logo
Nintendo Switch 2 could be being sold at a loss claim analysts

Nintendo Switch 2 could be being sold at a loss claim analysts

Metro13-05-2025

Despite its high cost, Nintendo could be making as little as £3 on each Switch 2 console sold, suggesting they literally couldn't make the new hardware any cheaper.
Nobody has been in the games business longer than Nintendo and while they've had their ups and downs, to put it mildly, they've never really been in any financial trouble, since they have vast reserves of cash (which prevents them from being taken over by other companies) and never sell their consoles at a loss – or at least almost never.
Most new consoles from Sony and Microsoft are sold at a loss at launch, only becoming profitable with later hardware revisions that simplify the manufacturing process. Despite what many fans think, Nintendo has done this too, with the 3DS and Wii U both being sold at a loss for a while.
There's no official information to judge what the situation is with the Nintendo Switch 2 but two different analysts suggest it's cutting things very fine, with one estimate claiming it's barely breaking even.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is being sold for £395.99. That's significantly more than the £279.99 the original Switch was at launch, and the subsequent OLED Model at £309.99.
However, most fans agree that it's not unreasonable, with many fearing it would be more, given inflation and the fact that the Switch 2 is bigger and more powerful than its predecessor.
Instead, it's the price of the games that's been the main point of contention, with Mario Kart World costing up to £75 for the physical version, although the digital edition is cheaper and fellow first party title Donkey Kong Bananza is cheaper still.
According to Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda, speaking to Bloomberg, the Nintendo Switch 2 costs around $400 in terms of raw materials. It's being sold in the US for $449.99, so that means that once you factor in manufacturing it may not be making a profit – so you can imagine how Nintendo felt when Trump started talking about tariffs.
Multiple other sources also suggest that the console is making little or no profit, with YouTuber Nintendo Prime suggesting that Nintendo may be making as little as $4 (£3) on each sale in the US.
Double Jump Games, who is getting 9 Switch 2 Units to sell, noticed in the order that Nintendo is basically making nothing in the US per unit. They make $4 per unit sold, Nintendo's costs basically match what it costs to be here. So next to no profit margin. — Nintendo Prime (@NintyPrime) April 28, 2025
Meanwhile, MST Financial analyst David Gibson, speaking to the Financial Times, claims that the unit price for Switch 2 consoles being manufactured in Vietnam, which have lower tariffs than those made in the US, is $338. More Trending
However, that's before things like shipping and transportation (and tariffs) are taken into account, so again it seems that if the Switch 2 is being sold at a profit it's a very small one.
Console manufacturers make money in two main ways, by selling their own exclusive games – which is a much more important avenue for Nintendo than for Sony or Microsoft – and for charging licencing fees to other publishers for releasing their games on the console.
Conversely, this is more important for Sony and Microsoft, since Nintendo consoles have traditionally had poor third party support. The Switch 2 seems to be much better supported so far, but that can quickly evaporate if the console is not an instant success or if customers simply don't buy the third party titles.
Whatever the profit figure is – and it will vary from country to country – it suggests that Nintendo is walking a narrow line and while the higher game prices are primarily because of the higher cost of making modern video games, they may also be the only way to make a profit in the short term.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
MORE: The 20 exclusive games that made Nintendo Switch the best console ever
MORE: Games Inbox: Is it weird to not like GTA games?
MORE: GTA 4 remaster coming to PS5 this year claims insider

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Nintendo says sales of its Switch 2 hit a record within four days
Nintendo says sales of its Switch 2 hit a record within four days

The Independent

time3 hours ago

  • The Independent

Nintendo says sales of its Switch 2 hit a record within four days

Nintendo says it sold more than 3.5 million of its new Switch 2 gaming consoles within the first four days since its release — breaking a record for the company. In a Wednesday announcement, Nintendo said that this marks the 'highest global sales level' for any of hardware it's sold within that window of time. The Japanese gaming company officially launched the Switch 2 on June 5. Fans of the console's eight-year-old predecessor have been clamoring for an upgrade for years. Throngs of gamers stood in long lines outside stores for the Switch 2's release around the world last week — less than two months after a chaotic rush for preorders quickly sold out. Nintendo is counting on the Switch 2 to boost sagging sales. And in addition to a larger screen and new games, the console has added social features aimed at luring new players into online gaming. Nintendo has said it expects to sell 15 million Switch 2 consoles for the fiscal year through March 2026. The 3.5 million sold in the first four days includes the Nintendo Switch 2's Mario Kart World Bundle, as well as the Switch 2's Japanes e-language and multi-language systems sold in Japan. The Switch 2's baseline price of $449.99 is significantly higher than the original Switch's $299 price tag. While new bells and whistles may account for a sizeable portion of that hike, experts have previously noted that new tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump are also a contributor. Evaluating the impact of these import taxes also led Nintendo to delay its April preorders by several weeks.

