Although Nintendo Switch 2 launched with a record-breaking sale of over 3 million units in 24 hours and 3.5 million in four days, with continued successes during Black Friday, it is now threatened by an unforeseen circumstance. With memory prices touching such an all-time high globally, Nintendo Switch 2 is under a cloud with analysts warning a price hike may become an inevitable reality.
Crashing Stock Price and Reduction in Market Capitalization by $14 Billion
Nintendo stocks have recently registered a steep fall, wiping out a staggering $14 billion in market capitalization. Bloomberg terms this slump a result of collective anxiety in the gaming industry over a dramatic hike in the price of electronic components, especially memory chips or RAM. The worry among investors stems from uncertainty over Nintendo’s capacity to cope with such increased production costs without burdening consumers with them. With a gaming platform already under critique for being costly, with a price point of $449.99 in America—a 50% hike over the original switch—the gaming giant can ill afford such decisions.
Memory Costs Memory Costs
SURGE JUMP41% 8%
As reported in TrendForce, Nintendo is currently faced with unprecedented cost pressure on its production line in making the Switch 2 gaming console. The 12GB of DRAM memory in this gaming console has witnessed an unprecedented price hike of up to 41%. Furthermore, the cost of the NAND flash memory used in the storage of these memories in this gaming console has increased by up to 8%.
This memory crisis arises from a confluence of imbalance in demand and supply. Global tech leaders such as Samsung’s SK Hynix, Micron, among others, have diversified production from consumer-grade DDR4/5 memory chips to more lucrative Higher Bandwidth Memory and AI-oriented memory solutions leaving aاوریdrained supply in consumer electronics. Simultaneously, a burgeoning demand in AI-powered data centers has absorbed an 80% capacity of total global memory production largely impacting DRAM prices with a massive surge of 171.8% in Q3 2025, eclipsing gold with a mere 88% increase during the same time frame.
Spillover Impact Pricier microSD Express Cards Add to Consumer Burden
The effect of the memory price hike does not end with the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2. The microSD Express expansion card requirement of the Nintendo Switch 2 will see a direct impact from the price hike in NAND flash memory. A cost-sensitive purchase factor in itself because of their steep pricing these expansion cards are soon headed towards becoming an even heavier burden on users' purses with the increasing cost of NAND flash memory.Following Microsoft? The Console Industry Faces Widespread Cost Pressures
Nintendo will join other companies such as Microsoft in raising the price of their consoles because of a shortage of components. Rumors indicate that Xbox Series X/S product lines will have a price hike since Microsoft did not store adequate memory before an increase in price.
To Nintendo, this is a very risky move. Nintendo’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa, had explained in a previous statement that he considered Nintendo’s pricing strategy for Switch 2 in line with it upgraded capabilities such as a 1080P/120Hz display, magnetic Joy-Con controllers, and 4K output support. But since Nintendo is expecting high memory prices into 2026 because of AI demand and an inability to greatly increase capacity, this makes it very uncertain if they can keep up with this pricing.