Capcom has announced it will go live with a new title update for the arcade fighter compilation this Wednesday, April 16. Chief among the new additions is an offline Versus option across all titles in the collection, while an increased resolution option will also be available to players on Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes.

Interestingly, the update will also allow players to choose between X-Men vs. Street Fighter’s versions 960910, 961004, and 961023 with a new version select option. Additional improvements include a game reset option, bonus remixed tracks, new artwork, and more. Check out the trailer below for the title update’s highlights.

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. 

SCREEN

Let’s get started with the basics- the screen, which brings several upgrades. For starters, the Switch 2’s screen is larger than the base Switch model’s by a noticeable margin, going from 6.2 inches to 7.9 inches. Meanwhile, where the Switch 1’s screen outputs at 720p at most, the Switch 2 will be capable of 1080p output. It also touts support for VRR and 120 FPS gameplay.

MAGNETIC JOY-CONS

We’ve gotten used to how the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Cons detach and slot back in over the last several years, but Nintendo is changing things up with the Switch 2. Unlike the Switch 1’s Joy-Cons, which would slide into (and out of) rails on either side of the tablet, the Switch 2’s Joy-Cons will attach to the tablet magnetically. To detach them, players will have to hold down a new button close to the trigger, with Nintendo providing assurances that the magnetic controllers won’t just separate and fall off by themselves.

MOUSE FUNCTIONALITY

Here’s another major change you can expect with the Joy-Con 2 controllers, and one that leaks had actually talked about for a while. The new controllers feature sensors on their side, which will allow you to simply turn either Joy-Con sideways and use it like a mouse on a flat surface. The Switch 1 boasted three different play styles in handheld mode, console mode, and tabletop mode, allowing you to seamlessly and instantly swap between them. The Switch 2 is adding mouse mode to that list.

C BUTTON AND GAMECHAT

Another major (according to Nintendo, at least) new feature being introduced with the Switch 2 is the new C button, which is tied to the new GameChat feature. Pressing the button will bring up the GameChat menu, which will let you voice chat (or video chat, if you have the requisite accessory) with other players while playing your own game. Sadly, GameChat will be available exclusively to NSO subscribers past its open access period (which runs until March next year).

MORE JOY-CON CHANGES

Nintendo has improved the Switch 2’s Joy-Cons in other areas as well. One of the most common criticisms for the original controllers continues to be the tiny size of the SL and SR buttons, which Nintendo has directly addressed by expanding their dimensions a tad. The Switch 2’s analog sticks are also larger, while the company has also offered assurances that stick drift issues – a major problem with the Switch 1 – will be less of a concern with the new console.

PRO CONTROLLER CHANGES

As you would expect, the Switch 2 will also have its own new Pro Controller for players to purchase as an accessory, and it, too, will come with several changes. The aforementioned C button will of course be featured, in addition to an audio jack, something that is glaringly missing in the otherwise excellent Switch Pro Controller. Additional, the Switch 2’s Pro Controller will also feature new GL and GR buttons on the grip that you’ll be able to program and assign to whatever inputs you wish.

4K CAPABLE

From a tech and hardware perspective, the Switch 2 is going to be Nintendo’s biggest generational leap since the GameCube. The Switch 1 was an outdated piece of kit even back when it launched in 2017, but the Switch 2 is going to be a completely different story. Nintendo has, for instance, confirmed that the console will be capable of outputting games at a 4K resolution, something that is completely impossible on the Switch.

SUPPORTS RAY TRACING AND DLSS

That the Switch 2 will use Nvidia’s DLSS is something that rumours have been claiming for several years, going back far enough that they were initially tied to the fabled and nonexistent Switch Pro. That is now officially confirmed, in case you were wondering how the Switch 2 is 4K capable after all, given that its specs would put it below even the Xbox Series S in terms of pure, raw numbers. Meanwhile, in addition to DLSS, the Switch 2 also features ray tracing support.

3D AUDIO

We’ve spoken plenty about the many visual enhancements we can look forward to with the Switch 2, but its upgrades don’t end there. On the audio side of things, on top of louder and higher-quality speakers, the Switch 2 also touts support for 3D audio in both console and handheld mode.

