Nintendo has apparently decided that 2025 is the year of the price hike speedrun, because according to Siliconera, the Big N is raising prices on the Switch, the Switch 2, and even its card products. That's right - not even your grandma's card games are safe from inflation.
The console price increases will be felt globally, meaning players everywhere are going to have to grind a little harder for those coins before picking up Nintendo's hardware. Whether you're eyeing the original Switch or the shiny new Switch 2, expect your wallet to take a bigger hit than a final boss critical strike.
The playing card and Hanafuda card price hikes, however, are a Japan-exclusive debuff for now. For the uninitiated, Nintendo actually started as a Hanafuda card company back in 1889 - so yes, they're raising prices on the very product line that kicked off this whole century-spanning quest.
It's worth noting that Nintendo raising hardware prices isn't happening in a vacuum. The broader gaming industry has been doing the whole "pay more, get the same" dance for a while now, and Nintendo is clearly not leaving experience points on the table. The Switch 2 in particular was already turning heads with its launch price, so this news is basically a combo hit to prospective buyers.
If you were sitting on the fence about grabbing a Switch or pre-ordering a Switch 2, this might be the universe's way of telling you to stop fence-sitting and just buy the dang thing before the new prices go live. Consider this your in-game warning pop-up - you know, the one everyone ignores until it's too late.
No word yet on whether Nintendo plans to extend the card price increases outside Japan, but given the pattern here, it might be worth keeping your eyes on the mini-map. The Hanafuda price hike might just be a regional event for now, but global players could eventually get dragged into that questline too.