Worldpay and Visa partner to boost authorisations
Worldpay and Visa partner to boost authorisations

Finextra

time6 hours ago

  • Finextra

Worldpay and Visa partner to boost authorisations

Worldpay has expanded its partnership with Visa to enhance the payments leader's 3D Secure (3DS) solution, which can help merchants reduce fraud while reducing consumer friction and boosting authorizations. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. By passing through authentication data to the issuer, merchants in the U.S. using 3DS Flex™ from Worldpay can enhance payments security and shopper experience while improving approval rates. 'Fraud mitigation isn't just an on or off switch; rather, it's a balance that requires merchants to understand how security, authentication, authorization, fraud detection and the impact on the shopping experience work in harmony with one another,' said Cindy Turner, chief product officer at Worldpay. 'For example, false positive declines of good faith purchases and additional steps in the checkout process present serious challenges to fraud mitigation strategies. This is why we partner with card networks like Visa to enhance authorizations – at the end of the day, it helps merchants achieve the highest standards of security while improving the overall customer experience.' Worldpay research shows more than half (55%) of U.S. consumers abandon a transaction if it takes multiple tries to complete, demonstrating the importance of ensuring that a valid payment goes through on the first try. 3DS Flex boosts authorization rates and reduces extra authentication steps while maintaining heightened levels of security. 'With 3DS Flex, Worldpay is helping facilitate next-level collaboration between issuers and acquirers on the Visa network,' said Kirk Stuart, SVP and head of enablers, merchants and fintechs at Visa. 'This game-changing innovation will help make transactions more secure and improve the customer experience – while also increasing merchant sales, or authorization rates. This is an exciting development for the payments ecosystem.'

Nintendo Switch 2 review – does everything the Switch does, but better
Nintendo Switch 2 review – does everything the Switch does, but better