SWITCH 2 EDITION GAMES

The upcoming next-gen console’s greater hardware capabilities will obviously mean better looking new games, but even existing existing Switch 1 titles are going to benefit. It’ll ultimately be up to each publisher’s discretion, but for several, you can expect what are being called Nintendo Switch 2 Edition releases, which are basically Switch 2-enhanced versions of Switch 1 titles. The upgrades, pricing, and what have you will obviously vary from game to game and developer to developer.

STORAGE

As you’d expect, the Switch 2’s internal storage is also significantly more substantial than the Switch 1. The latter launched in 2017 with 32 GB of internal storage, but its successor will tout as much as 256 GB- though Switch 2 titles are, of course, going to weigh more than Switch 1 games. The console’s storage will also be expandable, but regular microSD cards will no longer be supported, with new microSD Express cards instead being required.

BATTERY

Given the more powerful hardware of the Switch 2, it comes as no surprise that the console’s battery life is taking a hit. Where the Switch 1 can last anywhere between 4-10 hours on a full charge depending on your usage, according to Nintendo, the Switch 2’s battery life will range between 2 to six-and-a-half hours. In terms of charging time, however, Nintendo estimates three hours for a full charge, which is about the same as the Switch 1.

DOCK

Similar to the tablet itself, the Switch 2’s dock will also be different from the Switch 1’s. At 4.5 inches tall, 7.9 inches wide, and 2 inches thick, it’s somewhat larger the the Switch 1’s dock, which is 4.1 inches tall, 6.8 inches wide, and 2.12 inches thick. Unlike the original base dock, the new one will will also have an ethernet port for those who wish to directly plug in a LAN cable.

GAMECUBE TITLES ON NINTENDO SWITCH ONLJNE

Fans have been hoping to see GameCube titles being added to NSO’s library for a while now, and that is finally set to happen starting June 5- but only for the Switch 2. Switch 1’s Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription includes games for the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance. On the Switch 2, on top of all of that, subscribers will also get GameCube games, with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Soulcalibur 2, and F-Zero GX set to be there day one, and more (including Luigi’s Mansion, Super Mario Sunshin, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, and many others) arriving later.

PRICING CHANGES

This is the big one, and unfortunately, not for the right reasons. The original Switch launched in the US at a price of $299, but the Switch 2 is bringing about a steep increase. Nintendo has announced a price of $449 for the console, though with the tariff-shaped clouds looming large, there’s a good chance that thar price is going to increase before the console has launched, at least in the US.

Furthermore, Askiisoft revealed in the trailer description that the DLC is “finally nearing completion.” Zero’s story will continue as players learn more about his “murky past” through new levels. Fans can also look forward to new characters, gameplay mechanics and weapons (including the Plasma Blaster).

Though the DLC was initially touted to be half as long as the base game, it’s seemingly grown in scale over the past several years. Whether it arrives this year or not, it’s looking like a meaty experience for fans.

Katana ZERO is available for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. It was released last year for iOS and Android. At one point, it became the second fastest-selling title for publisher Devolver Digital and sold 500,000 units in less than a year.

As part of the new multiplatform release, Disney Illusion Island Starring Mickey and Friends is also getting new content in the form of Scrooge offering the playable characters a new special ability called Dig! This ability can then be turned in for permanent upgrades for a new game mode dubbed Cave Adventuring Scavenger Hunt (C.A.S.H.). This new content will also be released on Nintendo Switch.

Getting ready for its release on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, a new trailer for Disney Illusion Island Starring Mickey and Friends has been released. Check it out below. The trailer gives us quick glimpses at each of the four playable characters, before giving us a wider look at its gorgeous art style and levels and character designs.

As the trailer indicates, along with the new content, Disney Illusion Island‘s multiplatform release will also bring with it sharper visuals thanks to the higher resolution output that is possible on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The multi-platform release was first hinted at earlier this week when PSDeals was able to scrape through PlayStation Store’s backend for details about the release. The game will include all of the gameplay features from the original Nintendo Switch release, including offline co-op multiplayer for between 2 and 4 players, along with the ability for players to help each other by using unique abilities.

