Investors pressed the sell button on Nintendo again as the company revealed the long-awaited console with a market price of $299.99.
Last night, the Japanese company has finally shared some details about its newest Switch console, Nintendo's first one to hit the market in the last four years. Within the hours after the announcement, Nintendo (OTCMKTS: Nintendo [NTDOY]) shares tumbled as much as 6%, wiping almost $2 billion off its market cap. Nintendo's presentation of its new console that will be launched on March 3 definitely made the fans excited but investors turned their noses up as soon as the console's price tag of $299.99 was mentioned.
The Switch console will be priced at $299.99 in the United States, similar to its predecessor Nintendo Wii U, while in Japan the price will be 20% higher than that of Wii U at 29,980 yen, reported Reuters. The company long prepared to finally get a chance to win back the gamers after Nintendo Wii U had failed to impress them back in 2012. However, with such a hefty price tag, it might be much harder to catch the interest of gamers that are increasingly switching to smartphones as their primary gaming device.
Some analysts claimed that the market reaction to Nintendo's announcement should not come as a surprise, since the Switch's initial announcement back in October caused the company's stock to drop by 6.5%, as well. Over the last months, a number of industry experts warned Nintendo that the $300 price tag could seriously undermine the success of the console.
“I find it very difficult to picture a scenario where a critical number of mobile, free-to-play users converts to console and buy hard- and software for several hundred dollars upfront. Different markets, very difficult to bridge,” said a gaming industry expert Dr. Serkan Toto, as reported by Forbes.
Likewise, some analysts said already back in October that it would be quite hard to achieve the desired volume sales with this market price.
"A long-in-the-works revamp to the company's consoles, the NX, with reveal coming next week, is liable to come at a price that will result in a "major" disappointment for volume sales," said Macquarie analysts.
This is the second large drop of Nintendo's stock price in the last months. The company's release of the iconic Super Mario game on mobile back in December caused its stock to lose more than 5%, what most investors similarly linked to the higher-than-normal game's price tag of $9.99.