After months long speculation, Nintendo finally reveals the price of its new Switch console. The Nintendo Switch carries a suggested retail price of $299.

There has been a lot of debate and a lot of rumors surrounding the Nintendo Switch, but during today's livestream event has been set straight: the Nintendo Switch will release on March 3, 2017 and its suggested retail price in the United State is $299.99 ($399.99 CAD). The console will also come in two different options, one that includes the standard black joy-con controllers and one that has one aqua and one red joy-con controller.

For weeks now the rumors had fluctuated back and forth between a $250 and $300 price point, depending on which retail outlet was breaking NDA. Both prices made sense given Nintendo’s past console price points and the functionality of the Switch console, but most knew treated each rumor with a dose of skepticism.

Now we know that the $300 USD price ($400 USD) is the real price and with that comes a lot of assumptions about the console's capabilities and functionality. The price point lends credence to talk that the Nintendo Switch might be less powerful than current-gen systems, but it also means the battery life will be decent. As we later learned during the presentation, the Nintendo Switch battery life can vary between 2.5 and 6 hours depending on the game.

$300 USD also guarantees that whatever retail quantities Nintendo allocates will certainly go fast, at least during the pre-order phase. As of right now, some gamers don't know when pre-orders will go live, although there are a few details. During the stream Nintendo revealed that the Japanese market will begin taking pre-orders on January 21st. And we learned earlier this week that the New York City Nintendo store will have a limited amount of pre-orders available, but it's hard to imagine they will last long.

If nothing else, the price is sure to make the proposition of a Nintendo Switch more palatable for those who were on the fence regarding the new console. $250 seemed a little low and suggested that the console might not be as powerful or as useful as most hoped, whereas $300 USD arguably feels like a sweet spot in terms of asking price and what the console can deliver.

What exactly the Nintendo Switch can deliver, as it turns out, is a wide variety of experiences, both traditional and motion-controlled. It might not have many games available at launch, with titles like Super Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2 targeting releases later in 2017, but Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be available, and that's arguably all fans will need to convince them the price of entry is worth it.

Nintendo Switch releases March 3, 2017 for $299 USD or $399 CAD.