Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour price is official, and it's way too high
Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America's president, has confirmed how much the title will cost - and it's $10 too expensive
Important update: Our Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order trick at Walmart may still help you get the new console today before it fully sells out.
🎮 Nintendo has confirmed how much Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour will cost
🕹️ In an interview with The Verge, Doug Bowser shared the price, saying it’s driven by the extensive nature of the mini-games included
💰 If you ask us, it’s $10 too expensive
📅 The game will launch with the Switch 2 on June 5
Nintendo finally detailed the Switch 2 last week and confirmed when it’ll come out, and we got our first look at some of the games that’ll be available at launch. One game, in particular, is called Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which is sort of a fancy user manual for the Switch 2 that teaches you how to navigate the console in a fun way. But instead of just bundling the game with the Switch 2, Nintendo said it would be available as a paid title on its own.
At the time, we didn’t know how much it would cost, but now that we’ve learned the price, we can confirm it’s $10 too much.
Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser had an interview with The Verge, touching on why the Switch 2 costs so much. The interview finally mentions the price of games for the console and why they’ve gone up, and we learn why Welcome Tour is available separately and isn’t bundled with the Switch 2 itself.
Bowser said that the game will cost $9.99 when it launches on June 5, which seems absolutely insane for what it is. Nintendo’s logic? Mini-games.
“As this game was being developed, what’s been packed into it is a depth of minigame experiences,” Bowser said. “They’re very deep, they’re very repeatable. And so, as we looked at that depth of play experience and opportunity, we felt that $9.99 was a fair price to ask for that.”
By shoving mini-games into the main experience of Welcome Tour, Nintendo believes it can justify the high asking price. But here’s the whole issue: Welcome Tour is meant to teach you how to use the Switch 2. The console itself is already $150 more than the original Switch, and all of the other Nintendo Switch 2 launch games cost more than your average Switch game ever has. Why not just bundle Welcome Tour in with the Switch 2 and eat the cost a bit?
I imagine it cost Nintendo a pretty penny to develop the title, and it’s fair that Nintendo wants to justify the hard work that went into it. But, c’mon, you’re really gonna charge $10 for a few silly mini-games no one will ever really play? Plus, if you want to know how to use the Switch 2, won’t most people look at the user manual anyway?
It’s one of the more confusing aspects of the Nintendo Switch 2 price, but it’s clear that Nintendo is positioning it as its most premium console yet. I guess that also means you have to spend $10 to learn how to use it.
Max Buondonno is an editor at The Shortcut. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.
