Nintendo Switch 2 Jumps to $500 on September 1, Blamed on the DRAM Memory Crisis

The Nintendo Switch 2 goes up $50 in the US starting September 1, from $449.99 to $499.99. In Europe the increase is 30 euros, up to 499.99 euros, and in Canada the console rises to CAD 679.99. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa personally apologized for the decision: "We sincerely apologize to our customers for the considerable inconvenience and trouble this will cause. While we wanted to prioritize wide adoption, it was challenging to bear the rising costs over a long period."

Three reasons at once, not one

Furukawa avoided pinning the blame on a single cause, citing "various recent shifts in market conditions" affecting the long-term viability of the console business. In practice, three factors overlap: a permanent rise in memory component costs, exchange rates, and oil prices. Nintendo estimates the combined impact of component price increases and tariffs at roughly ¥100 billion in additional operating costs for the current fiscal year, and, as Furukawa admitted, even the new price doesn't cover the full gap.

The single biggest factor is the DRAM memory shortage driven by AI data centers, cloud companies are buying memory in such volume and at such prices that it's pushing up costs for every hardware maker, not just Nintendo. It's the exact same mechanism behind Nvidia not releasing a single new gaming graphics card this year, choosing instead to sell memory to data centers. Consoles and graphics cards are now competing for the same shrinking resource.

How the increase breaks down by region

$50 in the US works out to just under an 11% jump from the console's launch price. Europe's 30-euro bump is roughly the same order of magnitude. The hike lands noticeably harder in Canada, where exchange rates and local tariffs push the percentage increase above what US or European buyers see. Nintendo hasn't said yet whether or how the price rise extends to accessories, Joy-Con 2 controllers or docking stations, keeping the announcement limited to the console itself for now.

Nintendo is already forecasting weaker sales

The scale of the problem shows up clearly in Nintendo's own projections. The company expects to sell 16.5 million Switch 2 units this fiscal year, down from 19.86 million the year before. That's an unusual situation for a console in its second year, when sales typically climb rather than drop. Markets reacted sharply: Nintendo's stock fell 9-10% in Tokyo after the announcement, and the company's revenue forecast of ¥2.05 trillion came in well below the ¥2.46 trillion analysts had expected.

Analysts themselves are split on whether Nintendo is being cautious or genuinely worried. Serkan Toto of Kantan Games thinks the company is underselling its own numbers, arguing customers typically accept price hikes once the initial sticker shock wears off. Kazunori Ito of Morningstar went further, calling Nintendo's guidance "overly conservative" and estimating hardware sales closer to 19 million units, well above what the company itself is projecting.

Games are supposed to make up the difference

Furukawa put it plainly: the price increase itself raises the barrier to entry for new buyers, but Nintendo is betting a strong game lineup will win people over anyway. That's a bet that demand for specific titles, including the free Witcher 3 remaster landing natively on Switch 2 on September 29, will outweigh the psychological barrier of crossing the $500 mark. History suggests Nintendo rarely misjudges this calculation, the brand tends to hold on to buyer loyalty through price increases as long as the game library keeps growing.