Nintendo Returns To Amazon After A Year Away

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Image: Amazon / Nintendo / Kotaku

For over a year now, online retailer Amazon hasn’t directly sold new first-party Nintendo games or accessories. It also skipped out on the Switch 2 launch. But over the weekend, the situation changed, and now some first-party Switch 2 games and accessories are available on the retailer.

Back in April of last year, people began reporting that some pre-orders of then-upcoming first-party Switch games, like Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, were being canceled without warning. And players couldn’t re-order the upcoming games. Since then, Nintendo games have largely been unavailable for purchase directly from Amazon. Instead, when purchased on the site, they were sold and shipped via third-party sellers. And earlier this month, the Switch 2, its first-party launch games, and its official accessories, were similarly unavailable to pre-order on Amazon. It’s been a frustrating situation for gamers who rely on the online retailer. But it’s finally, possibly, coming to an end.

Over the weekend, as spotted by IGN and others, a handful of first-party Nintendo games popped up on Amazon and are being officially shipped and sold by the retail giant. Donkey Kong Bananza, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World are some of the first-party Nintendo games now available to pre-order directly from Amazon and Nintendo. This seems to indicate that the two companies have come to an agreement and ended the lockout. There was even a listing for the Switch 2, though that has been removed for now. But this all seems to point to Nintendo products and games returning fully to Amazon in the near future.

As for why Nintendo stopped selling new games and consoles on Amazon, there’s never been a confirmation from either company. Some fans speculate that Amazon was shipping games ahead of their release and that this led to leaks, but that has yet to be confirmed.

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