The future of game consoles is looking bleak

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FollowSee All ReportThe future of game consoles is looking bleakNintendo has finally caved and raised the price of the Switch 2. Nintendo has finally caved and raised the price of the Switch 2. by Andrew Webster Andrew WebsterSenior entertainment editorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

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FollowSee All by Andrew WebsterMay 8, 2026, 2:32 PM UTC Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Andrew Webster Andrew WebsterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Andrew Webster is an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game.

Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories. It’s been a real good news / bad news week for Nintendo. Out of nowhere on Wednesday, the company announced a lush remake of Star Fox 64, jolting the dormant franchise to life and helping to fill out a relatively sparse lineup for the Switch 2 for the rest of the year.

But then on Friday, Nintendo announced news that had seemed inevitable, but is nonetheless significant: the Switch 2 is getting a price hike and will soon cost $50 more. Nintendo was the last holdout in a console space that has been ravaged by rising costs thanks to a combination of tariffs and the global memory shortage. And with the Switch 2 getting more expensive, console gaming is continuing its slow and steady march toward becoming a niche, luxury good.

Industry Implications

Price hikes have become common for gadgets, and consoles are perhaps the most visible example. Historically these devices have become cheaper over time, but now the opposite is true. Microsoft raised the prices of the Xbox and its various accessories last spring, while the cost of a PS5 has risen multiple times over the last year.

Even budget devices like the Nex Playground now cost more. What makes the Nintendo news notable is that the company appears to have been holding out for as long as it could. The Switch 2 is less than a year old, and the company clearly didn’t want to mess with its initial sales momentum.

So it started out by finding places to claw back some lost revenue around the edges. That meant raising the price of the original Switch, a few accessories, and even oddball devices like the Alarmo alarm clock. But the company clearly wasn’t happy about any of it; Nintendo is currently suing the US government over its illegal tariffs, demanding a “prompt refund, with interest.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.