Pre-ordering the Nintendo Switch 2 was a nightmare for millions of players around the world—and I was one of them. From botched release times to error-crashing checkout screens, here’s how I survived the absolute shitshow and all-out war that was the Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order launch.
Chapter I – Pre-War Battle Plans
In the lead-up to the Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order launch, my wife and I meticulously crafted our strategy plans like we were about to entering a battle. We each had a PC at our own desk, and we both had a cellphone, tablet, and laptop next to us. Yes, this is as insane as it sounds. We practically had a war room set up in anticipation of the launch not going smoothly. However, we could never have predicted just how badly pre-orders would actually go. We should’ve seen the signs, though—Best Buy’s site wouldn’t let people update their payment methods all night and kept crashing.
In the lead-up to 9 PM, my heart was racing so fast I could almost feel it exploding out of my chest. Paranoid, I was constantly refreshing ResetEra, taking in the pre-launch nervousness vibes that were spreading among my fellow Nintendo fans. To calm my nerves, I put on some headphones and listened to the new Ghost Skeleta album—because you know, nothing calms the nerves like satanic rock. However, as the clock struck 9, everything quickly fell apart. None of our plans mattered at all.
Chapter II – The War Begins: Retailers Completely Shit the Bed
The first shots fired came from Best Buy, who somehow managed to miss the memo that pre-orders were supposed to begin at 9 PM EST (6 PM PST). Best Buy just didn’t put them up at all. This immediately left eager players scrambling to the next retailers: Walmart and Target. The situation quickly devolved into chaos and confusion. But as you can guess, things didn’t go smoothly at those stores either.
Walmart wouldn’t even let you access the Nintendo Switch 2 page—they automatically placed you in a “waiting line.” Which, on paper, sounds fine—except the queue page had no clock or any indication that it was even live. You were just stuck on this static screen, hoping your place in line was actually being held. For most of my fellow Nintendo fans, the Walmart page didn’t update for over an hour. This led many to just straight-up give up.
So the next option was Target. On the surface, the big red monstrosity gave consumers hope, as it actually let you add the Nintendo Switch 2 to your cart. Their site even functioned at the scheduled pre-order time—so at least there was that. I mean, finally some progress, right? Of course not! While Target looked like it had its shit together, the reality couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Chapter III: Betrayal
Nintendo fans who excitedly added the Nintendo Switch 2 to their Target cart were quickly met with a hard truth: having a console in your cart doesn’t actually mean you have it in your cart. Yes, the good ol’ disappearing act trick. I can’t even explain the rage of having a Nintendo Switch 2 in your cart, being ready to check out—only for the item to just vanish. And even when I finally managed to reach the checkout with a console in my cart, I kept getting hit with the dreaded “There is an error” message.
The only way to fix this error? Target required you to manually fill out your home address and card info. Now imagine doing this 100 times, over and over—because every time you finished the last step and clicked “Purchase,” the sale crashed. Yeah, Target was an absolute facade of lies for most players. And if that wasn’t already frustrating enough, Target then started automatically canceling the orders of people who had actually managed to check out.
By now, it’s around 10 PM—a full hour after the launch was supposed to start—when Best Buy finally goes live. Just like Walmart, they threw everyone into a wait line queue. However, after about 20 minutes of waiting, my wife was able to purchase a Nintendo Switch 2! Could it be that Best Buy’s “late to the party” approach actually worked? Not so fast. After a brief wave of success stories from people scoring Nintendo Switch 2 units at Best Buy, fans began reporting that cancellation emails were being sent out. According to the retailer, they had accidentally oversold their stock. A treacherous betrayal.
Chapter IV: War, War Never Changes
Feeling completely drained, I finally went to bed at midnight and waited for the next day. Last to enter the Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order war was GameStop. Now, surely the biggest gaming retailer in North America would hold the line, right? Of course not. Literally a minute before pre-orders were supposed to go live, GameStop’s website went completely down due to Cloudflare issues. The problem lasted for 30 minutes, and the retailer was half an hour late even putting up units.
Once Nintendo Switch 2 stock eventually began to trickle out, the site was constantly crashing. However, I’ll give GameStop one thing—I know quite a few people who managed to snag a console, even if it was absolute hell to get it. Hopefully we don’t see a repeat of Best Buy, where Nintendo fans started getting random cancellation emails. We can only hold out hope. In the end, I was able to secure a Mario Kart World bundle—at Walmart, of all places. That stupid static queue line? Yeah, it eventually updated two hours later. And what do you know, I was able to check out without any issue. I’m still genuinely shocked… and also incredibly suspicious.
When all was said and done, my wife and I were able to get our consoles. Or at least, I hope we did. I’m still paranoid our orders will get canceled. In this Nintendo Switch 2 war, nothing is guaranteed. No one is safe. Retailers will lie to you and betray you. Taking a quick survey of my friends, family, and coworkers—the vast majority weren’t able to get anything. So to say the Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order launch was a mess is the understatement of the year.
Chapter V: Nintendo Switch 2 Demand Is Insane
My main takeaway from this whole debacle is that people really want the Nintendo Switch 2. But what about all the drama surrounding the console’s high $500 price tag? What about the rage players felt over Nintendo charging $80 for Mario Kart World? It seems none of that matters—because at the end of the day, people truly want this device and are willing to pay whatever price for it.
I’m not here to stand on my high horse, because I recognize I’m one of those people who wanted the Nintendo Switch 2 without a second thought. But at least in my mind, the whole debate around Nintendo’s pricing kind of got washed away by the chaos of the pre-order launch. I’ve been buying consoles at launch for over thirty years, and this was one of the worst I’ve ever experienced in terms of demand. Of course, it’s also hard to say how much of this was actual demand and how much of it was a secret war against AI scalper bots.
Maybe it’s paranoia, but I think many gamers are justifiably wary of most retail launches now because of bots and scripts. Regardless, it’s clear that retailers were not properly equipped to handle the demand for the Nintendo Switch 2. So what’s my final takeaway? It shouldn’t be this difficult to obtain a gaming device in 2025. And for the love of all things, can we please make it so that when you have something in your cart, it’s actually temporarily secured? Like any war, though, there were winners and losers. I genuinely feel bad for anyone who entered this battle and left empty-handed. It shouldn’t have to be this way.
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