Nintendo Switch 2 Pre-Orders Went Live and Were, Predictably, a Mess

As I begin writing this piece, I’m sitting at my desk at 11:30pm CT (well past my bedtime on a work night) trying, along with seemingly the entire rest of the world and the populations of several other planets, to try and pre-order a Nintendo Switch 2.

Pre-orders went live at 9pm PT/12am ET at three different retailers: Walmart, Best Buy, and Target. Or at least, they were supposed to, but the actual rollout so far has been a hot mess. Myself and a big chunk of the IGN staff have all been trying to order our Switch 2s and meeting wildly varying levels of success, and folks on social media are reporting a whole host of problems as well resulting in frustration, dejection, and rarely, triumph.

Over at Walmart, Nintendo Switch 2 would-be buyers were dumped almost immediately into a digital queue to buy their systems, and while it did move forward for some and ultimately end with a Switch in the cart, others are still waiting on a “stay in line” screen with no indication of how long the wait is, or whether or not it will be successful. When they finally do get through to purchase, some folks are reporting baffling error messages, or whatever is going on here:

Target didn’t have a queue like Walmart, so at first, it seemed like Switch fans saw more success over there. But reports rapidly began mounting that buyers were running into error screens throughout the purchase process, and while some people thought they purchased a Switch 2 successfully and even reached a confirmation screen, they later reported seeing a cancellation email roll through their inboxes moments later, forcing them to start the whole process over. Others are reporting that the Switch 2 is actively being removed from their shopping cart midway through the process, forcing them to start over.

And then there’s Best Buy, whose pre-orders didn’t even go live on time. The website read “Coming Soon” for half an hour before finally beginning to pop folks into a digital queue slowly but surely, with purchase confirmations only just now starting to come through for some, while others deal with some of the aforementioned errors and restarts. And at all three stores, some have said that they’re dealing with fraud alerts from their banks or other weird financial blips that are gumming up the works and forcing them to start all over, ultimately denying them a chance at a system entirely.

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In the amount of time it took me to write this piece, Target and Walmart appear to have officially sold out, and while more and more folks are managing to get through at Best Buy, others (like myself) have been stuck in some interminable queue for over an hour. Others have gotten emails saying their purchases have been canceled or delayed, with no new delivery date or ability to reorder.

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It’s likely in the coming minutes and hours we’ll start to see more and more successes, and there’s always an opportunity to pre-order at GameStop tomorrow (well, today) at 11:00am ET both in-store and online, or at other retailers in the future. And lucky individuals with Nintendo accounts may also get an email from Nintendo in May, inviting them to pre-order directly from the hardware maker – but there’s no guarantee of getting that email, and Nintendo has suggested that demand in Japan at least has been way, way higher than the company’s projected supply.

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If you’re not a huge Nintendo fan or willing to wait to purchase a system, it’s easy to scoff at the chaos. But it’s especially frustrating for Nintendo fans coming off of a reveal and rollout that’s already been confusing and exasperating at almost every turn. Exciting as the initial reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2 was, the price of both the system and all the requisite accessories and games left many reeling before Nintendo paused pre-orders due to tariff implementation in the U.S., only to fire them up again without changing the price of the system itself, just the accessories. On top of that, Nintendo’s plans for physical and digital software pricing, formats, and content have been wildly confusing, and Nintendo hasn’t exactly been transparent or helpful in clearing up questions about how much everything is going to cost, and what exactly it is everyone’s purchasing. So it’s no wonder so many folks are upset at not even knowing if they’re going to be able to get their hands on a system anywhere near launch, especially with the looming threat of future price hikes or supply concerns.

But if you want to play Mario Kart World at launch, this is the reality of the world we live in right now. Here’s how to get that pre-order, for those still trying.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.