United States preorders for the Nintendo Switch 2 console went live at Best Buy, Target, and Walmart at midnight Eastern time last night (though the rush of orders triggered issues and hold-ups throughout all 3 merchants’ sites). The console listings included a wave of other retail listings for video games and devices, and those listings either fill little spaces in our understanding about Switch 2 video game product packaging and prices or validate truths that were formerly indicated.

$80 Switch 2 video games like Mario Kart Worldwill not cost $90 as physical releases. This deserves duplicating over and over once again since of how pernicious the reports about $90 physical releases have actually been; as just recently as today, typing “Switch 2 $90” into Google would reveal you videos, Reddit threads, news posts, and even Google’s own AI summaries all with confidence and improperly declaring that physical Switch 2 releases will cost $90 when they really will not.

While physical video game releases in the European Union often cost more than their digital equivalents, there was in fact no indicator that United States releases of physical video games would cost$ 90. The Mario Kart World site noted an $80 MSRP from the start, as did early retail listings that were released before preorders really started, and this cost didn’t alter when Nintendo increased accessory prices in reaction to import tariffs enforced by the Trump administration.

Now that real order verification e-mails are going out, we can (even more) with confidence state that Switch 2 physical releases cost the very same quantity as digital releases, simply like initial Switch video games and a lot of physical releases for other consoles. The physical release for the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza is $70, likewise the like the digital variation.

Third-party releases run a broader rates range, from just $40 (Square Enix’sFearlessly Default remaster) to as much as $100 (a scandal sheet release ofDaemon X Machina: Titanic Scionlikewise readily available at $70 for the basic release).

Great deals of third-party video games are getting Game-Key card launches

When preorders opened in Japan the other day, all physical releases of third-party video games had Nintendo’s Game-Key card disclaimer printed on them. And it appears like a great deal of physical third-party Switch 2 video game releases in the United States will likewise be Game-Key cards, based upon package art accompanying the listings.

These have actually been questionable amongst physical media holdouts due to the fact that they’re not physical video game releases in the conventional sense– they do not have any real video game information kept on them. When you place them into a Switch 2, they permit you to download the video game material from Nintendo’s online shop, however unlike a pure digital release, you’ll still require to have the Game-Key card placed whenever you wish to play the video game.