The Nintendo Switch Is Headed To Turkey But Will Cost Customers Almost $500

Nintendo shouldn’t allow this!!

@trakkerx It's Nintendo:p. Only they would launch a console with save capabilities worse than the snes and charge too much for games.

the same price than here in Brasil. Systems always had an elevated cost in South America and countries out of the main distribution. The situation is no different from the other consoles too.

Breath of the Wild is actually cheaper. Huh.

Pretty much the price in Latin America on launch day.

Luxury goods are heavily taxed in Turkey, so this comes as no surprise.

Almost nobody would be able to afford it anyway considering how low the standard wage is over there (though other necessities are really cheap).

It would make me really happy if Turkish was supported for big name games going forward, but it really is too niche a market for that to be a reasonable expectation.

I remember paying £59.99 for Breath of the Wild.

Sounds like a lot, but seems to be normal.

Wasn't the Ps4 priced between 600-700 USD when it launched over there..? I remember reading similar news back then.

@Knuckles-Fajita But it's 68 bucks, launched at 60 and you can find it on Amazon for like 50 now

@MasterJay Compared to the £ sterling price, its cheaper.

Wonder if I could sell them my cracked Switch for $400?

Do they know that the average salary in Turkey is in between 450 and 550€ :/

It's gonna be difficult for them to get a Switch...

@Knuckles-Fajita that's weird 🤔

@Knuckles-Fajita

Hum, the average salary in the UK is 2000€/1800£... soooo ^^

There are a number of reasons that the price would be so high, going from taxes, average income in the country, or what I assume to be the case, inflation. Some currencies are, naturally, more or less valuable than others. Such is the natural fluctuation of an economy. It would not be logical to blame Nintendo for something that may entirely be out of their control. I am certain they are trying to get the Switch into as many hands as possible- and thus, from a business perspective, so more games can get into the hands of more people, and thus more revenue.

@MasterJay Yeah here, Zelda and the upcoming Smash Ultimate are higher than usual £50 price of games, instead going for £60, which is around $80. Granted even our £50 games are more expensive than the US but still

@Cobalt the average salary for me at the moment is SOMEONE BLOODY HIRE ME ALREADY!

@Cobalt Looks like i need a new job lol

I feel bad about these price differences, I feel very lucky I can enjoy what I have.

@Knuckles-Fajita

I cross my fingers for you dude ! Not easy these days to be hired somewhere... :/

Do you have a professional speciality ?

This is the price if you want to buy it from stores physically. You can import it from Amazon with shipping and taxes for 1875 TL ($386) which is more affordable. Good thing i bought it when it came out, i got it for 950 TL which was 300 euro at the time. Its hard to play Nintendo when you live Turkey .

@Nunya You can, but as someone said earlier the average salary in Turkey is 300-400 Euros, so 1875 TL (331 Euro) is quite expensive when you work here.

Actually, CD Media is the same distributor as in Greece. Previous distributor, Nortec - for both Greece and Turkey as well, was in dispute with Nintendo and they dropped distribution rights, before CD Media stepped in.

As for the prices, I am not sure why that is. In Greece, Switch unit and game prices are more or less the same as with the rest of Europe.

@Knuckles-Fajita Wow that stinks, I preordered ssb ultimate for 47 on amazon

@trakkerx Shouldn't allow what, exactly?

@Guguk_KuShoe I may be naive, but I'm assuming that salary amount is monthly, not an entire year?

@HobbitGamer Yes its monthly, but lots of people rent homes, plus you need to pay a lot of taxes + you need to buy your needings to survive, you know usual stuff. You also need other products for a daily life, and they are quite expensive too. Its hard to pay your hobby stuff

@Cobalt Community work currently. Running my own website, community of gamers, so on so forth.

@MasterJay Yep, welcome to the UK!

@Nunya No, i think its 320 Euro right now, i could be wrong as it changes pretty quick due to politics

@HobbitGamer

Nintendo shouldn’t allow CD media to charge well over RRP, I knows it’s a recommended retail price but doesn’t make it right. I know they have extra fees for import but as mentioned above Greece charge roughly the same as here in the UK. It makes my blood boil even more when the likes of Shop Direct do it, they don’t have import fees as far as I know.

You get free kebab with the switch and a haircut. Nice deal!

Just kidding, why is it that expensive there?

Nintendo also abruptly left Brazil a few years ago and still hasn't come back.

You can find the Switch console and games online through independent importers, but the prices are absurdly high!

That’s what costs in most retailers here in Mexico too

That's what happens when your economy is in the toilet.

@Mountain_Man

Today you can consider that the economy of the entire world is in the toilet.
Turkish toilet are special as you may know ( )but trust me its the entire system that is collapsing...

@Knuckles-Fajita

Did you try to contact "kind of big youtubers" in the gaming community? I think you have to try... ^^

@trakkerx If it doesn't sell, then CD will bear the cost. Nintendo shouldn't say "Hey, you can't sell it any higher than XXX". If Nintendo really wanted a lower cost, they would work on a better distribution. Keep in mind that Nintendo has already been paid for the systems.

@Guguk_KuShoe No, I'm not arguing that at all. Priorities, and living arrangements are kind of at the top. I was just making sure I read that correctly.

@Cobalt Some of us are going to make him write a game. He just hasn't accepted it yet
@Knuckles-Fajita

Makes a change, its normally the UK that gets the high prices.

Oh that is unfortunate. Like some have mentioned here - how it also is in some places in Latin America.

That is absolutely insane. As much of a Nintendo fan I am, I think I would have to pass. Now if I were single without a care in the world, then yeah sure...but I have a family.

hahaha, and i thought uk prices were bad, christ.

