Nintendo finally opened pre-orders for the Switch 2 console in major countries this week following the delay due to the ongoing tariff crisis. Pre-orders were originally pegged to open in early April but were delayed due to the uncertainty around the Switch 2’s price following tariffs imposed by the United States.
Thankfully, South African pre-orders went off just fine and have been doing very well. Many local retail sources claim their allocations are almost sold out, with some stores saying the standalone bundle of the Switch 2 is currently out of stock for now while they wait for more inventory.
But things haven’t been as smooth in the United States and Japan. In the US, stores have started cancelling pre-orders due to stock issues. Target was the first store to open pre-orders to the public. Many customers jumped at the opportunity to grab a console, and while some were successful, a lot of them weren’t.
Users claim that after successfully ordering the console through Target, the store subsequently cancelled their order, and now the console is out of stock across both the standard and Mario Kart World bundle.
Walmart is following the same story; however, it seems that the store is slowly adding more stock to the listing every hour or so. The listing goes from “out of stock” to “in stock”. Clearly, these units are being nabbed faster than the store can keep up with it.
Other stores are expected to launch pre-orders today for the Nintendo Switch 2. Gamestop is restricting orders to invited customers only and requires a $50 deposit to secure the console. The Nintendo Online store is also by invite only and is gated by having a Nintendo Switch Online subscription and valid game time on your account.
While it seems that stores in the United States will eventually cater to all customers, in Japan, things are a little more dire. The Nintendo Japan social media account has announced that the initial registration for the Switch 2 console pre-order programme far exceeded the company’s shipping capacity for launch.
The account claims that over 2.2 million registrations were placed to order the console and that, unfortunately, the company cannot accommodate this mass of people. The system will now move some orders to another date and users will be put into a lottery to order the console for a new date after launch. However, even with this move, Nintendo of Japan says this won’t cover all the orders either. It is likely that the company will shift pre-orders across a number of weeks and ship consoles to users on and after 5 June as fast as they can.
In other territories, the Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders have seemingly gone off without any major hitches. While stores are struggling to keep up with the demand in the UK, they have been allocated more stock as it sells out.
The Nintendo Switch 2 console is expected to launch on 5 June. I had hands-on with the console earlier this month. Be sure to check out five things I loved about it here, and five things I didn’t love so much about it here.
You can also catch up on our South African pre-order guide for the console here along with all the confirmed game launches coming your way at launch and after launch here.
