Australia is not impacted.
Trump tariffs have delayed pre-orders of the Switch 2 in the USA, Nintendo has advised.
Pre-orders within the USA were set to open on 9 April, and will be delayed indefinitely. Nintendo was quick to add that this change to pre-order scheduling does not impact the launch date of the Switch 2, which remains 5 June 2025.
“Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions,” the publisher said in a statement. ” Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.”
China and Vietnam are the countries that deliver the lion’s share of Switch 2 components; Trump tariffs will tax those components at an additional of 54% and 46%, respectively, on those regions. That means the export of the Switch 2 will add to the cost of the company, and likely would be passed onto the consumer as well.
Some analysts suggest that the Switch 2’s already relatively high price point of $449.99 USD (or $699.95 AUD) was decided upon with potential tariffs already in mind.
Kantan Games’ Serkan Toto told the Financial Times that the high price “suggested Nintendo was building a buffer in case tariffs hit supply chains harder than expected”.
MST Financial analyst David Gibson told the same publication that “export data combined with finished product codes confirms that Nintendo shipped finished Switch 2 [from Vietnam] across five days in January for a total of 383,000 units with all of them going to the USA.
“I suspect this occurred to test the distribution system and get ahead of the risk of tariffs,” Gibson added. ” I expect the numbers to have ramped-up significantly in February and March.”
Nintendo hasn’t commented on any price changes as a result of Trump’s tariffs; we’ve reached out to Nintendo Australia for clarification… and in case any reciprocal tariffs are announced down under. You never know with all that’s going on.
Here in Australia, pre-orders for the Switch 2 are already live. Places you can pre-order from include:
- EB Games (Bundle with Mario Kart World – $769.95 AUD)
- JB Hi-Fi (console-only or Mario Kart World bundle)
- Officeworks ($696 AUD)
We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.
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