The latest Nintendo Switch ad, featuring Canadian actress Annie Murphy, went up today on the Nintendo YouTube channel. Having published a few adverts lately featuring various celebs and actresses, like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu for Japan, and Brie Larson for the US, it seems like Nintendo reached out to Murphy following the huge success of Schitt’s Creek, in which she plays down-on-her-luck socialite, Alexis Rose.
In the advert, Murphy plays Ring Fit Adventure, Clubhouse Games, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Just Dance 2021 – and notably doesn’t use Nintendo’s own voice chat service to play with friends.
But many people in the comments (and our inbox!) were more concerned about the end of the video, where the following screen appears:
Considering that the price on the Nintendo website has the Switch at $300 and the Switch Lite at $200, their concern seemed appropriate. Did Nintendo just raise the price by a hundred dollars?!
Luckily, that’s not the case. It would seem that the prices are in Canadian dollars, which are currently worth $0.78 in US dollars – which makes that 400 CAD price roughly equivalent to 314 USD. So, yes, Switches are more expensive, but only in Canada, and not by much.
Although the advert doesn’t actually state that the dollar price is Canadian, the description of the video links to Nintendo Canada’s website, Facebook page, and Twitter profile – and, after all, Annie Murphy is Canadian herself. Is it really Nintendo’s fault that the two currencies use exactly the same symbol?
