Late yesterday morning, Nintendo issued an official statement to the press saying that it would be delaying Switch 2 pre-orders in the U.S. indefinitely, however this isn’t the case everywhere in the world. The company apparently needs time to assess the impacts of sweeping levies put in place by the Trump administration earlier this week before it will be ready to begin taking pre-orders of its next-generation console stateside – this is, however, not the case north of the border.
Up in The Great White North it appears Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders are still on track for April 9 – the date Nintendo originally announced they would go live in the U.S. Nintendo Canada has purportedly issued an official statement to a number of Canadian outlets, including the CBC, stating that Canadian retailers (brick and mortar as well as online) will indeed still have the Switch 2 going up for pre-order on April 9, 2025.
This also appears to the case in the UK – Eurogamer has received official word that Nintendo currently has no plans to alter the original pre-order plans for Switch 2 in the UK.
While any of this might very well change at some point, it seems Nintendo is still locked in across just about all major markets worldwide, except for one…the biggest one.
As of right now our Canadian friends north of the border will indeed be able to secure their next-generation console before folks in the U.S. While some have suggested this might mean Canada will get a larger allocation of units, that seems unlikely as the pipeline for this sort of thing was likely already locked in well before the April 9 date was announced.
But what does this mean for U.S. gamers? And what will be the new Switch 2 pre-order date in the U.S.? Well as of right now it’s entirely a waiting game. Straying from the usual corporate posturing, Nintendo isn’t being vague about why pre-orders are being delayed – it is explicitly blaming this on Trump tariffs.
It is still, however, unclear as to how Nintendo is going to respond to the situation here. But one thing that is still clear, a looming beacon of hope in the near distance, the Trump tariffs have not prompted the company to adjust the release date of the console – it is still on track to release in June 5 in the U.S…for now anyway.
Can U.S. gamers pre-order a Switch 2 from Canadian retailers on April 9?
Well….probably not. Either way you’re going to have to get super creative, perhaps even team up with a local, hit the road to score one, deal with potential fees at the border, and the whole operation is likely going to cost you even more than the already hiked up prices Nintendo has announced on the new console and games – I very much expected the console to carry something like $450, but the $80 games are a more than a bit much.
In Canada, in Canadian dollars, Switch 2 costs $629.99 and the Mario Kart bundle costs $699.99 – with the currency exchange that’s roughly the same price as here in the U.S. Canadian outlets are reporting that, after the exchange rate, the expensive Switch games could fetch as much as $125.
Either way, with the launch date holding strong for June 5 as of right now, it would seem that it’s really just a matter of time before Nintendo announces a new pre-order date in the U.S. – let’s just hope the price doesn’t go up or that it is forced to push the release date in order to accomodate for it.
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