BODY: If you were planning to expand your Switch 2 storage on the cheap, the window just narrowed a little. On August 18, the price of two Nintendo-licensed microSD Express cards quietly went up—and Nintendo's own storefront has already switched to the new figures.
The revision covers both "microSD Express Card 256GB for Nintendo Switch 2" products, one from SanDisk and one from Samsung. Each saw its suggested retail price climb by ¥2,000, a meaningful jump for an accessory that many Switch 2 owners treat as a near-mandatory purchase.
The context here matters: Switch 2 dropped support for the standard microSD cards that served the original Switch for years. The new console requires the faster microSD Express standard to handle its larger, quicker-loading games, and Nintendo-licensed options remain thin on the ground. That scarcity gives the officially sanctioned SanDisk and Samsung cards outsized importance—and less competitive pressure to keep prices down.
Nintendo Store listings already reflect the increase, and other retailers are expected to follow as existing stock clears. Shoppers who still see the old price at third-party outlets may want to move quickly.
The insider take
From Tokyo, this reads as another ripple of the weak yen and stubborn NAND flash costs squeezing hardware accessories across the board—the same pressure that has nudged up everything from SSDs to peripherals here this year. But there's a Switch 2-specific sting: because the console locked storage expansion to the pricier microSD Express format, Japanese buyers have far fewer escape hatches than they did on the original Switch, where any cheap microSD would do. With demand for the console still strong locally and licensed cards in short supply, few expect these prices to soften soon—if anything, the next revision may point the same direction.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).