After revealing the pricing and software lineup for their new gaming console last week, Nintendo’s stock price has been sent into a tailspin amid complaints about the pricing of the system.
Prior to Friday’s event in Japan, which streamed online to over 400,000 people, the company’s stock swelled amid speculation that the company’s new gaming console would hit a $250 US price point.
However, Nintendo’s stock took a 6% dip (a two-month low for the company) following the confirmation that the Switch would miss the mark at a price of $299.
“Pricing at around 25,000 yen would have been received well but the pricing is on the high side,” Fumio Matsumoto, senior fund manager at Dalton Capital, told Reuters.
“The machine can be used both as a home console and handheld device so the higher price is understandable to some extent, but there aren’t really enough software titles to justify that start price,” he said.
The financial turbelence perfectly reflects the ambiguity surrounding the Switch. It could very easily become the company’s next flop like the Wii-U (which sold 13 million units) or their next explosive success like the original Wii (which sold over 100 million units).
The Switch’s local pricing of $469, revealed late Friday by retailers EB Games and JB Hi-Fi has faced a similar backlash from consumers.
Though Nintendo’s latest isn’t quite a direct competitor to Sony and Microsoft these days, the Switch’s Australian price sits so far above that of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One it’s almost comical.
An Xbox One S can be bought for as cheaply as $399 from JB Hi-Fi, with the Playstation 4 only $50 more expensive.
Essentially, both consoles offer up a technically superior gaming experience and more robust software library at a better pricepoint than the one the Switch will be launching with.
Regardless, Nintendo has said it expects to ship two million units globally by the end of March.
US retailer Gamestop has already sold out of its entire initial shipment of the console, with reports suggesting that allotments for most stores will fall between twenty and forty units.
It’s unknown how this compares to the stock supplied Gamestop’s local branch EB Games, who sold out of the collectors edition of the Switch’s most-anticipated launch title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in less than 48 hours.
ChannelNews has reached out to EB for comment.
