The trade war has hit the Mushroom Kingdom.
Nintendo is delaying Canadian preorders of its hotly-anticipated Switch 2 console, which were set to open at noon on Wednesday, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s worldwide tariffs, the company said in a statement.
It follows a similar delay announced last week in the U.S. There, Nintendo said it needed to “assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions.”
The Switch 2 is still scheduled to launch on June 5, the company said. No new preorder date has been announced.
“Preorders for Nintendo Switch 2 in Canada will not start on April 9, 2025 in order to align with the timing of preorders to be determined in the U.S.,” Nintendo told the Star in a statement.
The news of the delay was first reported by MobileSyrup.
Nintendo unveiled the details of its new console — a follow-up to the Switch, one of the bestselling consoles of all time — just last week. The Switch 2 will launch with a brand-new Mario Kart game, the first completely new entry in the franchise in more than a decade, and introduce a bigger screen with better graphics.
It will cost Canadians $629.99.
The U.S has slapped Japan, where Nintendo is based, with 24 per cent tariffs on almost all products, and also instituted 25 per cent worldwide tariffs on steel and aluminum.
In 2019, Nintendo shifted some of its manufacturing to Vietnam from China, a move it said was meant to diversify risk. Trump has hit Vietnam with 46 per cent tariffs and China with 104 per cent tariffs.
Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser said the company is “actively assessing what the impact may be” from tariffs on the price of the new console.
Gaming research firm DFC Intelligence says the tariffs could have “significant implications for pricing and supply forecasts” for the Switch 2 but analysts still expect a high demand for the console.
