Switch 2 is one of Nintendo’s most expensive consoles, with inflation

January’s Nintendo Switch 2 reveal event took the wraps off the console, but left a lot of details unanswered until now. After the initial reveal, I put together an analysis of the possible pricing for the console, using Nintendo’s own historical pricing strategies to guide my thinking. My conclusion then was that it would cost $399.

I… was wrong. The Nintendo Switch 2 will debut in June starting at $449.99, with a $499.99 version that includes Mario Kart World.

At that price, the Nintendo Switch 2 will be the most expensive console Nintendo has ever released, by some margin. And even adjusted for inflation, and when considering the various bundle packages of previous Nintendo consoles, the Nintendo Switch 2 will still be the most expensive Nintendo console ever made!

It’s not quite June yet, so I can’t update this chart to reflect the inflation-adjusted price to the same date of the Switch 2 launch, but the prices from February of this year are pretty illustrative of the change here.

[Ed. note: An earlier version of this list didn’t include information on pack-in games included in some console releases, and didn’t include the various NES bundles and prices. Adjusted for inflation, only the very first NES release — a tricked-out bundle originally limited to test markets only — would be more expensive than the Nintendo Switch 2. Once you compare it to the more widely released Control Deck release just a few months later, the relative cost of the Nintendo Switch 2 is clear.]

But it wasn’t just me that was wrong! Nearly 57% of our poll respondents agreed with my predicted $399 price, and just 9% thought it would come in at $449. (If that was you, congratulations!) Is that indicative that Nintendo will have a hard time moving units at $449, or simply that people didn’t think Nintendo would go that high? It’s too early to say.

Earlier reporting from Bloomberg, citing multiple industry analysts, pegged the price between $399 and $499, so… nailed it?

On price, the analysts Bloomberg spoke to are unanimous in expecting the Switch 2 to cost at least $399 — which, again, agrees with Polygon’s own analysis. Some think it could go higher, to $449 or even $499, driven by the cost of components and fears over the impact of U.S. tariffs. At $499 it would be the same price as a PlayStation 5 (and $50 more than a digital-only model).

Here again is a list of all of the current-gen consoles, now including the Switch 2 and its confirmed pricing:

At $449, the Switch 2 will go toe to toe on pricing with the all-digital variants of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, which is in keeping with the Switch’s 2017 launch price that matched the $299 being asked for the PS4 Slim and Xbox One S. It’s worth noting, however, that $299 in 2017 dollars still comes in under $400 in today’s bucks, when adjusted for inflation. It’s not just you — everything really is just more expensive!

One last consideration: While the Switch 2’s specs actually put it a notch above the Steam Deck in some key categories, like resolution and including a 4K-compatible dock out of the box, I didn’t expect Valve’s portable gaming PC to beat Nintendo on pricing. The Steam Deck APU is going on three years old at this point, and a little long in the tooth, but it’s hard to argue against the value embedded in Valve’s storefront. (I bought Undertale for $1 recently just to have another copy.) So with Valve continuing to make a name for itself, and with Microsoft reportedly entering the portable gaming space this year in partnership with Asus, Nintendo no longer has the exclusive lock on the portable gaming market.

Update: I updated the headline and some of the opening paragraphs, along with the first pricing comparison chart, to reflect that when evaluated on a more like-to-like basis the Nintendo Switch 2, with and without a pack-in game, is in fact the most expensive Nintendo console ever released, when adjusted for inflation.