Ever since its announcement, the Nintendo Switch code-named Nintendo NX, is one the most anticipated consoles for 2017. Based from the trailer announcement, the console seems to be blurring the lines of console and portable gaming, combing both in the seamless way. The console features a tablet device that can be brought anywhere for portable gaming and docked at a station that is connected to a television for home console gaming. However, Nintendo chose to withhold various essential information of the Nintendo Switch showing only what the console might be capable of without confirming anything. Chief among the missing information is the price of the console. We've heard Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima saying that the company will be selling the console at a profit and will be similarly priced with previous Nintendo offerings. Besides this bit of information, nothing concrete has been revealed.
Now, a since removed listing from a Canadian Toys "R" Us has slated the console to be priced at $329.99 Canadian Dollars or roughly $249 US dollars which is in line with past Nintendo devices. If this holds true, the Nintendo Switch will be priced significantly lower than initial launch prices of its rivals the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One which were initially priced at $400. But his being a rumor, we can never tell whether this will be the official price. When it comes to its pricing, Nintendo only has this to say, "At a later date, before launch, we'll be talking about things like price, exact launch date, and of course, the games."
Pricing for a newly released console is very important as it could either make or break a console's life. Looking at past consoles, the Playstation 3, the successor to the most successful console of all time, the Playstation 2 had a hard time selling the console for the first few years. This is because the Playstation 3 was initially priced at $600, twice of what the Xbox 360's price at launch. In its early years since its release, the Playstation 3 was constantly being outsold by its rival the Xbox 360 by a huge margin. It was only when Sony decided to release a "slim" version of the Playstation 3 which is priced at $300 that sales began to pick up. So if Nintendo gets its pricing wrong on the Nintendo Switch, it would make games apprehensive of picking up the console. Having already generated a lot of buzz with just a trailer alone, hopefully Nintedo gets its pricing right and avoid its mistakes on its most recent console the Wii U.