Oh man, where do I start? So, Nintendo’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa, had quite the moment at the 85th Annual General Meeting for Shareholders. Imagine the scene: he’s standing there, apologizing because, apparently, the Switch 2 was way more popular than they thought. Like, it flew off the shelves faster than a seagull heading for a dropped sandwich. Seriously, almost a million more than the original Switch — no one saw that coming, right? Well, except maybe the folks who really wanted one but couldn’t get it — especially in Japan. Bummer for them.
Anyway, Furukawa mentioned they started doing this lottery system for buying it — which, to me, sounds like trying to win a golden ticket or something. In April, 2.2 million folks tried their luck. Imagine! And he had to come out and say, “Yep, my bad.” They already did like, four rounds of these lottery sales and still, loads of people are left hanging. Another round’s coming in July. If you’re lucky, you might snag one at a store, but who’s counting?
So here’s the kicker: Nintendo seemed to focus on the U.S. and Europe first. Makes sense, I guess, since those areas rake in more cash for them. You’d think it’d be smooth sailing if you’re in those parts, right? Nope. Turns out, even there, weird stuff happened. People found their boxes tampered with, and some poor screens got stabbed with staples. Imagine getting your console and finding it’s already had a rough day.
Despite these hiccups, the Switch 2 launch is still a hit worldwide. Way better than the chaos we saw with Nvidia’s RTX GPUs or even the PlayStation 5. No sky-high prices or crazy scalpers — not as much, anyway. So, if you’re in the U.K. or the U.S., you might be in luck. Just know where to look, and avoid places with those stapler-happy employees, maybe?
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