Disney Illusion Island was originally announced back in September 2022. It was eventually released on the Nintendo Switch, even getting a trailer leading up to its July 2023 release date. The trailer gave us a glimpse at some of the areas that players would be exploring in the game, as well as some of the special abilities of each of the four playable characters.

In Disney Illusion Island, players take on the role of Mickey, Minnie, Goofy or Donald as they set forth to explore the titular island. The game has been structured like other metroidvania titles, complete with players needing to explore every nook and cranny in order to find upgrades and shortcuts that will help them progress further through its story.

Back when it came out, the title got generally positive reviews. Its Metacritic aggregate sits at around 73, and in our own review for the game, we gave it a score of 8 out of 10. While we praised the game for great visuals and animations, as well as the general charm it exudes thanks to its witty writing, we did find some of its gameplay mechanics a on the shallower end, and the lack of combat offering up some awkward boss fights here and there.

In a thread on social media platform X, Poncle elaborated that the legal issue comes from the developer needing to share the information of the partners that it works with in order to enable cross-save. Because of this, chances of the feature ever making it to the PS4 and PS5 “are now very slim.”

“We’re sorry to say won’t be able to bring the Vampire Survivors Cross-Save feature to PlayStation 4/5 alongside our next update,” wrote Poncle on X. “Last month, we told everyone that Cross-Save would be available on PlayStation 4/5, PC, Xbox, Android and iOS alongside our next free [Vampire Survivors] update in April”

“But at last minute, we’ve run into a legal issue on PlayStation we weren’t aware of that requires us to share info on our partners that we’re unable to. The chances of Cross-Save coming to PlayStation consoles are now very slim.”

However, Poncle has said that it’s not completely impossible. Because of this, it is continuing to work with PlayStation to sort these issues out.

“We’re so sorry to build up any anticipation for this feature on PlayStation only to change plans at the last minute,” wrote the developer.

Despite problems faced in bringing cross-save to PS4 and PS5, other versions of the game – PC, Xbox, Android and iOS – will still be getting the feature in an update over the next few weeks. Even the Nintendo Switch version of Vampire Survivors will get the update in a later update. The Apple Arcade version might get cross-save too.

The PS4 and PS5 versions of Vampire Survivors were released back in August 2024. Alongside the base game itself, all of the DLC for the game was also released

The last major DLC released for Vampire Survivors was Ode to Castlevania, where Poncle collaborated with Konami to bring in some Castlevania-related characters, enemies and weapons to the game. The DLC was released back in November. Check out our coverage of the release for more details, including a trailer.

Aside from the new additions like new enemies and modes, how will Monster Train 2 up the ante from its predecessor?

Monster Train 2 (MT2) is all about improving on every aspect of the first game. In addition to five new clans – each with new gameplay mechanics and strategic possibilities – one of our major new features is customizable Pyre Hearts. The heart of the Pyre powers your train and is what you must keep safe to survive to the end of a run. In MT2, there are over 10 different Pyre Hearts to unlock, each with different stats and gameplay mechanics to add more strategic depth to runs.

"Monster Train 2 is all about improving on every aspect of the first game."

What are some examples of how the new card types will interact with each other?

MT2 adds two new card types: Equipment and Room cards. Equipment cards are applied directly to your units and empowers them with various abilities. Room cards enhance a specific room in the train for the duration of the current battle. Both types of cards can be used in parallel because they affect different parts of game – units and rooms – but only one Equipment card can be equipped on a unit and only one Room card can be installed in a room.

How exactly will Endless Mode work in Monster Train 2? What kind of difficulty scaling can we expect to see?

We see Endless Mode as a dessert on top of the main course (runs). The player can enter Endless Mode if they win the run, continuing into a series of infinite battles, creating an opportunity to see just how far your deck can go. Enemies start at a challenge level around matching the end of a run and scale up from there as you make forward progress. Between each battle the player must pick a positive boon and a negative one to keep things interesting. We keep track of your best Endless Mode statistics in our Logbook so you can continue to try to improve on your records!

How have other similar card games affected the design process for Monster Train 2?

