Nintendo Switch 2 Prices May Rise as U.S. Tariffs on Vietnam Double to 20%

I was flipping through some news and bam, Trump decides to shake things up with Vietnam. Like, out of nowhere, he’s slapping a 20% tariff on everything coming from there. It’s wild because, get this, not long ago, the tariffs were way higher—46% or something—until he hit pause for 90 days, dropping them to 10%, which was kind of a breather for everyone. But now, Nintendo, which apparently makes those Switch 2 consoles in Vietnam, calculated their earnings using that nice 10% figure. And boom, just like that, they’ve got this new headache on their hands.

The Switch 2, though, kind of crushed it right out of the gate. Like, 3.5 million units? That’s insane, beating whatever record the original Switch had by about a million. So while folks in the U.S. and U.K. are rolling in them, other countries are kind of left hanging, and Shuntaro Furukawa, Nintendo’s big boss, had to say sorry to the shareholders. It’s like, who knew it’d be such a hit? Maybe they did, maybe not.

And then there’s all this political stuff to wade through. So, Nintendo decides to show off the Switch 2 on April 2, 2025, and it’s right when Trump threw his “Liberation Day” tariffs into the ring. Talk about timing, huh? It kind screws with the $449 price tag they had set, too, since now they’re probably having to think about bumping that up. I’m guessing they hit pause on pre-orders to figure this out. Lucky for them, those heavy tariffs took a backseat for a bit, starting April 9, though the 10% tariff stuck around. Pre-orders finally went live on April 24, with accessories being a little pricier.

Nintendo’s betting on these tariffs staying at 10%. But now with this new hike, there’s no telling if they can swallow the extra costs. We’re still in a “wait and see” mode since nothing’s been officially put on paper. Nintendo’s probably holding its breath, hoping it won’t have to bump the Switch 2 price from $450 to $500. We’ll see how it shakes out.

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