The Switch Successor May Be A Pricey Proposition – Editorial
Or other lessons from SIX HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE US DOLLARS.
Well, the absolute madlads did it. In the announcement today of Sony’s greatest upgrade since the 8GB SPOSTDFW or the PSVR 2, I’m not sure which, they managed to outdo the infamous $599 US launch price of the PlayStation 3 in 2006 with the PlayStation 5 Pro at $699.99. And since I don’t live in the United States but rather its hat, I would then have to shell out $959.99 before tax (minimum 5% if I buy it visiting my brother or 15% anywhere else). Throw on another $100+tax for an add-on disc drive if I want to be able to burn through games as fast as I did with the PS4 in 2016-18 and… let me just quote a text I sent my roommate when I found out the local price:
“So Sony announced a PS5 Pro today and we could split the cost or pay the rent”.
Now, my rent is depressed by a decade of loyalty discounts and five years of pandemic-induced statutory rent increase caps. I know of someone moving in a couple of floors up who is looking at $2000 for a two bedroom apartment. But the fact that I can even make the comparison means the PS5 Pro is completely untenable for me, especially since I don’t have a 4k TV and refuse to get one that isn’t inspired by Moose Mason. (My next TV needs to be big, but also needs to be as dumb as a brick. Please leave suggestions in the Talkback or on our Discord.) If for some reason I get a hair up and decide I have to play the two relevant exclusives Astro Bot and, uh, Astro Bot: Rescue Mission I’ll stick with a used “Slim” model, thanks.
But Sony has shown their hand for the next five years. Microsoft has said they’re not doing a mid-cycle upgrade in the tradition of the Xbox One X The World’s Most Powerful Game Console. And Valve only introduced the Steam Deck OLED after I finished my cooling off period for the original model. So the next major hardware manufacturer to step up to the plate is Nintendo. And based on today, I’m afraid of what we’re going to see from Nintendo whenever “Switch Successor-mas” comes around.
Currently, the Switch occupies three of the four lowest hardware prices for dedicated gaming hardware – US$199 for a Lite, $299 for a standard (tied with the Xbox Series S), and $349 for the OLED. $349 is the highest price Nintendo has ever launched a console with historically, with the Switch OLED tied with… the launch Wii U. It definitely feels like they’re going to bring the successor in at a record price, whether due to general production costs, flash memory pricing given how much oxygen Apple sucks up in that space, or just in the interest of Nintendo-like profits. Even if they’re treating it as a fourth, more powerful Switch 1 with some exclusives, that would still suggest a $400 price point, which puts it at the price of a digital PS5 or an entry-level (LCD) Steam Deck. Unless they drop the price of Switches across the board this holiday in an attempt to move systems – and time is running out to make that unprecedented-for-this-generation move – that’s the minimum buy-in.
The other expense point may be the cost of games; $70 has become the standard for new tentpole releases to buy outright on PS5 and Xbox Series. Nintendo has only gone there once, and that was a game in Tears of the Kingdom that required the “in case of emergency break glass” 32GB Switch card. Does the successor have a higher capacity for physical media that would allow a game running “at gen 8 hardware levels” to ship without extra consumer cost? And maybe without requiring large downloads while we’re at it, not that I’m mentioning any names 2K? We can’t tell right now, and won’t until Nintendo comes out and actually says something beyond “the successor exists and we’ll talk about it before March 31, 2025”.
I’m mentally preparing for a US$400/C$550 Switch successor – and a quick iteration with a major selling point removed at a lower cost for the 30th anniversary Pokemon release in 2026. You can’t tell me that the 2DS launching in September 2013 and the Lite in 2019 is a coincidence. I’ll also probably need to drop a Borden (a Canadian Benjamin) on a massive microSD card in the same window, and either load up on credit for game vouchers if that’s coming to the successor or prepare to actually pay $94.59 for a game. At least then if Nintendo comes in under price – or just puts the screws to Japan like Sony did, holy crap the PS5 Pro is almost ¥120,000 there – I can be pleasantly surprised.
