The Nintendo Switch finally went up for sale yesterday, and the hybrid console is already sold out at retailers in the U.S., including Target, ToysRUs, and Walmart and online retailers like Amazon. The same situation is being played out globally, with customers from all over the world picking up Nintendo’s latest offering.
At least in the U.S., retailers are set to receive new batch of Switch units over the weekend, which should satiate the initial demand for the console. That said, Nintendo will be taking a long-term view for the Switch, and the company has a lot riding on the console. While The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the immediate lure, the launch lineup for the Switch is decidedly lacklustre. Nintendo has announced that it will launch new titles over the course of the year, and the company has gotten several things right with the way games are handled on the Switch.
The lack of a region lock, for one, makes the Switch that much more enticing as the console is no longer bound to geographic constraints. Nintendo has also got the parental controls right, but that’s about as far as it gets. If you download a game onto the Switch, it will be limited to that particular console, and saved games are stored locally, and there’s no option to transfer the save files onto the microSD slot.
For now, no one cares because there’s a new Zelda title available on a brand-new Nintendo console.
