The fact that hardware price is steadily rising thanks to the industry suffering from memory shortage might also end up affecting Nintendo. In an interview with Kyoto Shimbun (via VideoGamesChronicle), Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has spoken about the rising costs of hardware, and how the company plans to keep the Switch 2 profitable while still staying relatively affordable. Among the factors that the company is keeping an eye on, according to Furukawa, are currency exchange rates, tariffs, and cost-reduction through methods like mass production.
“Hardware profitability depends on factors like component procurement conditions, cost reductions through mass production, and the impact of exchange rates and tariffs,” Furukawa said. “It’s difficult to generalize. Fundamentally, we aim to address this by advancing component procurement over the medium to long term.”
As for the memory shortage, which has resulted in the price for RAM having shot up over the last few months, Furukawa acknowledged that the market is volatile. While there aren’t any immediate impacts that Nintendo will have to face thanks to the company’s procurement of the needed hardware in advance, things might change in the future. He didn’t comment on whether or not this might result in a price increase for the Switch 2, however.
“We procure from suppliers based on our medium- to long-term business plans, but the current memory market is very volatile,” he said. “There is no immediate impact on earnings, but it is something we must monitor closely.”
Currently, one of the biggest things to have impacted Nintendo’s earning projections has been the import tariffs that have been imposed in the US. Furukawa noted that Nintendo’s global policy is to see tariffs as a “cost” that can then be passed on to the prices paid by customers as much as it can. However, the company is also looking to drive adoption of its latest console, and it wants to maintain its sales momentum going forward.
“This is a crucial period for our game business as we promote the adoption of new hardware and maintain the momentum of our platforms,” he said. “We are working on this while carefully considering the situation.”
While PC gamers have already been facing the brunt of the memory shortage, next-generation consoles might also end up facing similar issues. According to a report from earlier this month, both Sony and Microsoft have been engaging in “ongoing talks at the high levels” about potentially pushing the launch of their respective next-generation consoles to later.
While both consoles are rumoured to be set for launch in 2027, the fact that RAM prices are seeing an upward trajectory means that both companies will have more trouble in procuring the appropriate amount of memory for their consoles, which in turn could delay production and distribution.
If you’ve been wondering about the reasons behind this memory shortage, check out our explainer article where we discussed the impact that the AI industry has had on hardware, leading to a shortage of DRAM modules—a critical component in several computer parts, including RAM and SSDs.
