Blurry eyes and copious amounts of coffee are defining this Thursday morning for many Nintendo fans, as preorders for the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 console went live last night at 12 AM ET at three major big box retailers–Best Buy*, Target, and Walmart. Almost instantly, social media feeds buzzed with jubilant success and bitter defeat, as Switch 2 listings changed from “coming soon” to “sold out.”
Target and Walmart both opened their digital doors right at the announced 12 AM start time, and within seconds Target showed “sold out” warnings on listings for both the Switch 2 console itself and the Mario Kart World bundle. However, this turned out to be a false alarm, and while a few customers reported payment issues at the Target cart page, the big red retail chain emerged as the place most people were having early success–with the Target smartphone app proving particularly effective for some.
Some users had to effectively mash the “place order” button over and over again for Target’s system to finally put the sale through, while others saw their payment methods and addresses disappear at the purchase screen. In a few extreme case, the attempt to purchase a preorder resulted in a fraud alert to their account, and a cancellation of the preorder.