The development team are big fans of non-digital CCGs like Magic: The Gathering, which obviously uses a mix of spells and units as its core combat mechanics, as well as Hearthstone‘s PvE draft modes which feature a rapid rate of deck drafting. Of course, there’s also Slay the Spire which demonstrated that there was an audience for this sort of game and has the idea of passive items that give bonuses, as well the first breakout digital drafting roguelike, Dream Quest – which had our lead designer hooked over a long Christmas break.

"Of course, there’s also Slay the Spire which demonstrated that there was an audience for this sort of game"

How will the new clans in Monster Train 2 differentiate themselves from what we saw in the original Monster Train?

Each of the new clans has new mechanics not seen in the first game, both in terms of the types of status effects they employ and their utilization of Equipment and Room cards. As an example, the Banished clan feature in our demo can grant units a way to fly to any position in the train. This works via another new feature, Unit Abilities, where individual units have activated abilities with a cooldown.

Are there any plans for post-launch content for Monster Train 2 in the form of expansions?

The honest answer is that it is going to depend on how well the game sells, but we have a lot of ideas and hope to be able to support the game post-launch with content updates.

Can you give us an example of what we can expect from the new random events in Monster Train 2?

MT2 features a wide variety of new random events that can occur at “Celestial Alcoves” during runs. Many of them have new mechanics and choices to consider in terms of positive benefits and periodic negative trade-offs. Some of our events include some surprise characters from other games that the dev team are fans of. While I can’t announce specifically what those are at this time, I think they are really cool additions to Monster Train.

Are there any plans to potentially bring some kind of multiplayer mode to Monster Train 2 down the line?

Monster Train 2 has asynchronous leaderboard based multiplayer modes, like the Daily Challenge, where you can try to score higher than other players. We have no plans for any synchronous multiplayer modes currently.

"Monster Train 2 has asynchronous leaderboard based multiplayer modes"

What kind of release window are you looking at for Monster Train 2?

Very soon! Monster Train 2 will release May 21, 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5, Switch, and Xbox Series S|X. We’re very excited for everyone to play it.

As a developer, what are your thoughts on the PS5 Pro? How does boost in GPU help in developing your game compared to the base PS5?

Overall, new tech is always interesting to me, so I think it’s great that Sony has brought new capabilities to developers and customers. Monster Train 2 isn’t a particularly graphics-intensive game in terms of compute demand (though it looks good I think!) so the PS5 Pro’s enhanced GPU capabilities don’t make a significant impact on this game. However, for games that can utilize it, I think it’s great.

What are your thoughts on PSSR? What kind of opportunities will this open for the game?

It looks like an interesting technology to help improve framerates in games that are really pushing the GPU to the limits. It won’t benefit Monster Train 2, which is not a demanding game on the GPU.

What resolution and frame rates will the game target on the Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PS5 Pro?

I may sound like a broken record here, but as a strategy game without significant demands on the GPU, we haven’t put a lot of time into thinking about this. The game runs at the native resolution of the device it is plugged into and aims to run at the refresh rate supported by the device.

Do you have any plans to launch the game on the Switch 2?

We have nothing to announce regarding Switch 2 currently.

Former Nintendo PR managers Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang spoke about this in a new video. The duo spoke about Nintendo’s approach to games where the company tends to “respect the value” of each title released. This approach also extended to influencers that would contact the company to do game giveaway events. Check out the video below.

“Nintendo products have immense value, we must always respect that immense value,” said Ellis. “This is why these things don’t go on sale. The value is the value and we are seriously into that concept of ‘respect the value of what this thing is that we have made, because it is very special.'”

Yang mentions that this is a major contributor to the fact that games on Nintendo’s platforms, especially first-party releases from major franchises like The Legend of Zelda or Super Mario Bros., seldom ever go on sales. Contrast this to Microsoft with Xbox Series X/S, Sony with PS5, and even Steam on PC. Yang believes that the average Nintendo console user has been conditioned to just accept this fact as a part of playing Nintendo games.

“As a Nintendo customer, fan,” Yang explained, “you’re kind of conditioned to, ‘If I want to buy this, I might as well by this now, because it’s not going to go on sale.'”

The high prices of games released on Nintendo’s consoles is jokingly referred to by gamers as the “Nintendo Tax”. This is acknowledged by Ellis, who talks about how Nintendo sees the value of its games, especially when compared to other games in the market.

