people still wanted to play games even in bad economic times and buying a console was the natural endpoint to that wish back then. That isn't the case at all today with mobile, PC and forever games dominating the industry.

The console is also sold without Mario Kart , for a smaller price than the bundle, so the option exist, and is more interesting if you are not interested in Mario Kart.

Switch 1 was more expansive than anticipated, but much less than the Switch 2. Without even talking about the software prices. Nintendo sent games like Kirby to die with that pricing. I don't know if Nintendo Japan expected it to flop compltely in the West and just greelighted the game to please Sakurai or if they thought that this game had potential. If they thought that, they misread the room and Nintendo US + Europe knew the game was going to bomb and did not bother spending money to market it.

So far, smaller switch 2 games are not selling well , and the HW number is showing a big slow down in the biggest quarter of the year. Nintendo will need to adress that.

It's a green light in Japan, but orange light in the US and the it's becoming a little red in Europe.

And none of this is in Nintendo's hands, no handheld that has the same specs as Switch 2 cost less or the same as Switch 2 currently on the market. You could argue that Nintendo should have made a worse Switch 2, forget about getting third party games like Resident Evil 9 and priced it less. But people would argue that would make it a Switch pro, rather than a Switch 2.

In general, economic realities are what they are, consumers will spend less this holiday in the US than they did during previous years, which will naturally lead to lower console sales this holiday as well.

Its better to just realize the reality, yes Switch 2 will be affected by inflation, tariffs and lowered consumer demand, and Nintendo will not be able to do anything to change that reality, its just something that will lead to lower Switch 2 sales in western markets for the foreseeable future. Nintendo will be far from the only ones that will have to face that reality, next gen consoles will not sell better than current gen consoles on current market conditions, that is just the reality we live in. There is no reality where a more expensive PS6 outsells the PS5, the only thing that is specific to Nintendo is that they were the first to launch a new console during this time, everyone else will face the same issues at a later date.

I would argue that Nintendo should have made a console with an affordable price as a target (which worse specs in your words). People bitching about the Switch 1 specs for years, but the public was happy enough with it as it is the most successful Nintendo console ever.

Now they will have to find a balance bewteen their profits, the numbers of sales needed to keep the console life healthy and sustainable, and the prices that will enable them to reach that goal.

Chasing third party game like RE9 is dumb and I hope it was not part of their reasonning. Nintendo do not need them and anyway PS5/PC will always have an edge for third party games.

What done is done, what Nintendo can do is to adjust the budgets of their coming Switch 2 games, be less ambitious when it comes to budget, that way they can make a solid profit of their own game releases even though the install base of Switch 2 will be lower. But there is no possibility for Nintendo to make ambitious AAA games with high budgets unless they want to see their profit margins crash.