Nintendo may have one of the hottest selling products of the 2016 holiday season with The NES Classic mini-console, but the gaming world's attenton remains fixed on the company's bold 2017 gambit with it's new entry in the console wars. That new console is the recently announced Nintendo Switch, a transforming home-to-portable modular system formerly know as The NX.

Of course for gamers eager to place a preorder on the new machine, or for those still on the fence as they wait to hear news of how much the Switch will cost them, rumors are now flying that the price of the system has been leaked ahead of schedule. And if those rumors prove to be true, gamers may be pleased to hear the price point is lower than many had expected.

According to a report by Let's Play Video Games (via Bleeding Cool) the UK gaming retailer GAME has been told to expect the system to cost in the area of £199.99, which would translate to just under $250.00 in U.S. currency. This is supposedly in line with a similar leak from Toys R Us Canada, which was briefly said to have priced the device at the similar rate of $329.99 Canadian.

If accurate, these price points would place the Switch roughly in line with Nintendo's typical price targets -- but dramatically lower than the standard prices one expects to pay for rival consoles like the Sony PlayStation 4 or Microsoft Xbox One. Nintendo has had no official response to these leaks, and generally does not comment on rumors relating to the timing or price of its products.

The lower price point would be well in line with industry expectations, which had widely predicted that Nintendo would seek to keep the cost of the system low in order to target families with children and casual gamers who do not necessarily see themselves playing enough games to justify a $400-500 dedicated device. It will also likely be seen as an attractive price point to more devoted gamers who often buy Nintendo consoles as an "addition" to their more expensive main gaming hub for access to the popular first-party titles that the Japanese gaming giant releases exclusively to their platforms.

Left unsaid is what this price point will mean for the overall power of the Switch, in terms of what it can actually do in terms of graphical output and game size. Nintendo has described the system as a hoped-for competitor to bigger, more expensive machines; but full technical specifications are not yet available and many have raised doubts that a device built essentially as a handheld capable of outputting to a television display when "docked" can push the pixels necessary to be seen as a viable alternative to Sony or Microsoft's increasingly powerful consoles.

Stick with Screen Rant for more Nintendo Switch news as it develops.

Source: Let's Play Video Games (via Bleeding Cool)