The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Switch 2 console goes on sale October 29 at $519.99, and a lot of people who want one are going to leave the store empty-handed.
According to tracker Nintendeal, GameStop initially told some locations to expect around five units of the console ahead of launch. That number has since dropped. Sources now tell the tracker many GameStop stores will receive none of the hardware by release day. The matching Zelda Switch 2 Pro Controller, priced at $99.99, isn't faring much better: at launch, buyers may find as few as five of them at each of GameStop's roughly 1,600 US locations.
Best Buy is trying to make an event of it, planning a midnight launch for shoppers late on November 4. There's a catch. That date lines up with the release of the Ocarina of Time remake, not the Zelda Switch 2 console itself, which arrives nearly a week earlier. It's unclear how many units Best Buy will have on hand for that event, and a thin allocation would leave a lot of people standing in line for nothing.
Online isn't much of a workaround either. Amazon, Walmart and Target have been restocking the console sporadically, but listings tend to sell out before shoppers can finish checking out, according to GamesRadar+. Tracker sites like HotStock are probably a more efficient way to chase inventory than repeatedly refreshing a retailer's page, though even alert-watchers aren't reporting much success.
Nintendo appears to have miscalculated how big this launch would be. Bill van Zyll, the company's Latin America VP and general manager, has acknowledged Nintendo underestimated demand for the anniversary hardware. The console and its Pro Controller are already showing as sold out across North America, South America and Europe, well before launch day arrives.
There's a reasonable chance supply stays tight well past the holidays. When Nintendo released the Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED, it kept producing that special edition for a long stretch afterward rather than treating it as a one-off run. If that pattern holds for the 40th Anniversary lineup, Nintendo will likely keep making these units into 2027. That's good news for anyone willing to wait, less so for anyone hoping to find one under a tree.
For now, the advice from retail trackers is blunt: set alerts, check often, and don't count on a GameStop walk-in. Whether Nintendo can close the gap between demand and supply before the Ocarina of Time remake adds another wave of interest next week remains the open question heading into November.
GDFiled by The Games Desk
Consoles, handhelds, PC gaming and the platforms and hardware behind them.
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