DRAM and NAND shortages pressure Nintendo to consider raising Switch 2 price

Memory shortages driven by AI and data-center demand have forced Nintendo into a strategic rethink of Switch 2 pricing and margins, executives and market analysts said after TrendForce reported the company must pay roughly 41% more for the 12GB DRAM modules used in the device. The Switch 2, released in June last year and now accounting for the lion’s share of Nintendo’s console sales, currently carries a $450 list price that Bloomberg-cited industry sources say the company is considering increasing this year.

Contract DRAM prices are spiking across the market: TrendForce projected that conventional DRAM contract prices in the first quarter would rise 90% to 95% compared with the prior three months, and Wccftech cited TrendForce as reporting NAND storage prices up about 8%. Scientific American on February 5, 2026 explained that cloud providers such as Microsoft and Google are buying memory at data-center scale and that high-bandwidth memory for AI workloads shares raw silicon and much of the same supply chain with consumer DRAM, giving manufacturers financial reasons to prioritize AI-grade parts over consoles.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa addressed the issue directly on Tuesday, saying memory price rises “were not significantly impacting results for the financial year,” while warning that “it could impact profitability if the component costs remain high over the longer term.” Furukawa also said the company procures from suppliers “based on our medium to long-term business plans, but the current memory market is very volatile,” and that the situation “isn't expected to affect the company just yet despite the concerns.”

Investors have reacted sharply to the chip-price pressure. Nintendo shares plunged more than 10% on Wednesday, a day after the company missed market estimates for quarterly revenue, even though the company beat profit forecasts, “clocking a 24% jump year on year”, and reported revenue rose 86%. Bloomberg-based estimates reported by Wccftech put Nintendo’s market-value loss at about $14 billion amid the memory-fear selloff, and Wccftech noted the stock had declined on almost every trading day in December, dipping to its lowest level since May 2025.

Analysts and consultants warned the pain could force retail adjustments. Andrew Jackson of Ortus Advisors told investors they remain worried about the impact of higher memory costs on Nintendo’s margins, and Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, wrote in an email that “If the current trend in the memory space continues, I would not be surprised at all to see Nintendo raising prices.” Toto added that price increases “would be hard for ‘Nintendo’s rather casual user base’ to swallow,” underscoring the consumer-risk side of any MSRP move.

The company’s options mirror the trade-offs analysts have described: absorb costs and accept lower margin, raise the Switch 2 price, trim bundles, or make quieter spec changes to preserve price points. Chipmakers such as Samsung and SK Hynix are working to expand capacity, but Scientific American warned those projects take years; a top semiconductor CEO told CNBC last month that the shortage could persist through 2027. Meanwhile Sony is weighing a separate response to the same memory crunch, Bloomberg-cited sources say PlayStation 6 could be pushed to 2028 or even 2029, highlighting how prolonged DRAM and NAND tightness could reshape console road maps and day-to-day decision making at Nintendo.