“It’s a Nintendo tax,” said Ellis. “What we made was $60. A lot of those other games that are $60 are junk. They don’t have the level of Nintendo quality or polish or attention, so we need to distinguish how premium this thing is through the pricing, and you will come to understand that.”

Nintendo has recently come under heavy criticism for its pricing of the upcoming Switch 2 as well as some of the first-party games that will be coming to the console. For context, the console is priced at $449.99, while Mario Kart World will be priced at $79.99 for the digital version. A physical copy will set you back by $89.99 instead.

Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser addressed these criticism. In a recent interview, he spoke about how the company sees the value of its hardware and software. As for the pricing, he mentions that, while many fans won’t be able to afford the new console and its games, they can look to the other Switch consoles to play the company’s titles.

“We recognize there are some people that may not be able to afford [the Switch 2’s] price point,” said Bowser. “That’s why we wanted to make the other Switch platforms available, so [people] still have an opportunity to come into our gaming universe, be a part of these characters in these worlds, and see value, if you will, in whatever rung of the platform they come in.”

The Nintendo Switch 2 is hitting store shelves on June 5.

The development team hasn’t offered any new updates or details since then. However, Matthew Griffin, in charge of marketing and publishing for Silksong, tweeted, “Just to clarify…Hollow Knight: Silksong is coming to both Nintendo Switch AND the Nintendo Switch 2.” He also reposted a tweet from Nintendo of Europe about the 2025 release window. Plans can always change, though.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is also coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox One, PC and Xbox Series X/S while launching on day one for Game Pass. The story focuses on Hornet, Hallownest’s princess, who is captured and transported to a new kingdom.

Alongside new combat mechanics, players can embark on new quests, take on over 150 new enemies and partake in the new challenging Silk Soul mode. Stay tuned for more details and a definite release date in the coming months.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Nintendo console presentation without a fair bit of “Really?” to go with the hype. The Switch 2 launches on June 5th worldwide and alongside numerous third-party titles, Mario Kart World, the newest title in the franchise, will be available on day one.

However, the console will cost $449.99 by itself (and probably in line for a raise if the recent USA pre-orders delay are anything to go by). If you decide to pick up the bundle that includes Mario Kart World, it’s $499.99, but there’s a download code instead of a physical copy.

There are a few caveats, though. In Japan, a region-locked version of the console will release and retail for ¥49,980 (compared to the multi-language option that costs ¥69,980). Considering the potential of supply shortages and scalping at launch, this is a good way to discourage the same while ensuring that players in Japan aren’t bled dry.

If the delay doesn’t result into a price raise, $499.99 is probably the best possible deal if you’re buying the Switch 2 to play nothing but Mario Kart for the next few years. The standalone pricing for various titles has been revealed, and it’s shocking, to say the least.

Mario Kart World retails for $79.99. Donkey Kong Bananza is $69.99. And these are only the digital prices. Physical prices are reportedly higher with the former costing €89.99 while the latter is €79.99. This would make Nintendo the first publisher in the world to offer a game for $79.99. You could argue many things and that’s before we even get to inflation, the stagnant prices of video games over the years, etc. Anyway, Nintendo has taken a “game by game basis” when it comes to pricing after Tears of the Kingdom marked its foray into $70 territory.

But wait, it gets even better (and somehow, more insane). Walmart lists The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Switch 2 Edition for $69.99. Super Mario Party Jamboree with Jamboree TV? $79.99. Tears of the Kingdom and Kirby and the Forgotten Land plus Star Crossed World also cost $79.99. You could argue that the new content and features make them worthwhile but enough to justify a $20 jump in price? And if you’re someone who’s held off on playing any of these games, especially Tears of the Kingdom, to experience them with the best visuals on Switch 2, pay up.

You could always go the backwards compatibility route and Nintendo has confirmed that certain titles like Link’s Awakening, Echoes of Wisdom, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and so on will receive free updates to “improve playability” on the Switch 2. Of course, Nintendo also takes care to mention that these updates may improve performance or add support for features like GameShare. It ultimately depends (which may as well mean, “Don’t get your hopes up”).

