Nintendo may revise hardware prices if memory costs persist
President Shuntaro Furukawa said Nintendo aims to hold prices by absorbing some costs, but a revision could be needed over the medium to long term.
Nintendo said it may consider revising hardware prices if rising component costs cannot be absorbed over the medium to long term, according to comments made at the Q&A of its financial results briefing for the second quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2027. President Shuntaro Furukawa set out the position, as reported by gamespark.jp.
Furukawa said manufacturing costs tend to rise due to various external factors, and that Nintendo wants to keep selling prices unchanged as much as possible by improving production efficiency and absorbing some of the costs itself. He added that a price revision would need to be considered if the impact cannot be absorbed over the medium to long term and maintaining a sound profit structure becomes difficult.
On software, Furukawa said Nintendo sets prices individually according to the value of each title rather than applying a uniform price.
Nintendo's inventory assets rose from 539.8 billion yen at the end of the previous fiscal year to 814.5 billion yen at the end of September. Furukawa cited higher memory component and raw material prices, planned procurement for stable production and the higher per-unit hardware price of Nintendo Switch 2 as factors behind the increase.
The company expects the impact of higher component prices to grow in the third quarter and later as the share of raw materials purchased at elevated prices increases. Furukawa said sales in the next few weeks will be very important for achieving the sales plan.
Earlier price changes
Nintendo Switch 2 surpassed 25 million units sold about a year and a half after launch. In Japan, sell-through settled down after a price revision in May; outside Japan, a price revision was implemented in September, and sales trends before and after it have not differed as much as in Japan.
Quick answers
Did Nintendo announce a hardware price increase?
No. Furukawa said Nintendo wants to keep selling prices unchanged as much as possible, but that a price revision would need to be considered if rising component costs cannot be absorbed over the medium to long term.
Why did Nintendo's inventory assets rise?
They rose from 539.8 billion yen at the end of the previous fiscal year to 814.5 billion yen at the end of September, which Furukawa attributed to higher memory component and raw material prices, planned procurement and the higher per-unit price of Nintendo Switch 2.