Over the years, the Nintendo brand has shifted to meet the times, but through it all, it’s at least felt synonymous with one image (or turn of phrase, I guess): E for Everyone. Over the decades, the legendary developer and publisher has always had an ethos that has guided its games and consoles into the hands of gamers regardless of age and background. With the Switch 2, it’s beginning to feel that that may not be true anymore.
The Switch 2 was fully unveiled earlier this month, and despite the fervor and excitement surrounding it, there’s been a pretty noticeable tension around its various exorbitant prices. The system itself was tentatively priced at $450 and a bundle including Mario Kart World was coming in at $500 before the threat of US tariffs on every conceivable stretch of land — even those with no human life on them — forced Nintendo’s hand, delaying preorders in the US and Canada. The thinking is that when they do become available, they will have already experienced a price hike, which is wild considering the fact that the newest Mario Kart game alone was being sold at the prohibitive cost of $80.
In the days that have followed, many have debated the personal cost of these exciting new prospects, and while these are valid conversations to have, a far more crucial one feels like it keeps getting buried.
I’ve got a little cousin whose whole life is his Switch. He’s had a rough go of things early on in life, so when he and his mom moved closer to the rest of our family and started their lives over, it was of the utmost importance that we did better by him. For my part, that meant opening our home to him and treating him like the little king he is. Since I’m a homebody, this also meant that we spent the most time together, and he naturally took to the shows and movies I watched, and especially the games I played.
He was especially enamored with my Switch. He was just the right age that all of the bright first-party Nintendo games dazzled him. That and Fortnite, of course. He would hound me in my own home to give him a chance to play titles I was reviewing or checking out ahead of time. I cannot tell you how badly he wanted to either outdo or impress me while I was playing Bowser’s Fury, the standalone 3D Mario platformer appended to the Switch port of Super Mario 3D World. Even if it bordered on annoying, in the way that most childish behavior tends to come across, it was great seeing his eyes light up at the sights and sounds of the games we played and shared.
Eventually, for some birthday of his, he got his own Switch. Though I see him far less these days, he’s almost never without it. I love that for him. He deserves all the joy it’s brought his way.
When I saw the pricing of the Switch 2 and its countless new games — many of which look exceptional already — my thoughts immediately turned to him before I even thought of myself. I have a job (of sorts) and live and work for myself. The Switch 2 is also a business expense at the end of the day. Whether it comes in at the already announced price, or a likely higher one given the ongoing and ridiculous trade war (if you can even call it that), I’m getting a Switch 2 in the near future, even if it’s going to hurt.
I don’t know that my little cousin, or many kids from similar low-income families will be able to enjoy a Switch 2 anytime soon. And while there’s certainly no obligation to brighten the lives of those kids, it does feel like a fundamental failure of the medium to become so prohibitive that their opportunity to share in that joy has become collateral.
They weren’t always forfeit. Coming from a low-income family didn’t bar me from enjoying the fruits of the Nintendo 64, Game Boy (and its various incarnations) or the Wii growing up. When consoles were too much, there were at least handhelds like the PSP and the Nintendo DS that were infinitely more affordable and chock full of worlds ready to capture my imagination. Me and most of my friends grew up in affordable housing and city projects while our folks worked low-income jobs like laundromats, local delis, and department stores. Sure, I didn’t get to enjoy all of the same games as lots of my peers (we were still poor after all), but I wasn’t completely shut out either.
I owe the relative affordability of this hobby at the time for my life. It’s shaped me in ways I’m still working out. Games might have kept me home a bit too much, to which I perhaps owe some of my more introverted tendencies, but they also kept me safe. The various worlds I toured virtually teased other possibilities, and from them, I erected a different life than those that came before me. The same is true of countless of my oldest friends and peers. I want that for my cousin, my nephews, and any other kid who might feel gatekept from this sphere. In turn, the more this space opens its doors to them and nurtures them, the healthier it grows. The further it can go.
But as the institutions around us crumble and our leadership steers this ship into a cliff, I worry that the generations to come won’t have the same luxuries — luxuries that should’ve never been luxuries in the first place! Isn’t the point of progress to grow into something better? Something that can and does accommodate everyone, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, orientation, or economic background among so many rich and distinguishing qualities? Stagnant wages, a shrinking workforce, not to mention a declining economy and imminent recession, as well as a wave of constantly shifting tariffs are just some of the forces eroding this possibility. The rising costs of a million and one things, the Nintendo Switch 2 among them, threatens to leave behind so many. A window appears to be closing.
So much for everyone.