Read from tweaktown:
Nintendo shares have slid as much as 4.7% on Wednesday, hitting their lowest levels since May, wiping $14 billion in market share, as there are major concerns over the increasing price of DRAM memory chips required for the Switch 2.
Inside of the Nintendo Switch 2 is 12GB of RAM which the company needs, but they have gone up a huge 41% in the last quarter, with the NAND storage board for the Switch 2 also now 8% more expensive, and expected price increases for the add-on storage cards in 2026, too.
Pelham Smithers of Pelham Smithers Associates said: "The rise in NAND prices is starting to really impact express SD card prices. A 256GB express SD card costs $89.99 on Amazon. This is effectively a cost that Nintendo has passed on to the gamer".
Smithers also said that the recent Black Friday sales for the Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundles were one of the seasonal sales "surprises", adding: "you wouldn't expect it (Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle) to be discounted this close to the holiday season".
These issues for Nintendo aren't exclusive to the Japanese company, as Microsoft has been -- rather blazingly -- increasing the cost of its Xbox Series X/S consoles, even when they've been bleeding out console market share to Sony and its dominating PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro consoles.
We should expect the pain to continue well into 2026, and into 2027, before some (possible) relief arrives in 2028 for DRAM.
Nintendo shares have slid as much as 4.7% on Wednesday, hitting their lowest levels since May, wiping $14 billion in market share, as there are major concerns over the increasing price of DRAM memory chips required for the Switch 2.
Inside of the Nintendo Switch 2 is 12GB of RAM which the company needs, but they have gone up a huge 41% in the last quarter, with the NAND storage board for the Switch 2 also now 8% more expensive, and expected price increases for the add-on storage cards in 2026, too.
Pelham Smithers of Pelham Smithers Associates said: "The rise in NAND prices is starting to really impact express SD card prices. A 256GB express SD card costs $89.99 on Amazon. This is effectively a cost that Nintendo has passed on to the gamer".
Smithers also said that the recent Black Friday sales for the Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundles were one of the seasonal sales "surprises", adding: "you wouldn't expect it (Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle) to be discounted this close to the holiday season".
These issues for Nintendo aren't exclusive to the Japanese company, as Microsoft has been -- rather blazingly -- increasing the cost of its Xbox Series X/S consoles, even when they've been bleeding out console market share to Sony and its dominating PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro consoles.
We should expect the pain to continue well into 2026, and into 2027, before some (possible) relief arrives in 2028 for DRAM.
