Zelda Switch 2 Launch Day: The Restock Sold Out, and Walmart Canceled the People Who Did Everything Right [Update]

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This is an update to this site’s October 25 post, “A $519.99 Console With No Game in the Box Just Sold Out Worldwide.” Prices below are US launch prices as reported October 29, 2026, a snapshot subject to change; restock status changes by the hour and should be rechecked before acting.

What happened on launch day

The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Edition Switch 2 officially launched Thursday, October 29, at $519.99 — hardware only, no game in the box. Nintendo met launch day with a restock on its own online store. It did not last: Polygon reported the store was “getting hammered under extreme demand,” with stock going in and out of availability before showing out of stock again, and Game Rant’s same-day update had the console sold out on Amazon by 11:55 AM ET. Major retailers — Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart — were showing sold out.

The matching accessories launched alongside and sold out too: the Zelda Pro Controller at $99.99 (a Nintendo Store exclusive version with a display stand at $109.99) and a carrying case with screen protector at $39.99.

The Walmart cancellations

The ugliest launch-day fact is not the sellout — it is who got canceled. Starting Wednesday, the day before launch, Walmart customers who had pre-ordered the console received cancellation emails saying the item was out of stock, according to reports from Kotaku and Nintendo Life. Buyers who contacted support say they were told Walmart oversold the console. At the same time, third-party listings on Walmart’s own site showed the console for around $700.

Walmart has not made a public statement, per the same reporting. And this is not a first offense: Walmart also canceled some original Switch 2 pre-orders around the June 2025 launch. A retailer that takes a pre-order, holds it for weeks, and cancels it the day before launch has not experienced scarcity — it has sold something it did not have.

What is actually next

Nintendo’s position has not changed since its Latin America chief Bill van Zyll admitted the company “underestimated” demand: replenishments are coming, no date attached. Two concrete windows exist:

• Nintendo Store: the listing reads “More inventory is on the way,” with a wish-list alert in the Nintendo Store app.
• Best Buy, November 5: select stores plan to sell consoles at the midnight launch for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time — the remake this console celebrates, which arrives November 5. Note the irony the launch-day coverage kept returning to: the console launched a week before the game it exists to celebrate.

Nintendo’s New York and San Francisco stores sold launch-day units with a Warp Pipe Pass reservation, one console per customer.

The judgment

There is a line in this story, and it runs between Nintendo and Walmart. Nintendo underestimated demand, said so on the record, and is restocking in public — that is scarcity, handled honestly, even if “please be patient” is cold comfort. Walmart took money-adjacent commitments it could not keep and canceled them at the last possible moment while its marketplace showed the same console at a ~$180 markup — that is a different category, and it is why the launch-day anger is aimed more at a retailer than at Nintendo.

For buyers, the October 25 advice stands, now with evidence: do not pay the scalper markup. The console is a cosmetic edition of a machine you can already buy, it contains no game, and the game that justifies it does not arrive until November 5 — by which point Best Buy’s midnight window and Nintendo’s promised replenishment will both have had a chance to land. The worst launch-day outcome is not missing the console. It is paying $700 for impatience, a week before the game comes out.

Sources

• Polygon, “Nintendo Restocks Zelda 40th Anniversary Switch 2 Console,” October 29, 2026: https://www.polygon.com/zelda-40th-anniversary-switch-2-hardware-restock/
• Game Rant, “Zelda Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Is in Stock Right Now [UPDATE],” October 29, 2026: https://gamerant.com/zelda-switch-2-edition-amazon/
• GameBeacon, “Zelda Switch 2 Launch: Walmart Cancels Pre-Orders, Where to Buy,” October 29, 2026: https://gamebeacon.co/zelda-switch-2-40th-anniversary-launch-walmart-cancels-preorders/
• Nintendo Life, “Nintendo ‘Underestimated’ Zelda Switch 2 Console Sales, But Promises Restocks Are On The Way,” October 19, 2026: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/10/nintendo-underestimated-zelda-switch-2-console-sales-but-promises-restocks-are-on-the-way
• This site’s October 25 post: https://sheldonwangrjt.github.io/life/zelda-switch-2-console-sold-out-restock/