GameStop investigating claims of console damage

Video game retailer GameStop said Thursday that it is investigating claims made by some customers that they received damaged Nintendo Switch 2 consoles.

In multiple social media posts across X and Reddit, some consumers reported an issue where it appeared a GameStop in New York had stapled receipts to their Switch 2 packages and punctured the console screens.

“GameStop stapled the receipt for me and my friends Switch 2s to the box, FML,” wrote X user Oadhan Lynch, sharing a series of pictures of the product after it had been opened. “Genuinely insane now I’m gonna have to wait 3 months for the restock. And yes we were there for the midnight release so I bet everyone in this line is gonna have this same issue.”

GameStop is “investigating this as we speak and will make the customers whole,” a spokesperson for the retailer said in an email to NBC News.

By Thursday afternoon, Lynch, who did not respond to a request for comment, shared an update on X that the store had “made things right” by sourcing “around NY and NJ to provide replacements to everyone who this happened to.”

NBC News has reached out to others who made similar claims on social media.

The consumer reports, which appear to be regionally isolated, come as gamers continue to rush to get their hands on the coveted Nintendo console, which was released Thursday.

The base device sells for $449.99, or gamers can shell out $499 for the console and the new Mario Kart World. Prices didn’t deter fans and gamers who waited in long lines at stores across the country. The original Switch was released eight years ago, and the hype for a new console has continued to grow in recent years.

But some vying to get the Switch 2 may have a longer wait than expected, with some shortages already being reported just hours after the console’s official release.

“We’ve been working really closely with our retail partners to ensure there’s ample supply for not only the launch weekend, but well beyond,” Nintendo President and COO Doug Bowser told CNBC at the midnight launch party for the product at Nintendo’s store in New York’s Rockefeller Center.

Others online said their Walmart orders were canceled just hours before they were due to be delivered. Some said Target was still “preparing to ship” their orders.

At the launch event, Bowser told CNBC that he encourages those who weren’t able to snag a Switch 2 during the preorder period to contact their local retailer, adding that the company is continuing to work with the stores “to replenish through that launch period and all the way into the holiday period.”

In its sales forecast last month, Nintendo said that it expects to sell 15 million units of the Switch 2 console in the fiscal year ending March 2026, CNBC reported.

Those who were lucky enough to get the product on Day 1 of its launch appear enthusiastic about the new updates, which include a larger, crisper screen and Joy-Cons (controllers) that snap into the side of the screen.