The Nintendo Switch could boast a very low launch price of just $250, if an early placeholder listing is to be believed.
The Canadian Toys ‘R’ Us site has given the upcoming Nintendo console a placeholder price of $329.99 CAD, which works out to roughly $244 US dollars. If this placeholder is indicative of Nintendo’s final price point for the Switch and the Japanese company stick to this exchange rate, then this would mean that the console would end up launching for the same price as the Wii back in 2006. Considering the tremendous success of the Wii, this wouldn’t be a bad thing.
While placeholder listings are not necessarily be indicative of the final product, considering that the Switch has now been officially unveiled it’s reasonable to suggest that Nintendo may have sent out information to retailers ahead of its launch in March 2017. Though this price could well be incorrect it’s interesting that the system has been valued so low, and when taking into account the Wii U’s financial woes it would certainly be logical for Nintendo to release a new console at a more welcoming launch price.
Although the basic bundle of the Wii U sold for $300, the vast majority felt forced to plump for the $350 deluxe edition as a result of the pitifully low storage space offered in the cheaper package. This put it at just $50 cheaper than the much more powerful PS4, a console that has since received price cuts alongside the Xbox One, meaning that if the Switch carried the same price point as the Wii U it would have been in the unfortunate position of retailing for more money than its technically superior peers.
A $250 price tag for the Nintendo Switch could prove to the sweet spot that allows Nintendo to pick itself back up from its previous console flop, returning to the success it enjoyed with the Wii but on a system powered by Nvidia technology. After losing a lot of consumer trust with the Wii U, launching a cheap console that isn’t too far behind its rivals in the hardware department could definitely lead to the Big N taking the spotlight once again.
