After years of anticipation, months of waiting, and an almost three-week delay, Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders finally started in the US today. However, it hasn't exactly been a smooth process, with countless reports of canceled orders, hour-long queues, and shopping baskets emptying themselves across a number of some of the biggest and best-known online retailers. Put simply, it's been a bit of a disaster, but honestly, what were you expecting?
As far as I'm concerned, it's not a major shock that countless retailers sold out of Nintendo Switch 2 units in mere minutes, considering the hype surrounding the follow-up to one of the best handheld consoles in recent years. Despite complaints surrounding the Switch 2's price point, it's clear that a solid chunk of the millions who picked up the original were impressed enough by the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct to part with the $450 for the new console. So much so that social media is full of complaints from unhappy potential customers who didn't manage to snag a unit.
It seems that no retailer had a smooth pre-order rollout, with Target, Best Buy, and Walmart all buckling under the demand. According to X users, Target has cancelled some pre-orders, much to the frustration of celebrating customers, while some haven't received confirmation emails after placing orders, leaving them in limbo. On the other hand, Walmart kept users in a queue for up to an hour, only for them to get to the end and find out there's no stock left or for the site to fail, forcing them back to the start. Then, there's Best Buy, which not only opened up pre-orders late but also reportedly crashed under the pressure. All that's left in terms of the major retailers is GameStop, which is allowing physical and digital pre-orders from later today.
Still, from reports across the world, it seems Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order misery isn't exclusive to the US. In the last couple of days, Nintendo's president, Shuntaro Furukawa, admitted that the gaming giant had received over two million entries for its Switch 2 pre-order lottery, which "far exceeds the number of Nintendo Switch 2 consoles that can be delivered" on the June 5 release date. We've also seen UK-based retailers nearly instantly selling out following the beginning of pre-orders earlier this month, with the most recent Amazon restock running out in mere minutes. Simply put, it looks like not everyone who wants to pre-order the console is going to get the opportunity.
It's worth keeping in mind that all the retailers we mentioned could get more stock before the Nintendo Switch 2 release date, so if you weren't one of the lucky ones, there's still hope yet. If you did manage to secure a unit, get yourself hyped up for the big launch by checking out our Nintendo Switch 2 hands-on preview while you're here, or check out all the exciting launch titles and spec details in our Nintendo Switch 2 hub.