A report based on multiple industry sources has claimed that Nintendo may finally release its original Switch console in India early next year.
The claim comes from the latest episode of the Dark Zero podcast (via Nintendo Everything), with co-host Rishi Alwani stating he has heard from “multiple sources” that the Switch will likely launch in the country. He said it will have a “February or March launch window” and a price point of 20,000 rupees (around $208).
The launch is believed to be for the standard Switch model, rather than the OLED or Lite, and there is no word of the Nintendo Switch 2 arriving in India any time soon.
“It’s most likely to be distributed by Reddington, Alwani said, “simply because, for any console manufacturer, what’s really important is on-ground distribution.
“Granted, there are those who will just use Amazon or Flipkart for everything. But a large chunk of people buy hardware at retail and that’s not just an India thing, it’s a global thing.”
Alwani speculated that the relatively low price may be due to Nintendo having “a history of entering markets like this with a certain level of region locking.”
“We saw this back when they tried entering China with a partnership with Tencent, where everything was region locked pretty hard,” he said.
Despite the in-store presence and reasonable price that the launch would bring, Alwani believes that Nintendo may still struggle to sell the system in India.
“It’s going to be an uphill struggle, I feel, because piracy is pretty much the reason why anyone buys a Nintendo console here,” he said.
It should be noted that an Indian launch for the Switch has not yet been officially confirmed by Nintendo.
The Wii and DS were the last systems Nintendo officially introduced to India, distributed by Samurai Electronics and HCL Infosystems in 2008.
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Written by Reece Heather
A veteran Zelda Universe editor and First-class journalism graduate, Reece emerged with a Nintendo 64 and a lifelong obsession after a narrow escape from Santa’s Naughty List in 1998. Outside of games, he’s reading Punisher comics, being bossed around by his cocker spaniel, and cornering innocent bystanders to rant about the importance of game preservation.
