Switch 2 price anxieties grow
Rumors about The Duskbloods and Elden Ring carrying $80 price tags have stirred price anxiety, though some outlets caution fans not to treat the Duskbloods rumor as confirmed. (vice.com) At the same time, reports say Nintendo has a last first‑party Switch 1 title slated for July as the company pivots marketing and development toward Switch 2. (metro.co.uk) (noobfeed.com)
Nintendo fans are suddenly doing price math again because one rumored number keeps popping up: $80. The spark was an Amazon listing for Elden Ring Tarnished Edition on Switch 2, which Vice says led people to assume FromSoftware’s other Switch 2 game, The Duskbloods, would land at the same price. (vice.com) That jump matters because Nintendo already broke the old $60 ceiling on Switch 2. Mario Kart World is listed at $79.99 on Nintendo’s official store, while Donkey Kong Bananza is listed at $69.99, so players are looking at a menu of prices instead of one standard tag. (nintendo.com 1) (nintendo.com 2) The rumor around The Duskbloods is shakier than the panic suggests. Vice’s reporting says the $80 talk appears to come from Elden Ring’s listing, not from a confirmed Duskbloods store page or an official Nintendo announcement for that game. (vice.com) There is also a simple reason Elden Ring could cost more without proving every big Switch 2 game will cost more. News Minimalist notes that the Tarnished Edition includes the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, so the $80 figure looks more like a bundle price than a clean base-game benchmark. (newsminimalist.com) Nintendo’s own store shows why fans are uneasy anyway: the company has normalized higher-end pricing on the new machine. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is listed at $69.99, and Nintendo’s Switch 2 catalog now mixes $64.99, $69.99, and $79.99 releases on the same storefront. (nintendo.com 1) (nintendo.com 2) That is a big change from the original Switch era, when buyers could usually guess the price before the preorder page went live. On Switch 2, Nintendo has turned game pricing into something closer to airline seating, where the logo is the same but the fare changes depending on the product. (nintendo.com) The timing makes the anxiety worse because Nintendo is also winding down the original Switch as a first-party platform. Metro reported that Nintendo’s last internally published Switch 1 game is now expected in July, describing it as the point where the company shifts its marketing and development attention fully to Switch 2. (metro.co.uk) That “one more game, then move on” feeling is visible in Nintendo’s current release slate. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is officially dated for April 16, 2026 on Switch, while Nintendo’s U.S. Switch 2 store page is already packed with enhanced editions, exclusives, and upgrade packs built around the newer hardware. (nintendo.com 1) (nintendo.com 2) So the real story is not that Nintendo has confirmed The Duskbloods at $80. The real story is that Nintendo has already taught players that $80 is possible on Switch 2, which means every rumor now feels believable the second it appears. (vice.com) (nintendo.com) Until Nintendo, FromSoftware, or a retailer posts a final Duskbloods preorder page, the number is still just a rumor. But after Mario Kart World at $79.99 and a visible pivot away from Switch 1, fans have stopped treating $80 as impossible and started treating it as the new question on every major release. (vice.com) (nintendo.com) (metro.co.uk)
