Earlier today, we discussed the pricing of Nintendo Switch in Malaysia which has been deemed quite high by most gamers. Additionally, gamers are apparently not able to obtain stand-alone consoles at launch this March and have to purchase it together with two games.
To put things into perspective, we decided to compare these pricing with those from Singapore, Japan, and the United States. The reason we chose our southern neighbours as the first point of comparison is not only because our markets are handled by the same distributor which is Maxsoft, but also the fact that customers in both countries are not able to obtain stand-alone consoles at launch.
So, here is how the pricing looks like when compared to each other:
Based on the table above, it seems that the differences in pricing between Impulse Gaming and Qisahn are not that much. On the other hand, the price gap between Gamers Hideout and Qisahn are rather significant.
Meanwhile, the disadvantages of Malaysian pricing are much bigger when compared to the Nintendo Switch’s price tags in Japan and United States:
As Malaysia is not a native market for Nintendo, it was natural to expect the Switch to cost slightly more in our market. Based on the table above, we are looking at differences between RM 254 to RM 863 depending on the two foreign markets and Malaysian retailers. Put another way, the price gap is between 14% and 28% higher between Impulse’s pricing with the US and Japan respectively.
However, let’s not forget that gamers in Japan and US are able to get their hands on the stand-alone console instead of being locked down to the 2-games bundle set as is the case in Malaysia. Since the Switch has no region lock, getting it from Japan or US seems to be a good option – but after-sales services and warranty could be troublesome.
In the meantime, we are reaching out to Maxsoft as well as its parent company, Active Boeki K.K for their comments on the Switch’s pricing and compulsory bundling but we have to be very honest: we are not expecting a reply since Maxsoft has never replied to our previous communications.
We are also actively working to get a hold of Nintendo but as the company doesn’t operate directly in Malaysia or even South East Asia, this task is even more difficult. Nevertheless, we do hope we will be able to receive some official statement from these companies very soon.
(References: Gamers Hideout / Impulse Gaming / Qisahn / Nintendo Japan / Nintendo US)
