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Comment by ageitgey | Hacker News Reader

The value of the yen compared to other currencies has fallen through the floor since 2022, so this isn't unexpected - Nintendo had to do something to equalize prices somewhat. The dollar's global value has also weakened noticeably since (checks notes) April 2, 2025 and Canada has had currency struggles as well the last few years.

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You got the relationship between currency value and export prices upside down. Usually when your local currency devalues, it will make your exported goods cheaper in other countries.

This is why the US always accuses (justified or not) other countries artificially keeping their currencies undervalued, by the way.

First, Japan doesn't make the Switch in Japan. They are made in Vietnam and China. So having a weak local currency isn't super helpful.

Second, the largest price increase is for the local Japanese market (and they are increasing the already-underpriced special 'Japan-only' model that they won't allow to be sold in other markets).

He may have just fumbled into an accuracy, but the nuance here is that what you're saying is mostly true for domestically produced things, which is why the other country you're mostly referring to is China - they have domestic production facilities for just about everything.

Something like the Switch is going to rely heavily on imported parts, and so when your currency plummets relative to others, that forces you to increase prices just to stay in the black. And yeah in looking it up, then yen has dropped about 50% against the yuan just over the past 5 years. Seems like Japan didn't learn much from the US about picking 'print money' as your economic policy. It doesn't last long when you're an economic hegemon able to export your inflation, but it's a far worse idea when you're a lesser economic power.

> it's a far worse idea when you're a lesser economic power

Exactly. Japan has held its interest rates at almost zero for years (currently 0.75%) while the US is at 3.5% and has been roughly there or higher since late 2022. Having a negative 3% interest rate gap with the world's largest economy for over 3 years is going to cause currency weakness.

> The value of the yen compared to other currencies has fallen through the floor since 2022...

That would normally allow them to keep prices of export goods low...

It totally depends on if you need to import things to transform them or if you source mostly locally in your supply chain.

You’ll notice they raised prices in Japan by A Lot, but the US price is only up $50.

Uuuuuuh, ¥10,000 is currently about $64, so it's not that much different to be calling it "a lot".

The price is increasing by 20% in Japan and 11% in the US, so the price increase in Japan is nearly double the increase in the US.

The thing is dependent on imported RAM. The flip side of this.. have you seen SK Hynix stock price lately?

This is a large price rise in domestic (Japanese) markets, with a small rise in other countries. This is impacting Japanese consumers the most.

Nintendo is a very Japanese-centric, proud company. For those not aware, Nintendo has been avoiding repricing domestically until now by selling a "Japanese-only Switch" locked to Japan in order to prevent foreign arbitrage. But the currency pressure is too strong.

> Given that the impact of various changes in market conditions is expected to extend over the medium to long term, price revisions are also planned outside Japan as described below.

                     Current Price   Revised Price
    United States      $449.99         $499.99
    Canada             $629.99         $679.99
    Europe             €469.99         €499.99

These price changes reflect more than just Yen value dropping.

Yeah, the comment talking about currency exchange rates is missing the hardware crisis. Nintendo stock prices dropped 45% over the past year because of the hardware shortages and the inevitability of having to raise prices to account for that. I think the difference in currencies is a minor factor. Last July, Nintendo was selling for about $24 a share, and now it's down to about $12.

https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-under-pressure-to-rais...

The truth is that you can increase prices by 50% and if you loose 50% of sales you are still in a good place as your costs also drop.

They have little uncertainty to work with, they don't need their consumers as much.

They're continuing their anti consumer policies

Hardware is just one aspect of sales though. I assume they have much higher margin on software, especially rereleases of existing games on whatever the next platform is.

Hang on, halving your sales means doubling your price to stay even (ignoring your own cost), right?

I have a bridge to sell you …

That's very simplistic. They also earn money on sales, both first-party and third-party games, so they need a large audience.

Not really... They can control direct sales by controlling discounts.

See what is happening on all major store chains. They have a original price that is frequently discounted so they don't say they are increasing prices.

See Sony PS store. Technically they have same price but personalised discounts.

If you consider the jump in price of DRAM due to hyperscalers to not be a considerable factor in this increase, please state so. Your comment leaving this out makes it harder to trust.

DRAM prices increase everywhere, so it should affect the worldwide market in the same way. But Nintendo is raising prices mostly in Japan.

Japan's local currency devaluation is more about US vs Japan differences in central bank policy and interest rates (and a million other issues) and is mostly separate from DRAM prices.

>since April 2, 2025

This current inflation spike peaked in 2022. If anything, its been easing in 2025.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FPCPITOTLZGUSA

https://cpiinflationcalculator.com/2025-cpi-and-inflation-da...

Check out the US dollar index on a 5-year view: https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/quote/DX-Y.NYB/

Inflation is just one factor and is not limited to one country. This shows the US dollar vs other currencies.

That graph shows the dollar started dropping in Jan 2025

Right, it started dropping when the current administration was inaugurated, directly because of the party's promise to enact immediate tariffs. And it continued to drop sharply leading up to and through the tariff announcement.

I'm not trying to say anything spicy here. You can argue whether a strong currency is good or bad. But it would be silly not to acknowledge the cause. It was one of the largest global financial shocks in recent years.

Trying to square that with your statement

> The dollar's global value has also weakened noticeably since (checks notes) April 2, 2025

Sorry if I wasn't as specific as possible:

> The dollar's global value has also weakened noticeably since (checks notes) the global financial world reordering that happened in early 2025, which in finance circles is often referred to collectively by the shorthand 'Liberation Day', i.e. April 2nd, 2025, during which the US currency became significantly weaker relative to other major currencies, a situation which persists until the present moment

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