Nintendo is scheduled to hold a press conference to showcase the upcoming Switch console tomorrow evening (early Friday morning if you're east of the Atlantic). But in the meantime, new reports regarding the Switch's price are coming to light, and they come straight from the stores that will be selling them - making them particularly compelling.
First up, famous games industry tipster Wario64 tweeted that both the Switch and 15 Switch games have appeared in Target's inventory system:
15 Nintendo Switch games in Target's system https://t.co/kZRckMOV0Bhttps://t.co/gwIRTdYkQO$299 placeholder Switch https://t.co/v5FF71LFli pic.twitter.com/QlNa2ox2x7January 11, 2017
These entries are all placeholder, so no titles or official prices. However, you'll notice that Target's system has a pricetag of $299.99 for the Switch console. $300 price may seem a bit high if you were expecting Nintendo to dramatically undercut Microsoft and Sony, but it's got nothing on this sticker, printed out and shared on Reddit by a Walmart employee:
$400, yeesh! Quite a bit more than anything previously hinted at. The user who shared the image speculates this is a placeholder price, and that the actual system will be cheaper when it's available for pre-order. So that's a relief.
Lastly, over on the Nintendo Switch sub-reddit, a report claims that something referred to as "Nintendo N2" has popped up in Best Buy's inventory system as well, priced at $249.99. While, according to this report, it's not called the Switch in the retailer's systems, I can't imagine it referring to anything else. Again, however, keep in mind this could be a placeholder price.
While the next bit of speculation doesn't come from a retailer, it's compelling nonetheless: Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that consumers should expect to pay around 25,000 yen. That's roughly $215 / £180 by current exchange rates, but keep in mind that product prices are rarely such a simple conversion. Going solely by Nikkei's ballpark, we could expect a Switch to cost around $250 / £200.
Bear in mind that this is Nikkei's estimation, a prediction based on its own knowledge rather than something that can be traced to an anonymous source or leak. Still, the paper has historically been pretty on-point when it comes to Nintendo's business, so it's good to cross-reference.
Reports of a $250 / £200 base model being sold alongside a $300 / £250 bundle that would contain a game have been circulating for some time now, so none of this is revolutionary (save for the outlier that is the Walmart sticker). However, consider this more fuel to the fire, and a sort of reassurance; whether you're a Nintendo fan, a reporter with inside sources, or a retailer that's going to sell it, everyone seems to think the Switch is going to cost around $250 / £200.
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