@Knuckles-Fajita price for switch games in uk is $70, i can't even imagine how much the turkish would have to pay..

they pay for the switch over there and then what? after giving their life savings for the switch how would they afford the games?

Anyone in Turkey want to buy my Switch? The bottom right corner of the screen is popping out now. Ugh...

Just import a Switch from Europe and create an US account.

In my country, in Latin America, the Nintendo Switch costs $534.00. It is cheaper to import it myself, it will cost like $480.00.

Poor turkeys 😀

The Turkish exchange rate has been sucking heavily over the last couple of years. Somebody I knew was waiting to buy a game, but their currency's value nearly halved, so the price almost doubled for him.

And I thought the 330€ here was a lot. Wow.

That's the standard situation of a gamer living in a developing country. You receive less per month and still have to pay more than most people, telling from experience.

every time i eat turkey it gives me gas.
it reminds me of smoked turkey.

Charging more because of Turkey's economy is not what is going on. Maybe there are high taxes in this country.

CD Media, that will push Nintendo Switch to Turkey, is actually a Greek company. As most of us know by now, Greece's economy is still worst and yet Nintendo Switch console and games are provided at the same price as in the rest of Europe.

Also noting, CD Media, apart from Greece and now Turkey, is also responsible for Nintendo products in Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia, Cyprus, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia.

I think the general concencus is that many people worldwide (myself included) who pay this price or more for games/consoles. My Switch cost me £500 a game is average £60-£70 without import tax our bank cards are not recognised by Nintendo so eshop purchases are when eshop cards are rarely in stock and we receive titles normally two months late (occasionally only two weeks late if preordered and lucky). This is why I find it hard to stomach sometimes the complaints of some people when they complain about prices in the US/UK.

When you're country is run by what is essentially a dictator things like this tend to happen.

@Cobalt it's alot lower.

@ogo79 brat

I'm from Turkey. I'll keep using amazon for my nintendo delicacies.....

In other news, this didn't come as a surprise to me. Our economy is not at its brightest times, we have absurdly high taxes for electronics (and everything else), including import fees, The problem is not only high prices, but also decreasing purchasing power.Also a great political instability, so I'm not hopeful about the future.

Well, these combined with the very limited nintendo fanbase here won't bring success in Turkey, I believe.
Well, maybe they would at least bring some amiibo. I'm down for that!

I feel bad for the regular folks in Turkey. That part of the world is basically in endless turmoil, with wars, terrorism, corrupt leaders... okay we have corrupt leaders everywhere, but the point is, I imagine a lot of people would be looking for pleasant distractions. But at this price point it's probably only gonna be an option for the wealthy, of whom are already probably wealthy enough to have imported the system or bought one while travelling abroad...

Yeah but turkey?TURKEY?

Only rich Turkey can afford Nintendo. Poor Chicken plays PS4.

@Nunya ANSWER TO POST#58 SOMEWHERE UP THERE

Yeap, that's true.

The console itself is pricier, but everything else is on-par with the prices in Bulgaria. Heck, Zelda is actually cheaper - it's 139 BGN (about 63 GBP).

@BensonUii Completely. Why Nintendo, why?????

@Cosats

I don't think that CD Media is actually responsible for Bulgaria anymore. Before the Switch, we only had one major retailer - Technomarket (popular throughout Europe with other names) import Nintendo product through Nortec, which was a Greek company (it's why my "Metroid Prime Trilogy" is in English and Greek...a few other titles too). From GBA and GameCube all the way up to the Wii U. Some games even came unsealed, so their English manuals could be replaced with Greek ones (and in most cases, they'd take out the Club Nintendo point cards too)

However, local game retailers finally realized their mistake and started dealing more heavily with the 3DS and especially the Switch, to the point where I don't think Technomarket even get new Nintendo stock at all. And unlike the Nortec releases, the current ones we get are with covers in English, so that's a huge plus in my book. The prices are about the same as before, but distribution and overall availability are much better than when we got the stuff from Nortec.

@sportvater
you mean like bratwurst?

@FlashBoomerang so much yes, I was wondering why are people surprised by this when south america has had this prices (higher or lower depending the country) since launch. In my country switch costs something from $490 to $550.

If it's not Nintendo themselves distributing the system in that country but another local company, the difference in price is with them, not Nintendo, plus with the current political situation in the country, who knows, maybe that lovely man Erdogan voted a law all by himself to add a 50% tax on all Japanese products just because he can't stand them, that wouldn't be too far fetched.

@Heavyarms55 Yes but don't forget that these leaders are chosen by them.

Hope our neighbors in Turkey sooner than later will join EU so they don't have to deal with this crap anymore.

@TheCurator Supposedly. There's a lot to suggest that hasn't been the case the last few elections. Though I will be the first to admit I don't know for certain.

@Heavyarms55 I know and I agree. But still I've met a lot of Turkish while in the UK a few years back and they're very fond of their leaders. The thing with all of these Balkan countries (including Greece & maybe Cyprus to an extend) is that the locals are extremely close minded and resist to any change whatsoever.

Poor Turkey's.

Guys I've born in turkey and living here since. I can say one thing surely. Don't get a Switch in Turkey. It really isn't worth it if you have a relative in anotger cpuntry ask for them to get you one. Even if they can't its still cheaper with getting it from amazon. The good part about this will be the turkish lira getting added as a currency so we can know the exactly how much we need for something. And who knows maybe Nintendo will feel empathy and lower the prices a bit for turkey

I live in Turkey and already own the Switch. 2 huge questions: Lira for E-shop?Nintendo Switch Online support?

@Spoony_Tech No, I live in Turkey and the second hand Nintendo Switches are $200-1000TL or $300-1500TL