Can Mario rescue Nintendo from Switch 2 pricing backlash?
Forget Princess Peach, it’s Nintendo that might need rescuing as it battles tariffs, inflation and its Switch 2 pricing backlash, writes Will Cooling
Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were in Bedfordshire last week to celebrate their clinching of a deal with Universal Studios to build a theme park and resort there by 2031. While all involved were keen to highlight the possibility of theme park rides built around British-created intellectual property such as Lord of the Rings, James Bond and Paddington, gamers such as myself were instead hoping this might mean the arrival of our own Super Nintendo World.
As shown by his successful theme parks in Japan and America, Super Mario is to modern audiences what Mickey Mouse was in the 1950s and 1960s. The 2023 Super Mario film broke box office records, as children, teenagers and adults who all grew up playing his games flocked to the cinema. And, unlike his arch-rival Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario has managed to stay not just a commercial powerhouse but a critical darling, as seen with beloved blockbusters such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Odyssey.
The Switch 2 and tariffs
But the company behind the icon is at a crossroads. After seven years Nintendo is finally ready to begin the process of moving on from its all-conquering Switch device, revealing its successor on the same day as Donald Trump announced his intention to wage economic warfare on the rest of the world. This may seem like bad luck but of course Nintendo was there at the creation of the current American President’s obsession with Asian countries replacing America in manufacturing.
Just as the 1970s oil crisis saw American car companies fall behind Japanese producers who better knew how to make reliable and economical models, a glut of substandard games saw the American video game industry destroy itself in 1983 as consumers lost confidence in home-grown developers such as Atari. It would be Nintendo that would pick up the pieces with the Nintendo Entertainment System, and six console generations later, Japan still dominates the console market.
The White House’s many gyrations means it’s unclear what impact the tariffs will have on the Switch 2’s price, although Nintendo has had to suspend North American pre-orders whilst they work out the impact.
Nintendo sparks backlash over pricing
Priced already at $450/£395, the Switch 2 is nominally the most expensive console in the company’s history, whilst Mario Kart World is the first Nintendo game to break the $70 barrier since the days of production-intensive cartridges – records which have sparked customer backlash. However, criticism of the pricing not only fails to account for the high levels of general inflation since 2017, but also the disproportionate impact this has had on computer chip manufacturing. Indeed, Sony has also just rolled out a second wave of price increases for the Playstation 5.
The Switch 2 is also a more advanced device than its predecessor. Whereas the original Switch at times struggled to play its key launch game in Zelda: Breath of the World, the new console seems to be handling far more graphically intensive games with ease.
That criticisms of the price are unfair does not mean Nintendo has no reasons to be worried. It may well be that its consumer base is dominated by people who don’t value better graphics or improved performance enough to pay a premium for a new console. Likewise, there’s every chance that the demand for handheld consoles continues to decline as mobile gaming and cloud services become ever more sophisticated. It’s noteworthy that whereas the original Switch reveal had people playing games on the go, the Switch 2 has been pushing features such as video streaming and mouse controls that you do in the home.
But this is the problem with success; it’s only ever so long before people ask you to repeat the trick, only better. The weight of expectations after having previously exceeded them is surely a feeling that, like Nintendo, Sir Keir Starmer knows all too well.
Will Cooling writes about politics and pop culture at It Could Be Said substack