Daily Mirror

time8 hours ago

  • Daily Mirror

Nintendo Switch 2 review – does everything the Switch does, but better

The Nintendo Switch 2 is here, and after using it for almost every waking minute for the last week, I think I'm finally ready to talk about my thoughts and feelings. After a week of constant gaming, chatting and Mario Kart-ing, the Nintendo Switch 2 is undoubtedly a superb handheld console, but do you really need one? Nintendo hasn't reinvented the wheel with the Nintendo Switch 2, and it's easy to see why, considering the original Nintendo Switch is one of the best-selling consoles of all time. Instead, it has stuck with a similar-ish design with the focus of improving, refining, and updating everything people loved about the original. Although my first impressions of the new console were positive, it's time to delve into the details after spending an entire week doing little else but using it. ‌ The Nintendo Switch successor costs £395.99 in the UK and $449.99 in the US, which is just above the price of the non-OLED Steam Deck (oops, I mentioned the O word already) and a lot more than the Xbox Series S. It is priced below current-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and PS5, but not by much. This is not a value console for the masses; instead, it's something else entirely. ‌ Bigger, faster, stronger Gone is the 6.2-inch 720p, 60Hz display, replaced by a gorgeous and modern 7.9-inch 1080p, 120Hz display, which is also HDR compatible. And, there's a new dock too, with new active cooling and the ability to output in glorious 4K at 60fps. Gone are the sliding, wobbly and freakishly small Joy-Cons, replaced by strong, magnetic and bigger Joy-Cons, which can also be used as a mouse in compatible games. You also get 256GB of internal storage – up from the measly 32GB in the original and 64GB with the Nintendo Switch OLED – as well as a new kickstand, an additional USB-C port, new speakers with 3D spatial audio and a new C button, for its new Game Chat feature. Despite its bigger size and being over 100g heavier than the Switch OLED, it still feels really comfortable to use, even when gaming for hours at a time. You definitely feel the extra weight, don't get me wrong, but it's not enough for it to feel cumbersome or induce any extra fatigue, as it's still some 100g lighter than the Steam Deck. The black, matte finish combined with the extra weight gives it a real premium feel, too. The new magnetic Joy Cons are much improved, with the larger size being much more suitable for adult hands, and the bumper SL and SR buttons feel better than they did on the original. They're still not great, by any means, but they are certainly better. I also really like the fact that they can double up as a mouse, as even when scrolling through the device menus, it feels pretty tight, and in Cyberpunk 2077 firefights, it allows you to get the fine control that you simply can't get with the joysticks. I'm not sure it'll take off, so we'll have to see which other games feature support for it, but giving players another way to play their favourite games can only be a good thing. What isn't good is the joysticks themselves, which are very similar to their predecessors, notably foregoing Hall effect. The bad news continues because, in a recent teardown, iFixit revealed that, "despite Nintendo claiming they have been 'redesigned from the ground up,' the joysticks are using the same old potentiometer tech. There's no sign of Hall effect or TMR sensors." It also declared that "Unless Nintendo is using some miracle new material on those resistive tracks, or the change in size magically solves it, the best fix is going to come from third-party options." To make things a bit frustrating, due to the amount of adhesive used, they're also more difficult to repair than the Switch Joy-Cons, with iFixit giving the Switch 2 an overall repairability rating of just 3/10. Now, there's a simple reason why Nintendo didn't go with Hall effect, and that's because the new magnetic attachment mechanism may interfere with the magnets in the sensors. ‌ But iFixit also states Nintendo could've used Tunnelling Magnetoresistance sensors, or TMR for short, which are less susceptible to magnetic interference. Although it probably would have come at an extra cost to the device, it would have been a worthwhile investment for a lot of players. Long story short, Joystick drift is still, and will continue to be, a thing. That's a massive disappointment. Onto the new button, the C button, which launches the new Game Chat feature – this allows chats, the ability to play with your friends and hear them in real time and with the USB-C camera (sold separately, of course), you can do this while showing your face too. Testing the Game Chat experience out, I was pretty impressed with the experience overall because despite the mic not having particularly good clarity, it delivered a decent experience even when standing a few meters away from the console, and for families and friends around sofas, it's more than good enough. There's also Game Share (via Game Chat), which you can only do on the Switch 2. This allows you to share your game with up to four people in the chat group, even if they don't own it, which is pretty cool! One thing that's a bit weird to me is that, as an additional security measure, text message verification is required to set up GameChat. It uses the phone number registered to your Nintendo Account. ‌ GameChat is free until March 31st, 2026. Afterwards, a Nintendo Switch Online membership will be required. Finally, Nintendo has performance in mind Now onto performance, and, as you would expect from a Nintendo console, performance has been pretty great out of the box. Games like Mario Kart World, Cyberpunk 2077 and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo Switch 2 Edition) look sharp, bright, and really, very colourful on the new display. It really is in a different league compared to its predecessor and, in my opinion, it clearly rivals more PC -like handheld gaming devices like the Steam Deck or the Lenovo Legion Go S. Tears of the Kingdom and Zelda: Breath of the Wild ran fine on the original Switch and the OLED, but on the Switch 2, it's a transformative experience. The 60fps (unfortunately capped 