Also, if you own the Switch 1 version of a game and want to upgrade to the Switch 2 version, you can do so. It costs ¥1,000 to ¥2,000 in Japan with US prices yet to be revealed. Alternatively, one could subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack for $19.99 yearly to get the upgrade packs for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for free. The other games aren’t included but that could change down the line.

There are so many other things that are truly baffling, whether it’s locking GameCube games on NSO + Expansion Pack to the Switch 2 or providing Welcome Tour, Nintendo’s equivalent of Astro’s Playroom, for a price. But it’s the overall pricing standard that’s truly baffling.

Yes, inflation is a thing and video game prices have remained stagnant for years, but springing these kinds of prices on players without any warning is a gutsy move. It also places Nintendo in a rather bizarre situation. Triple-A publishers like Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts, Activision, and so on have received flak for pricing their titles at $69.99, intrinsic value and gameplay hours notwithstanding. Except for Tears of the Kingdom, which seemed justifiable given its sheer amount of content and production values, Nintendo has always offered a worthy alternative, even if it’s just $10 less than other publishers.

With this pricing model, it’s now throwing the doors open for the industry to follow. Remember when analyst Matthew Ball discussed how Grand Theft Auto 6 could cost $80 or $100, and cause the rest of the industry to finally move up its pricing? Nintendo has seemingly beaten Rockstar and Take-Two to the punch.

You might say, “I wouldn’t pay $80 for a Switch 2 exclusive but Grand Theft Auto 6 with its production values sounds worthwhile.” However, because the Switch 2, Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza will sell like hotcakes, Nintendo is sending a message that they can raise prices with impunity and still find success. And if it can do that with such an established fan base, who’s to say that Take-Two can’t go higher?

Grand Theft Auto 6 may cost $100 at launch but there may be a Deluxe Edition with additional benefits for $30 extra. Rockstar may go even further and charge players making the jump from Grand Theft Auto Online in GTA 5 to GTA 6. It could even sell a separate GTA Online 2 (or whatever it ends up being called) for $70, and don’t forget about the microtransactions.

This may all seem far-fetched but it’s apparent that we’re entering an age where publishers can demand whatever price they’d like for a game or console and see returns.

In the long term, the success of the Switch 2 and Grand Theft Auto 6 could very well uplift the industry. With console sales seeing their worst numbers in many years, the added revenue and dollar sales could help, especially when the Switch 2 versions of third-party games adopt higher prices.

The player is picking up the tab at the end of the day, and even if you argue that these price increases are a long time coming, the most important thing to remember is that publishers won’t stop. They’ll keep pushing the envelope and see how much more they can squeeze out their loyal fans. They’ll keep offering things to buy that we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like (to paraphrase Tyler Durden).

Remember how weird the $70 price point seemed all those years ago for PS5 and Xbox Series X games? You could say that Nintendo’s prices won’t influence the rest of the industry, but as soon as one major console manufacturer adopted the new “triple-A pricing,” the rest followed in rapid fashion. Value is subjective and whatnot, but it’s been less than five years and we’re already on the cusp of more price increases.

Best of all, Nintendo is doing what Nintendo does best – trailblazing ways for you to spend more money. None of this may matter when the Switch 2 breaks sales records, and we get used to potentially paying $80 for new games. And it may not matter when Grand Theft Auto 6 does the same. Yet when it becomes more prevalent in the following year, maybe even less, we’ll wonder where the line really is.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Now that the pricing for the Switch 2 has been revealed, along with a whole host of other details, however, it is difficult to not conclude that by Nintendo’s own stated metric, they have failed on this front at least. This is not to say the Switch 2 itself has failed, or that it will perform poorly – in fact, as we’ll discuss shortly, one of the reasons Nintendo has priced things the way it has is because of the confidence the company has that the system, its games, and its accessories are all guaranteed to do well. However, the Switch 2’s pricing strategy in particular, which is what we are discussing here, is where Nintendo seems to have fumbled here.

