Switch 2 Pricing Shift: Nintendo Says Its Physical Games Will Cost $10 More

Nintendo made an unprecedented move on Wednesday by changing its pricing system for its digital and physical products. Switch 2 games. Starting in May, purchasing a physical game will cost more than a digital copy, and the current lack of memory could be the culprit.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, scheduled for release on May 21, will be the first Nintendo Switch 2 game to offer two separate MSRPs, Nintendo announced in a statement Wednesday. The digital version will cost $60 while the physical copy will cost $70 on Nintendo’s online store, and subsequent Switch 2 exclusive games will have a similar pricing system to the digital format, costing less than the physical format.

Nintendo did not explain why the prices would be different. It said its games “provide the same experiences whether in packaged or digital format, and this change simply reflects the different costs associated with producing and distributing each format and provides gamers with more choice in how they can purchase and play Nintendo games.”

It’s unclear how retailers will react to this change. Nintendo says retailers can set prices as they see fit for either version.

Which Switch 2 game will benefit from the new pricing system?

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book will be released on May 21.

What will be the price difference between physical and digital?

For now, physical copies will cost $10 more. It’s unclear if this will be the same across the board for different games, but it will be the standard for Nintendo’s Switch 2 exclusive games.

Why did Nintendo make this change?

The most likely reason is that storing the games themselves was costing Nintendo too much. In its statement, Nintendo says the change “reflects the different costs associated with the production and distribution of each format.” Nintendo has already broken pricing norms for games with Mario Kart World and its retail price of $80, the highest price for a new game.

In the case of Switch 2 games, since the newer console is more powerful and can produce better visuals, this means that Switch cartridges require more storage. Switch 1 games ranged from 2GB to 32GB, while Switch 2 games can boot as little as 4GB, but they have double the file size of older Switch games, with Divided fiction occupying 73 GB. Large storage size cartridges are more expensive to produce, especially during the current period. global memory shortage happening across the world. It could be that Nintendo wants to pass these extra production costs onto players, as it did with Mario Kart World.

What will retailers do about the Switch 2 game price change?

Retailers were arguably the main reason why publishers like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo weren’t selling their digital versions of games for less than physical copies. Rumor has it that when the big three video game companies began offering digital sales of games through their respective platforms, it was the retailers who indicated that if digital copies were inferior to physical versions, they would stop stocking those physical versions on store shelves. This rumor has not been verified, but as the year goes on, it appears that there is an agreement to keep both versions of a game at the same price regardless of its physical or digital format.

The fact is that digital sales of games have increased over the years, while physical sales have fallen dramatically. In January 2025, Matt Piscatella, senior director and video game industry advisor at Circana, published on Blue Sky that sales of physical game media have fallen more than 50% since 2021 and more than 85% since its peak in 2008. This is partly because retailers such as Walmart, Best Buy and Amazon also sell digital codes for a game, giving consumers more outlets to sell.

As retail stores allow less space for physical media, it is likely that they will not object to this change from Nintendo. If there’s one store that could feel the effects the most, it would be GameStop and other video game-focused retailers, but it’s not a disaster for them. While most gamers will continue to purchase digital versions of games, especially when prices are lower, a growing number of game collectors have shown themselves willing to pay more for physical copies. Some gamers also seek to avoid digital media, for fear that publishers could shut down servers, making digital copies obsolete.

What will other game publishers do about the Switch 2 game price change?

Switch 2 game publishers, like EA, Ubisoft, and Bandai Namco, will be the ones with the toughest decision when it comes to pricing. The drop in price for digital versions of their games represents an immediate loss of revenue for them, especially since many of the games they publish and develop have large budgets exceeding those of many Nintendo games. If they don’t change game prices across the board, these publishers could make changes to their mid-tier titles, where the pill would be easier to swallow.

Sony and Microsoft are also unlikely to follow suit, as both have adjusted their plans to address the current downward trend in the gaming sector.