Forum - View topicNEWS: Nintendo Delays Switch 2 Pre-Orders in U.S. to Assess Tariffs' Impact
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1674 |
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Gotta make sure they don't miss a dollar on those massive profits.
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Nionel
 Posts: 452 Location: Nebraska |
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Sadly this is going to become common in gaming, anime, collectables, etc. With most physical media and hardware manufactured outside of the US, most of our hobbies are going to impacted before too long.
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EmeraldSaucer
 Posts: 123 |
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More like when you're suddenly struck with 46% tariffs because that's what ChatGPT spat out for somebody you have to reassess things lol |
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mdo7
 Posts: 7093 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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That's true, I just saw a CBS Evening News segment that talked about a comic book shop owners that relies on manga and imported and translated graphic novels could take a hit for his shop because of Trumps' tariff. Not only that, I'm also worried about other thing like for example, I think a lot of you may have heard about the immigration crackdown and ICE going after international students, and others with no history of criminal including green card folks. I'm also worried for that because well, the Japanese American communities condemned Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to justify detaining immigrants which is connected to Japanese American internment back in WWII. Because of that, it's leading to Japanese-American communities are willing to shield and protect immigrants, both undocumented and green cards from being deported or being going after from ICE. Now, my biggest worries: if Trump and MAGA saw what the Japanese-Americans communities are willing to protect immigrants both undocumented, and green cards regardless of what race that immigrant is, I'm worried Trump may attack Japanese-American communities by hurting Japan, and that can include targeting and hurting anime/manga. It's possible Trump can not only demonize Japanese-American communities, he can also demonize anime/manga (both the medium and the fandom too) on that level to hurt Japanese-Americans communities and also demonize anime/manga fandom as collaborators with Japanese-American communities, and he can also put other Asian-American communities at his crosshair too because he wants to lump Japanese-American, anime and manga, and the wider Asian-American communities together to probably try to attempt to have AAAPI communities turn against one another. And I worried for anime conventions in the US could face this if Japanese-American communities continue to shield, harbor, and protect immigrants communities and defy the Trump Administration. Seeing Trump going after DEI, I'm worried he may try to use the anti-DEI thing to shut down anime conventions in the US if Japanese-American communities continue to defy the administration, and continuing to harbor/protect the immigrant communities from getting detained and deported. It's not only anime/manga I worried about, I also worried about K-Pop too because well K-pop fans in the US were the one that shut down white supremacy back in 2020. We sabotaged Trump's Tulsa rally back in 2020 (I know because I was an eyewitness to the whole thing), and I'm worried that could put K-pop fandom in the MAGA target and Trump could throw South Korea under the bus. Also, factor in that K-pop seem to be helping Asian men score interracial dating on a mainstream level, which could anger white supremacist and feed into their "white genocide" narrative about AMWF interracial couple. As a long time anime/manga, and a K-pop fans, and as a 2nd-gen Vietnamese American, this has already scared me since he was re-elected. Last edited by mdo7 on Sat Apr 05, 2025 12:00 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Wack Sage
 Posts: 66 |
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I guess this confirms that the initial pricing people were in an uproar about was before tariffs were considered. Which makes Nintendo look even worse now since people were trying to justify them saying they were high because of tariffs.
