With a little over a week to go until Switch 2’s arrival, some customers are already claiming to have received their consoles – but anyone hoping to play ahead of release are apparently out of luck, as units reportedly won’t function without a day one update.
As spotted by IGN, YouTuber Ali Almarzooqi initially uploaded an eight-second video showing them opening their Switch 2 box – or at least a convincing replica – to reveal the console within. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long before the video was yanked as a result of a copyright claim by Web Capio, a company that markets itself as selling “anti-piracy solutions.”
In a since-nuked comment thread below the video, Almarzooqi (AKA a2dubai) responded to a viewer asking for “more video please” by explaining, “Nintendo locked the Switch 2. It needs [an] update to function, so I’m waiting for June 5th to unlock it.”.
Notably, this doesn’t seem to be an isolated incident. Gaming news and deals poster Wario64 revealed they’d received correspondence – seemingly included corroborating images – from another Switch 2 customer who’d received their console early. “I have no permission to post pics,” Wario64 wrote in a post on social media, “but can share that when they try to boot a Switch 1 game, a message prompts ‘Please connect to the internet and update your system.’ Needs update to boot a game.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard word of a big launch-day patch for Switch 2, either. The Game Business’ Chris Dring recently reported some press have been told they won’t get the console for coverage before release due to a “significant day one patch”. This, presumably, is the very same update currently thwarting early receivers from playing their games ahead of schedule. It’s currently unclear if the update is simply coming in hot or if it’s a deliberate ploy by Nintendo to prevent legitimate gameplay appearing online ahead of launch.
Switch 2, of course, arrives next Thursday, 5th June, and you can read everything we know about the machine – and its launch day games – elsewhere on Eurogamer.