Nintendo says it’s actively monitoring the impacts of tariffs and the rising prices of RAM as an AI-fueled scramble spikes computing costs around the world.
The comments came in a rare interview the Mario maker’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa, gave to Kyoto Shimbun, which was translated by VGC. In it, the executive noted that the possibility of raising the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 due to future costs is hypothetical and didn’t commit one way or the other. However, he did acknowledge that AI data centers requiring large amounts of RAM, and the scarcity this situation creates, may become a concern in the future.
When asked about the current challenges for keeping Switch 2’s profit margin lower than that of its predecessor, Furukawa explained, “Hardware profitability depends on factors like component procurement conditions, cost reductions through mass production, and the impact of exchange rates and tariffs.”
The executive previously told investors that Switch 2 pricing was safe for now unless there was another Trump trade war blowup. “While we are aware that the costs of various materials are rising, we also anticipate some areas where cost reduction may be achieved for Nintendo Switch 2 through ongoing mass production efforts,” Furukawa said in November.
Is 2026 the year Switch 2 goes to $500?
The rising costs of PC parts aren’t only concerning for gaming firms like Nintendo but also for average people. It’s become pricey and challenging to purchase RAM and graphic cards for PCs. It’s gotten so bad that NVIDIA is reportedly considering making its older RTX 3060s graphics cards available again to meet demand.
During the interview, the Nintendo president also said that the game company had projected a negative impact from tariffs last year which ended up costing it tens of millions in the first half. “This is a crucial period for our game business as we promote the adoption of new hardware and maintain the momentum of our platforms. We are working on this while carefully considering the situation,” he said.
While Nintendo is monitoring these rising costs and market changes, it has already responded to them over the last year. In August of 2025, the gaming firm increased the prices of its original Switch console. The U.S. price for the nearly decade-old Switch console rose from $299 to $339, the Switch OLED from $349 to $399, and the Switch Lite from $199 to $229.
At this time, it’s unclear what decisions Nintendo will make due to the market conditions of RAM costs and the tariffs. However, during the interview, President Furukawa said, “While it’s difficult to accurately gauge the future impact, our basic policy is to recognize tariffs as a cost and pass them on to prices as much as possible, not just in the US.”