We’ll actually focus on the positives first. The Switch 2 hardware is actually fairly reasonably priced. While $399 would have been preferred by pretty much everyone, $449 inherently is not a bad price, especially given what the Switch 2 is offering (provided the recent delay in pre-orders for USA doesn’t increase the prices). A larger 1080p HDR enabled screen with 120FPS support and VRR compatibility, 4K support in docked mode, hardware that is capable of running current gen titles such as Elden Ring, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Borderlands 4, Star Wars Outlaws, Split Fiction, and even the technical showcase Cyberpunk 2077, robust 3D audio functionality, that mouse functionality built into the controllers, improvements to build and hardware quality across the board… $450 (if it doesn’t increase after the recent pre-orders delay for USA) it for the Switch 2 hardware itself is a reasonable asking price, even if it is a little bit more expensive than a lot of us would have liked.

It’s priced reasonably equivalently to other hardware that has similar specs – a lot of handhelds (PC or otherwise) that you may be able to get for cheaper will be completely unable to run a game like Star Wars Outlaws because they lack raytracing hardware and capabilities entirely, and Outlaws doesn’t have a raytracing-less build at all. That’s a game the Switch 2 runs with no trouble, apparently.

So the price of the hardware is competitive. And Nintendo has at least maintained full backward compatibility with all the Switch hardware, controllers, and accessories, as well as most games, that the massive audience of 150 million Switch owners may have accrued over the near decade of that system’s life. All of this is without question firmly in the “good” column as far as pricing decisions regarding the Switch 2 go.

But there are caveats even here – for example, the Switch 2 hardware is, by most reasonable metrics, priced competitively. But that still doesn’t mean it is affordable enough for that all important family and young demographic Nintendo’s President noted as being a critical consideration previously. At least right now, in 2025, with the global economy in distress, it is very hard to imagine the family that bought a cheap Switch Lite for their kid to play Pokemon and Animal Crossing will want to spend $450 (at a minimum!) on a Switch 2. And to be fair, I did compare the launch pricing of the Switch 2 with the pricing of the Switch Lite, which was a lower cost, pared back version of the Switch Nintendo launched a couple of years after the Switch had already been on the market.

Until the Switch Lite’s launch, there had been an argument to be made the original Switch itself was overpriced for the family demographic – at $300, it was more expensive than any Nintendo handheld had ever been until then (including the 3DS, which had been infamously rejected by the market at the far lower launch price of $250), and tied to be the most expensive launch price any Nintendo home console had had. Over time, however, Nintendo did make cheaper entry points into the ecosystem available – there is no reason to believe, for example, that a Switch 2 Lite won’t be releasing in 2026 or 2027, presumably timed to release around when Animal Crossing or the first Switch original Pokemon game is coming out.

But even if you bring the (admittedly reasonable, as mentioned) cost of the hardware down, you run into the absurdly high pricing everywhere else, in particular with the software on the Switch 2. To put it bluntly, Nintendo is really pushing the limits of what the market – even the vast, massive market that Nintendo enjoys – is willing to pay for access to Nintendo games. The cost of Mario Kart World, for example, is $80 USD. That’s an absurd, outrageous price – no game so far has had a standard edition launch at $80 in the United States.

There had been rumours and rumblings that Rockstar was looking at pricing GTA6 above the recently normalized $70 price point when it launches (allegedly later this year), but Nintendo sucker punched them and everyone else here. In at least some global markets (at the very least some continental European ones) Nintendo also seems to be charging more for physical copies of their games than digital – so in Europe, you are paying 80 Euros for a digital copy of Mario Kart World, and an eye watering 90 Euros for a physical one.

That’s… very high. Now Nintendo does offer a Switch 2 bundle for $500 which comes with this game, theoretically knocking $30 off of its price, which is nice, I suppose, and obviously incentivizes people to get that SKU rather than the cheaper hardware-only one instead. But it does highlight, again, just how shockingly high the baseline asking price here is to begin with.

High pricing is an issue across the board. Much like PlayStation, and unlike Xbox, Nintendo will offer paid upgrades for Switch 1 games to Switch 2 versions. You can, obviously, continue to play those games on a Switch 2 without paying anything extra, but if you want the Switch 2 functionality – the fancy new enhancements and features enabled by the Switch 2 – you will be paying for those upgrades.

