ChickenDog was the first person to get a Switch 2 at launch in New York City, and Nintendo promises he’ll be far from the last. Even as the new system starts selling out at most retailers, the company says it believes it will be able to meet demand through the rest of 2025, avoiding the scarcity issues that plagued the PlayStation 5 for years.
While the June 5 launch of Nintendo’s new hardware has gone relatively smoothly, with fans who lined up early for pre-orders and day-off inventory able to secure their Switch 2, latecomers are already finding it harder to get. While new inventory comes and goes on a rolling basis, places like Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and GameStop are already showing the Switch 2 as “out of stock” more often then not.
Still, Nintendo of America President Dough Bowser sought to reassure people that even if the Switch 2 becomes hard to find, it won’t be impossible to get. “We have a steady supply of manufacturing that’ll be coming in and we believe we’ll be able to meet that demand all the way through the summer, through Father’s Day, and then on into the holiday period,” he said on CBS Mornings this week (via NintendoLife), adding that stores often stagger their inventory availability instead of unleashing it all at once.
The hosts also grilled Bowser on the Switch 2's $450 price tag, the highest non-inflation adjusted price in the company’s history. He stressed that the new hardware was “built from the ground-up” with new features and better specs, pushing back against the implication that it’s an overpriced upgrade. He was also asked about tariffs, which still threaten to torpedo that pricing strategy if a current pause lapses next month.
“It’s still a very fluid and complex situation as it is for most companies,” Bowser said. “We’re continually looking at various scenarios of how we make sure we can keep our pricing as low as possible and the products as obtainable as possible. For the Switch 2 we’ve already announced we’ll be holding our pricing for $449 for the base unit and $499 for the bundle with Mario Kart World but we did have to take some pricing [increases] on some accessories.”
While Nintendo hasn’t released official sales figures, the Switch 2 already seems to be shaping up to be the company’s biggest new console release ever. And it’s not just the Switch 2 flying off shelves during launch week. Limited stock of some physical games and even many first-party accessories also seem to be selling through at many big box stores. Kotaku has heard from sources at some retailers like GameStop that many stores are expected to get new allotments of inventory as early as next week. We’ll see if the “out of stock” signs Nintendo sent stores mostly just collect dust or stay up through the summer.
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