Assuming nothing changes I guess this gives Sony and Microsoft a chance to sweep in and still undercut Nintendo since they showed their hand pre-emptively |
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Yuvelir
Posts: 1674 |
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Yeah, hence my initial comment. Nintendo clearly thinks that 50000 yen is a fair price for Switch 2 - what they sell the Japanese model for. But they want everyone else to pay an extra 20k. I get it, the yen is weak and thus 50k are more affordable for American and European customers than Japanese ones, but that's still a 40% difference of pure profit for them. So what are they stopping preorders for? Do they want to make sure no console remains unsold despite those profit margins? Or will we see a miracle and they're actually trying to check if they could use that profit margin to "cushion" the impact on customers? |
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Mike Dohzart
Posts: 20 |
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The good times weren't going to last forever but I think we'll be fine. I remember back in the early 2010s when the USD was weaker than the Yen and it was so painful to be importing. Even at a 24% tariff with how weak the yen is to the USD now I think it'll be fine for fans of Japanese media. I went back to check out how some of my Amazon Japan orders looked from around the anime boom of 2011 and man it's crazy. 9000 yen was over 100 USD back then. Today it's 55 bucks. Even if everything increases 24% that puts it at 68 bucks. Not that bad imo |
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EmeraldSaucer
Posts: 123 |
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No, it means that the initial pricing was in consideration of proposed tariffs against Japan. Which led Nintendo to move production of the Switch 2 to Vietnam, only for Vietnam to be hit with even worse tariffs on a whim |
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Vanadise
 Posts: 546 |
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Reminder that, relative to the purchasing power of the dollar, the Switch 2's price is roughly the same as every other console Nintendo has released (and cheaper than the SNES!). Their systems haven't gotten more expensive; you're in an economic depression and your standard of living has gone now.
But that's gotta suck, having just announced your system at a price you know people will grumble about but still pay, and then surprise insane tariffs mean you either have to raise the price or lose money on every system you sell. |
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 472 |
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I mean, you say that like it's some amazing traitorish thing. Like, of course? I know anyone can just go "Nintendo Greedy!" but like they're not gonna shift to losing money (or like, barely making a profit) on every system all of a sudden just because they announced a price too early. Any company would. I mean Sony and Microsoft aren't gonna shift the prices of their consoles up but they've been out a while. |
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2447 |
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Oh ho ho, MS and Sony are not gonna undercut a damn thing. Because they have to deal with tariffs too. This is gonna be rough for them too what with having to deal with chips and components in their other products. And no guys, this doesn't prove this was the price before tariffs, get real. The prices probably were because of tariffs, but Nintendo was having to take a guess and now the rates are higher than expected because, of course, the current administration's rates are based on nonsense. Right now the reality is "Trump, Trump, Trump. Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs." Get mad at them |
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Egan Loo
Posts: 1381 |
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As some of The Financial Times' sources noted in the article, Nintendo was preparing and factoring for the anticipated tariffs months before Wednesday's dual announcements. What surprised many companies was not the tariffs happening, but their size and breadth. Nintendo is not the only one having to revamp its plans once the tariffs' vastness became clear — sectors from the car industry to agriculture also reported having to make bigger changes. One CEO found out live, on microphone: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-tariffs-trade-war-stock-market-04-03-2025/card/what-the-restoration-hardware-ceo-really-thinks-of-tariffs-d2PQ9TjtZNIib1Mh4XCy |
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Mike Dohzart
Posts: 20 |
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The problem with that we can easily see no other company out there has adjusted to those supposed tariffs. New Japanese PS5 games like Monster Hunter Wilds have been releasing at a $69.99 price point for months and the ones we know coming out in the future like Death Stranding 2 are still coming out at that price point as well. It's only the Switch 2's library that saw an increase in the standard price. Is it a simple oversight on Sony's part to have not adjust for potential tariffs or does Trump just hate Nintendo specifically so he tacked on some extra tariffs to them? 
I think the more likely answer is Nintendo knows Mario Kart is going to sell given how well 8 Deluxe did for the Switch and they can charge more for it so they did. The simplest answer might be the most likely. |
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mdo7
Posts: 7093 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Ah, I see. Thank you for the clarification on that Egan. |
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EmeraldSaucer
Posts: 123 |
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In terms of software, it's very silly to attribute Nintendo acclimating to what is becoming more and more the standardized price (as you yourself mention) to tariffs. Especially when it's something they already experimented with successfully with Tears of the Kingdom. That said, I have some bad news for you about what software pricing across the board is going to look like soon if you think this is an isolated incident |
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