60fps) in both handheld and docked feels superb, as do the 4K visuals when hooked up to a TV. If you loved these games half as much as I did, you simply need to experience them on this console. With the new HDR-capable display, previously pitch-black areas suddenly become much more alive and bright, giving Tears of the Kingdom specifically, a new lease of life. ‌ Mario Kart World, as you'd expect for a launch title, runs like a dream. It looks super sharp, particularly in 4K, with super vibrant colours and flawless, smooth performance. And then there are third-party games. The fact that Cyberpunk 2077 can run, and run well, on this console is a monumental step into the unknown for Nintendo, but exciting for all of us, because it opens up support for potential huge AAA gaming franchises to launch on this console, when historically, Nintendo couldn't (or wouldn't) support them. FromSoftware already confirmed during the Nintendo Direct back in March that Elden Ring is coming to Switch 2 in 2025, then there's its Switch 2 exclusive (yes, a Switch 2 exclusive from FromSoftware) The Duskbloods, coming in 2026. And, don't forget, Microsoft has already pledged, back in 2023, to delivering Call of Duty on Nintendo platforms, and although the recent Black Ops 7 reveal failed to namecheck the Switch 2, a source has told Eurogamer that the team is "committed" to bringing the Call of Duty series to Nintendo. A new era And I think that's what Nintendo is going for. It's bold, and it's certainly a change in direction from what is a very traditional company, but the increased performance from this console means that this device is not what the Switch was; it's not a value console in its own little category that just supported Nintendo games and a few select third-party titles. This is a console that is firmly competing against the Steam Deck, against the new ROG Xbox Ally, and whenever PlayStation gets a move on, it'll be a competitor for its handheld, too. But what Nintendo has is Nintendo games, and that offering, when paired with third-party AAA titles that can run at a similar performance level, is unique. No one else can match that, which will make the next few years very interesting indeed. ‌ Ok, let's talk about the screen. The LCD screen might only be LCD, but it is a huge step up from its predecessor. But it does have its limitations. It's HDR compatible, but the screen can only generate 450 nits of brightness, which just isn't enough for a full, vibrant HDR experience. It's okay for me, and probably is for most people, but those who are passionate about HDR content will say it's not true HDR, and they are right. It's also pretty reflective, more so than on the original Switch, which makes playing it on public transport or outside trickier. And then there's the big one: why isn't it OLED? I think it's pretty obvious why there's no OLED, and that's the price. This console is already near as makes no difference £400, if Nintendo had gone with an OLED, what price would the Switch 2 have been? £450? £475? It's an expensive console as it is, particularly by Nintendo standards, with the original Switch being the value gaming console at just £279.99 or $299.99, the Switch 2 is not in that category anymore, and an OLED screen at launch may have made this console even more out of reach for more people. Don't get me wrong, I really would have liked an OLED screen, but in this economy, I can see why they haven't yet, and realistically, the general public won't be too bothered either. ‌ Battery life was also pretty much as you'd expect. Nintendo says the Switch 2 will last between 2 and 6 and a half hours depending on the software and this was pretty spot on, with Cyberpunk 2077 running for a good 2 hours and 20 minutes or so, and Mario Kart World reaching well into three hours. This is notably worse than the Switch, but that's the price we'll have to pay for enhanced visuals, higher frames and a bigger, brighter screen. It's also on par, if not slightly better, than some of the handhelds in the same price category. Is it essential? So, should you buy one? We'll do you one better by telling you exactly what you're getting when it falls into your lap – the Switch 2 is significantly better than the original Switch, in every possible and conceivable way, perhaps apart from its Joy-Con controllers. It's still a Switch, but now with legendary tier-gear, a maxed-out skill tree and ready to face elite bosses. Nintendo hasn't tried anything wild, revolutionary or out of the ordinary with the Switch 2 when considering the wider gaming landscape, but can you really criticise for that? There have been plenty of risks that haven't worked for Nintendo: the Wii U's gimmicky GamePad, the Virtual Boy's eye-straining 3D graphics, and, controversially, the GameCube's proprietary mini-DVDs didn't exactly take off either. Right now, if there are games you want to play on Switch 2, like Mario Kart World, Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the Wild, or even Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, with updated visuals and a higher frame rate, buying this console will allow you to experience these games like never before. And if you play Nintendo games traditionally but want to experience third-party games like Cyberpunk 2077, Split Fiction, Hitman World of Assassination, Civ 7, Survival Kids, Yakuza 0, and Street Fighter 6 alongside the Nintendo games you know and love, with the majority of Switch games being backwards compatible, now you can. Having only had a week to test the device, I've not managed to try as much of the Switch back catalogue as I'd like, and it's something I'll be putting time into, but the games I have played have performed without a hitch. If there are no games you feel compelled to play on Switch 2, you probably don't truly need one right now. But considering its performance potential and what it could deliver in future, not just with Nintendo titles, but third-party ones too, the Switch 2 should become an essential purchase in the months and years to come. Is it essential right now, though? That's a question only you can answer, but there's no denying that it is better in every measurable way. Apart from those joysticks, that is.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store