And while this model is obviously following Sony’s model with the PS5, the pricing seems to be worse. PlayStation 4 to 5 upgrades for games such as Gran Turismo 7 were $10 – essentially covering the price differential between the $60 Sony charged for the PS4 version of a game, and the $70 it was charging for the PS5 version.

Nintendo is charging as much as $20 for these upgrades. Playing Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in 4K and 60FPS is a wonderful proposition, but the upgrades cost $20 each. Buying a Switch 2 enhanced copy of these games, which comes with all the upgrades out of the box? $80 USD, just like Mario Kart. Which, again, brings us back to the aforementioned high pricing. At least for the Zelda games, the Switch 2 enhancements will be available for free to anyone who is subscribed to the more expensive tier of the Nintendo Switch Online service – but if you want the enhancements for Super Mario Party Jamboree or Kirby and the Forgotten Land, you’re going to have to pay.

It’s all made worse because Nintendo games do not get price reductions. They go on temporary sales occasionally, but price drops are limited to 30-35% off their base price at best, and the games otherwise sell at full price even years after launch. In fact, Breath of the Wild, a Switch launch game, is still available for $60 in 2025, eight years after launch. So you can’t even count on Nintendo’s Switch 2 titles being available for reasonable discounted prices down the line – that simply doesn’t happen.

And over the last few months, Nintendo has also removed customer-friendly options that could have helped mitigate the pricing of these games a little – such as their vaunted vouchers program for digital purchases, or their gold coins cash back program, also for digital games. They stopped the Nintendo Selects/Players Choice lineup of budget price reissues of games entirely in the Switch generation. There are, as of right now, almost no “official” avenues available to help mitigate the asking price of Nintendo games at all.

It’s essentially Nintendo trying to maximize its cut, because the company knows that it can get away with it. Across nearly two hundred years, Nintendo has never been as successful or well-positioned as it is now. The Switch will end its run as the highest selling system of all time, set new records for software sales, their IP and franchises are more popular and more relevant than ever before, thanks to an explosion of sales on the Switch, their characters are multimedia properties now thanks to Nintendo’s ventures into movies and theme parks… essentially, in large part, the on average 30 million people who bought Zelda or Pokemon, the 50 million who bought Animal Crossing, or the nearly 70 million who bought Mario Kart, aren’t going to sit out the hardware that plays the next entries in those games for long.

They might hold out until they can get a better deal/reconcile themselves with the expense better, but even with some spillage and shrinkage generation on generation, the Switch 2 is guaranteed to do well. You may not expect it to do as well as the Switch’s 150 million plus, but it will definitely be above 100 million by the end of its lifespan, and it will probably finish closer to the Game Boy and PS4’s 120 million.

Even the 3DS, which came at a time when Nintendo’s IPs and properties were a lot smaller than they are today, and which had a far more turbulent launch than the Switch 2 looks to have, managed to get to 75 million – and again, that was in the pre-Switch explosion era. Nintendo IPs in the Wii/Wii U days were nowhere near as big as they are today – a baseline of success is guaranteed, for good or for bad.

Much like PlayStation in the home console space, Nintendo in the portable space now realizes that it is dominant in the market with no viable or credible challenger (the enthusiast-favourite Steam Deck has only sold 4 million units as of the end of last year, as per a report by IDC Estimates; the Switch is at 150 million), just like PlayStation realized there is no credible alternative for customers to migrate to en masse. And just like PlayStation, Nintendo has decided to up the ante with its pricing and charging, to the consumers’ detriment.

What the situation looks like a few years down the line remains to be seen. At the very least, on a hardware front. Nintendo will have a cheaper model available on the market sooner rather than later. The much more problematic software front is where things are more questionable. It is possible Nintendo introduces some initiatives to address pricing concerns by then – both the voucher system and the gold coins system on the Switch came more than a year after the system had been out.

Or hey, maybe Nintendo decides to be normal and has more frequent and/or better sales for its games instead. It remains to be seen. As of right now, for as slick as the Switch 2 hardware looks, and for as exciting as Donkey Kong and Mario Kart both look, it is impossible to deny that the Switch 2 is decidedly not priced in a way that would make it compelling to Nintendo’s family audiences.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.