Nintendo begin selling dock-less Switch consoles in Japan

Following the enormous early success of the Nintendo Switch, the Japanese gaming giant have shifted their focus to making the console even more dominant than the Wii. No longer was it the aim to get a Switch into every gaming household. No, Nintendo announced earlier this year that their ambition was for every single gamer to own one. That means getting more than one Switch into home where there would be multiple players.

No one was quite sure how much of desire was simply sales bravado from a company emboldened by their re-established standing in the console market. However, a new announcement on the Japanese Nintendo store has underlined how determined Nintendo are.

One of the main impediments to households buying multiple Switch consoles so far has been the fact that it's currently impossible to buy the console without the dock. If, as Nintendo have stated, they want consumers to view the Switch more like a handheld when it comes to buying multiple ones, then it would make sense to remove the dock from the equation for houses that already have one.

In this official Nintendo Japan article, you can see that Japanese players will now be able to buy a Switch without an AC adaptor and a dock, a compromise which drops the price of the unit by 5,000 yen from 29,980 yen to 24,980 yen.

This roughly equates to around a £35 drop in price. A full price unit in Japan costs the equivalent of £205 (far less than the £279.99 RRP in the UK), and the dock-less set is around £170. Extrapolating these numbers suggests that a similar kit could retail for around £230 here in Europe.

Will we see such a kit over here? It wouldn't surprise us at all. Save for a couple of extra bundles, the Japanese market has generally had the same range of Switch products (with similar release dates). Perhaps Nintendo could be holding off until E3 to announce the bundle for the West.