Nintendo Accused of Price Gouging on the Switch OLED

Earlier this month, and after over a year of speculation, Nintendo finally confirmed the upcoming launch of its newly revised Switch console. While the Switch OLED certainly brings with it a few nice quality of life upgrades, however, on the whole, I think it would be fair to say that it hasn’t quite delivered on what consumers were hoping to see. The short version is that it has a brand new 7″ OLED screen, it has a larger memory capacity, a better stand, an ethernet port on the docking station, and… that’s about it! The bottom line is that despite most people hoping that Nintendo would update the system to make it 4K capable, this simply hasn’t happened. At least, not with this revision.

Following a report via TechSpot, however, despite these moderate improvements it would appear that Nintendo may be definitively guilty of price gouging on this newly revised console release.

Nintendo Switch OLED

Compared to the standard (original) model, when the Switch OLED releases on October 8th it will cost around $50 more ($349.99 MSRP). With such a significant increase in price, however, is it actually worth it? Well, in terms of the parts, apparently not. Following research conducted into the price of the ‘upgraded’ components, overall, it’s believed that while the Switch OLED carries a $50 higher price tag, it only actually costs Nintendo an extra $10 per unit. In other words, despite only seeing a relatively small number of quality of life improvements, for every Switch OLED sold, Nintendo will bank another $40 of pure profit when compared to the original design.

Which Should I Go For?

The only real major defining factor between the Switch OLED and the original base model is the screen. It’s not any bigger, and the console itself doesn’t run any faster, it’s simply the fact that the built-in display is of a higher quality. So, with this in mind, if you actually don’t have a problem with the screen on the original Switch, it’s really hard to make a solid case for spending the extra money on the Switch OLED. – I mean, personally, I think I’d rather save the $50 and just buy a game. Put simply, for that much extra money, you’re really not getting much and, if this is proven correct, all you’re pretty much doing is just (mostly) unnecessarily lining Nintendo’s pockets a bit more.

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!