The price of the official microSD Express Card 256GB has increased ¥2000 to ¥8980 in Japan (+29%; img below). Before any grifters begin screeching “greedy Nintendo!l!”, keep in mind that a) it now matches the US price, and b) Nintendo’s been singlehandedly anchoring the microSD Express card market.
Since 2025, the price of 256GB regular microSD Cards has gone up around 1.4x-2.4x for Samsung, SanDisk, Lexar, and Onn/Walmart (img 1 below), and 512GB of the same brands about 2x-3x (img 2).
However, because Nintendo never raised the MSRP of its official 256GB microSD Express Card, other brands’ prices could only grew 1x-1.9x from 2025 in order to remain competitive (img 1 below). Due to the absence of an official 512GB EX Card, the anchoring effect is weaker there; even so the other brands only hiked the price around 1.3x-2x (img 2), rising substantially less than the regular 512GB cards.
This is what a responsible platform holder is supposed to do. But with the prolonged memory shortage, Nintendo might have to raise the card price in markets outside of Japan sooner or later.
[Originally posted on 2026-08-17 Pacific Time]
