Nintendo Switch 2 Launches but Will Not Be Sold at Physical Stores
The Yomiuri Shimbun
A customer happily displays his new Nintendo Switch 2 in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, on Thursday morning.
Nintendo Co. released the Nintendo Switch 2, its first video game console in eight years, on Thursday.
Applications had flooded in for lottery pre-orders on the official online Nintendo store and other sites. There are currently no plans to sell the Switch 2 in physical stores and only lottery winners received the console at major mass retailers.
At Bic Camera Inc.'s main store in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, about 30 lottery winners lined up at the doors even before the store's 10 a.m. opening.
'I'm so happy that it doesn't feel real,' said a beaming 24-year-old company employee from Toda, Saitama Prefecture. 'I can't wait to play with it when I get home.'
The recommended retail price of the Switch 2's domestic-only model is ¥49,980, including tax. The new console's liquid crystal display is larger than the first-generation model, and it comes with a featured game chat function, which enables the user to remotely chat with other players.
Nintendo is intending to sell 15 million Switch 2 consoles worldwide in the first fiscal year. The company has not disclosed how many of the consoles are allocated to Japan.
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