Last week’s Switch 2 reveal might have had its exciting bits but it also brought its share of controversy too. There was the cost of the console itself, the cost of its games, or the perhaps surprising decision to charge owners for Switch 2’s Welcome Tour tutorial game instead of including it for free – a decision Nintendo of America’s Bill Trinen has now addressed, saying the newly confirmed $10 USD price reflects the “amount of care and work” put into it.
Welcome Tour was unveiled during last week’s Switch 2 reveal, and is described as an “interactive exhibit” offering “lots of insights about the console” through “tech demos, minigames and other interactions”. As presented during Nintendo’s showcase, however, it looked very much a tutorial, walking players through the fundamental features of their new console purchase – so it came as something as a surprise when Nintendo revealed it wasn’t a free pack-in (unlike, say, PS5’s similar Astro’s Playroom) but a paid digital purchase.
Now, speaking to IGN, Nintendo of America’s vice president of product and player experience, Bill Trinen, has confirmed exactly how much Welcome Tour will cost, saying its newly announced $9.99 USD price tag “is not an exorbitant” one. As to why Nintendo has opted to charge Switch 2 owners extra to learn how to use their £396 console, Trinen described Welcome Tour as an “interesting product” that’s more than a “quick intro” to Switch 2.
“It’s a pretty robust piece of software. There’s a lot of great detail in there,” he explained. “I think there are people who are particularly interested in the tech and the specs of the system and things like that, for them I think it’s going to be a great product. It’s really for people that want more information about the system rather than necessarily a quick intro to everything it does. And for that reason, and just the amount of care and work that the team put into it, I think it was decided that, ‘Yeah, this feels like $9.99 is not an exorbitant price. It feels like a good value for what you’re getting out of the product.'”
Value has been on everyone’s mind following Nintendo’s Switch 2 reveal, with the console’s £396/$450 price tag having already seen pushback from fans. There’ve been similar cost concerns around the $80 USD price of Mario Kart World – which Nintendo of American boss Doug Bowser has since insisted reflects the “breadth and depth of the gameplay” – even the price of its paid Switch 2 Edition upgrades. That doesn’t appear to have dissuaded punters from pre-ordering the console, however, with Switch 2 already sold out at many retailers. Nintendo’s official pre-order schemed launches this Thursday, 10th April, for most of the world – apart from in the US, where pre-orders have been delayed indefinitely due to last week’s Trump tariffs.
As for Switch 2 itself, Eurogamer’s Tom Phillips went hands-on last week, calling it a “proper generational upgrade”, with Mario Kart World its “killer app”. For more on the console, here’s everything we know about Switch 2.