We’ve been waiting for more Nintendo Switch 2 information for months, and today’s direct still leaves many fans, including myself, with more questions and a preemptive ache in our wallets.

Today, Nintendo outlined many ways the Nintendo Switch 2 would be different from the original Switch console. We get an impressively upgraded screen, a fan in the dock for better performance, and an online creator infrastructure built into the OS. But for some gamers, today’s presentation seemed like more of the same. Most of the games announced today for the Nintendo Switch 2 are ports of games that have been out and playable on other consoles for months, if not years. And there was too much emphasis on trying to woo single console gamers into purchasing, at full price, games that are significantly discounted on other platforms. The Nintendo Switch 2 hardware is interesting, but for avid gamers, third parties already gained interest and coin on other platforms. And even for the first party titles announced, seventy or eighty dollars is too much!

During the uproar about ToTK’s seventy dollar price, I asked a friend their opinions on the price of the game at seventy dollars – ten dollars more than usual. My friend, who is in a Switch only household with two young kids, did not complain. They rebuffed my inquiry with, “gaming provides endless hours of entertainment at a relatively low price, and the whole family can enjoy them together or individually”. The perspective was interesting. This did not person follow the price discourse closely despite spending countless hours gaming with their family in their free time. Nintendo and third parties must find in their data that there are substantial sales opportunities amongst those type of households and players. But perhaps eighty dollars is too expensive for even less-engaged, informed gamers. The same sentiment expressed at this seemingly permanent software price increase for first party titles was absent in our recent discussion about the direct.

I think many gamers expected and have rationalized an increase in the hardware prices for the Nintendo Switch 2. ToTK gave us a heads up on seventy dollar games, but everyone was caught by surprise at eighty dollars. Gamers are rightfully disgruntled at the proposition of getting a RTX 5070/RX 9070 and regularly occurring steam sales vs. a Nintendo Switch 2 and eighty dollar versions of games found heavily discounted elsewhere.

I look forward to learning more about the Nintendo Switch 2 and games that fully take advantage of its new capabilities, but for the time being all I can think about is the Benjamins – five to be exact. My impression of the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct is that it had the sweet semblance of Nintendo whimsy while delivering the painful sting of a calculated cash grab.