Last week’s Nintendo Direct painted an extremely positive picture of the Switch 2. It did, however, leave a few questions unanswered. Now, we’re beginning to learn more about the unreleased console, and the rose-tinted glasses are slowly coming off. If you’re planning to get the Switch 2 in June, here are a few more costs you need to think about.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour

Let’s start with the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. After pulling the wraps from the console, Nintendo announced a small game to showcase its features. It shrinks the player down to expl0re the inner workings of the console, while offering small mini-games for a more practice demonstration. The Welcome Tour is essentially a tech demo akin to PlayStation’s Astro’s Playroom. The main difference is that the former is a paid game.

The game’s announcement as a paid product sparked the first questionable moment of the Direct. How is a more interactive instruction manual not free? If you’re still interested to get the software, we now know how much it will cost: US$ 9.99.

To be fair, it’s smaller than a full-priced game, but it’s still ten dollars more than free.

Game upgrades for the Nintendo Switch 2

Most users will likely skip the Welcome Tour. However, it’s a bit more difficult to skip game upgrades.

Games made for the original Switch are naturally compatible with the Switch 2. However, to maximize the new console’s hardware, a few games will have a Switch 2 edition. Owners of the original game can pay a small sum to upgrade them to the new version, which will tout enhanced resolutions and framerates.

During the Direct, Nintendo did not reveal how much an upgrade will cost. Now, we have a better idea.

Nintendo has just announced, via IGN, that upgrading Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will cost an additional US$ 9.99 apiece. This means that, all in all, they’ll cost US$ 70 and US$ 80, respectively. Upgrades for other compatible games are currently unannounced, but they will likely cost the same.

Arguably, players can do without the upgrade. After all, the games are still playable in their current states.

All the accessories

Even if you can skip the Welcome Tour or the upgrades, it’s practically impossible to live without the new Joy-Cons. Now, we’ve known the price of the controllers since the Direct. A pair will cost an eye-watering US$ 89.99.

With enough care, a pair of Joy-Cons should last a long time, so you don’t need to keep buying new ones. However, a new piece of information makes the price even more important.

Despite prevalent drifting controversies with the original Joy-Con, the new controllers will not use Hall Effect joysticks, making them potentially prone to the same issues of the original. According to Nintendo, the new Joy-Cons are constructed differently to mitigate the drifting issues.

However, without an actual years-long test, we can’t tell just how durable the new controllers are. In the meantime, it’s fair to assume that purchasing multiple Joy-Cons is still in our future, and they don’t come cheap.

While we’re on the subject, the Switch 2’s other accessories are also costly. For example, the new Camera will cost US$ 49.99. A charging grip will cost US$ 34.99. A carrying case with a screen protector inside will cost US$ 34.99.

A potential price increase?

Finally, let’s talk about the effect of ongoing tariffs coming from the United States. Soon after the Direct, President Trump announced a wave of tariffs against a number of countries. Because of how interdependent the world is, a tariff affecting a large country will ultimately affect the products made in another country.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is no different. As a result of the global sanctions, Nintendo indefinitely delayed the start of the console’s preorder period in the United States, while it’s evaluating the economic impact of the tariffs. It’s entirely possible that the last hidden fee of the Switch 2 that we don’t know about is a price increase right before the launch on June 5.