Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders will start April 24 — the system still costs $449.99

Nintendo Switch 2
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Nintendo will open pre-orders for the Switch 2 in the United States on April 24, the company announced today. The prices will remain unchanged, with the system starting at $449.99 and a bundle with Mario Kart World for $499.99.

US-based pre-orders were delayed shortly after the console's initial announcement "to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions."

Some Switch 2 accessory prices are going to get pricier. A pair of Joy-Con 2 controllers that was originally set at $89.99 will now be $94.99 and the Pro Controller has bumped from $79.99 to $84.99. The Switch 2 camera, dock set, wheel set, and charging grips are all also seeing increases.

"Other adjustments to the price of any Nintendo product are also possible in the future depending on market conditions," Nintendo's announcement reads.

The system is still set to launch on June 5.

Pre-orders were originally set for April 9, but were delayed as Nintendo dealt with the fact that it announced the system on the same day as President Donald Trump announced a sweeping series of tariffs. On April 9, Trump called for a 90-day pause in many tariffs (with the exception of an increase on tariffs on Chinese goods).

Nintendo's titles, Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Banaza (launching July 17) are not set to see price changes. They're currently listed at $79.99 and $69.99, respectively.

The Switch 2 features a number of improvements over the original system, including a larger display with HDR support, a second USB Type-C port, and a more powerful graphics chip from Nvidia.

The $449.99 price tag is quite a bit more than the original Nintendo Switch, which. launched at $299.99, leading some fans to fill Nintendo's streams with calls to "drop the price."

Nintendo's announcement included an apology for the delay, and that the company "hope[s] this reduces some of the uncertainty our customers may be experiencing."

Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and Mastodon @FreedmanAE.mastodon.social.

  • Giroro
    You're rich. You can afford to be ripped off.
    Reply
  • Notton
    Speaking from experience with Switch OG.
    Some games will never work with unofficial joycons.
    Also $85 and $95 for no hall effect is just... insane.
    Hopefully Switch 2 works with unofficial controllers because there are a ton of great and cheap ones from GameSir and 8bitdo that include hall effect.
    Reply
  • newtechldtech
    Nintendo are becoming like Apple , selling you cheap hardware for expensive price ...
    No NVMe , no fast charging (3.5 hours charge speed) , low Nvidia CPU .. low RAM ,

    Hey Nintendo , if you really want a Tablet as a console , why not contact Apple and use their M4 CPU ? of even contact AMD and use strix halo platform ? What Nvidia CPU that doe not even support NVME ?
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    Why Nitendo need to put a nvme storage on their device ?
    you can't screw up with a micro sd ex...
    I want buy a portable device which is portable, not a 54Wh battery with some sticks.
    Reply
  • newtechldtech
    Amdlova said:
    Why Nitendo need to put a nvme storage on their device ?
    you can't screw up with a micro sd ex...
    I want buy a portable device which is portable, not a 54Wh battery with some sticks.
    Faster speed , Faster Random IOPS speeds ...
    as for sticks and battery , I dont nderstand what you mean.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    @newtechldtech Look how much power you need to use a micro sd card...

    https://goughlui.com/2021/02/27/experiment-microsd-card-power-consumption-spi-performance/
    Reply
  • beyondlogic
    Amdlova said:
    Why Nitendo need to put a nvme storage on their device ?
    you can't screw up with a micro sd ex...
    I want buy a portable device which is portable, not a 54Wh battery with some sticks.

    faster transfer speed then any micro sd some 3rd party games will need it more then Nintendo's actual games faster load times as well.

    a micro sd card most at most max 312mb/s ( which is slower then a standard ssd)
    a nvme can do 3500 to 7000mb/s

    and it is portable they needed to make the device bigger to accommodate a better cpu and memory. and more surface area for cooling add to that the 1080p screens take more power to run and high refresh rate.

    i was honestly shocked and was expecting them to stay at 720p or 900p. at a higher refresh rate.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    beyondlogic said:
    faster transfer speed then any micro sd some 3rd party games will need it more then Nintendo's actual games faster load times as well.

    a micro sd card most at most max 312mb/s ( which is slower then a standard ssd)
    a nvme can do 3500 to 7000mb/s

    and it is portable they needed to make the device bigger to accommodate a better cpu and memory. and more surface area for cooling add to that the 1080p screens take more power to run and high refresh rate.

    i was honestly shocked and was expecting them to stay at 720p or 900p. at a higher refresh rate.
    Bigger screen = moh powa
    Faster graphics and CPU = moh powa
    cut nvme slot because don't have moh powa
    I think nitendo want to keep the weight low.
    The original Switch has 398G
    The oled version has 420G
    the new switch 2 has 534G
    The perfect brick steam deck has 640G
    for comparasion my old s23 has 168G

    maybe the nitendo make a pro version with big screen, big battery and a nvme slot :) not so portable.
    Reply
  • newtechldtech
    Amdlova said:
    @newtechldtech Look how much power you need to use a micro sd card...

    https://goughlui.com/2021/02/27/experiment-microsd-card-power-consumption-spi-performance/
    IPhones and IPADS all use nvme storage ... there are low power versions of NVME.
    Reply