In light of today's news of the tariffs absolutely screwing America and their Console pre-orders being delayed due to adjustments in pricing, some people are speculating that prices may rise in other regions for Nintendo to recoup loss sales.
If we've placed an order (or especially if we only put the $50 deposit down at EB) is that price locked in for us?
Damn… 💀
Kind of similar that they cant force you to purchase just because you held a pre-order. Goes both ways in that sense, as suggested id imagine someone will honour it and you can price match if they don't themselves.
How about if you paid for the whole thing? I preordered from JB and had to pay all upfront.
My thinking would be that in this instance you have a printed contract of sale stating the customer has paid in full for the item at that price on that date. You are now waiting for delivery of the item, so the retailer can fulfil their obligations under ACL to provide you with the product that you have paid for.
If the retailer was unable to fulfil their obligations under ACL to you because they no longer have access to the product whatsoever then they would be obligated to refund all your money, but they cannot as I understand it simply increase the price arbitrarily before delivery, if you have already paid.
That’s my understanding. A so called pre-order is not a paid in full contract of sale between a seller and buyer, as I understand it.
Things could get tricky if the business went insolvent, but frankly that’s very unlikely in the case of JB HiFi before June.
I would think the only way to lock in the price is to pay it full upfront now, so the payment is closed in the system.
I was thinking of heading back to my store and paying the difference ASAP 🤣
Just wasn't sure if any of this would make a difference or not.
No, doesn't work like that. The preorder itself only gets closed when the product is picked up. It's still an expression of interest until that point.
I'm not talking about the preoder itself being closed, of course it's not closed until picked up. I'm referring to the owing balance. There's a difference.
I know, but there is no difference. The owing balance can change at any point until a sale is made for a product that has not yet been released. A preorder is distinctly (and legally) different to a laybuy. All preorders are simply an expression of interest. There is no requirement for anyone to actually supply the product you preorder. You have effectively just given $699 to say, "Yeah, reckon I'll buy a Switch 2 when it comes out.".
I have previously worked at both JB HiFi and EB Games. I'm well aware of how the systems work. Those negging the comments are huffing copium.
My gut feeling is EB would honour the price advertised at the time.
If there was price hike, I suspect it'd be from those orders onwards.
I have nothing to base the above on other than the impression that they care about their namesake and customer service.
This is a really interesting question. My thinking is that no, you do not have any specific ACL guarantees.
I think you’d actually need a signed and dated contract with the retailer that specifies that you are purchasing for ‘$X’ for the reserved right to purchase at a specific later date X console for ‘$X’, or something to that effect.
A retailer may offer you the initial price the console was at the time you purchased the pre-order, but enforcing it without a document I think would be difficult.
Presumably EB Games themselves would have some clarification regarding this. It might be worth asking their help service?
Doesn't Amazon only charge you at the lower price for preorders?
Interestingly enough they seem to be one of the few retailers that doesn't have them for order 🤔
Nintendo already clearly knew about these tariffs coming in, I would assume that's why the price of games (and the console itself) is now quite a bit higher than previously.
But really, companies price things to maximise profits already. If they could increase the price to make up for US sales, they would have already increased the price to boost their profits. If anything, they may need to shift excess stock that they can't sell in the US that they have already planned for production which would make a price increase a bad idea.
Aren't the games and hardware technically sold by Nintendo of America?
Tariffs are based on where it is manufactured and charged at import.
Otherwise BYD would just create "BYD of America" and pay no tariffs.
I’ve had prices go up on preorders and EB gave me the original price.
As it stands, I don’t see Nintendo raising the prices further. These tariffs were incoming before the Direct. Of raising prices in the US is supposedly going to impact sales, why would they cause the same issues at a global level by voluntarily increasing them further in markets that they don’t need to.
The Japanese base model also suggests Nintendo has some buffer in terms of margins.
I think you will definitely see the price go up, they knew of the initial jump not the retaliatory tariffs from China which will impact the production costs. As to how much time will tell
I’m skeptical. The cost is already the main criticism. They’re also selling the exact same console in Japan for significantly less with a software lock to only allow Japanese language. I doubt those Japanese units are being sold at a loss, so I think they have margins on the hardware.
I don’t see Nintendo wanting or needing to make the console less appealing globally because a single market wants to revenue raise on imports.
I don’t think they’ll lower the cost either. I think it’ll sit right where it is, as the original Switch did over basically the entire lifespan of the system.
The price could also go the other way. If USA sales drop significantly, then they may want to try and push sales in other countries to make up the numbers.
We may find the price going down due to increased supply and less demand.
Short answer is that it's unlikely that EBgames / JB Hi-Fi will increase their prices with the current/existing pre-orders. My guess is that there would already be contracts in place to sell x units for $x, otherwise there wouldn't be pre-orders, only speculation. The current batches are probably already on shipping containers.
New pre-orders/sales on the other hand may be subject to new contract and pricing.
some people are speculating that prices may rise in other regions for Nintendo to recoup loss sales.
and not everyone is right.
So you think Nintendo will take a loss in the USA market and ramp up the costs elsewhere? LOL yeah that isn't how it works.
Does EB Games/Australia Consumer Law Have a Pre-Order Price Guarantee?
No
Tarrifs only effect the US as they are the ones imposing it. The only onflow effect to us is if the units were being made in the US and components imported to the US were effected. These are being made in Asia as far as im aware so should be no effect of tarrifs on us and therefore no effect on prices for us.
If anything is going to effect the overall price it will be the spiraling dollar. But that will not likely effect things in the short term. Typically electronics seem to be somewhat resilient against the AU dropping for whatever reason. Any effect will be minimal price wise id suggest. With the ways things are going its hard to tell how things are going to play out with economies across the world. Trump is just to random to tell what effect his policies will have.
I've seen price increased on EB Games Pre-Orders on two occasions:
I placed a pre-order for this back in September 2024, when the price was $149.95 but now increased to $159.95 recently. Staff notified me of the price increase but will still honour the pre-ordered price.
Pokemon TCG Booster Packs recently increased to $9 each, but pre-orders prior to increased was honoured at the original price ($8).
It's not locked in no, as its only a hold payment towards the item and the sale transaction has not taken place. Some companies will honour preordered prices and others will say it is what it is at launch. You always have the option to withdraw/refund your preorder payment and/or price match competitors at time of sale.