Random: Nintendo Has Supposedly Changed The Day Of Switch Game Releases

Been a while since Nintendo changed the day they released games. I really don't think it means that much, though.

Getting TTYD one day in advance sure don't hurt my feelings any~

Thursday can be the new Friday.

No biggie. it is what its ig🤨

Article really shows what a news drought we are in ☹️ Still really interesting, I wonder why. Maybe, just maybe, Nintendo doesn’t like Fridays. That’s all 🙂

we have to see if Nintendo releasing games on thursday is permanent or when Switch sucessor launch, games releases will continue on fridays.

@OctolingKing13 @IronMan30 @BodkinDQ
how are yall today? hope yall are doing well!😁

@OctolingKing13 I don't see why they would dislike Fridays, given that their own Splatfest proved it to be popular!

Leap Year threw off the calendar.

Always kinda fun to see it shift. In my stint working in gaming retail since the late 90’s, I’ve seen it as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday, and Friday. Here’s to Thursday!

@Zach777 that's always a possibility but odd they didn't just adjust.

@ThatZeldaNerd Doing quite a well actually. Been enjoying playing Persona 4G and got results back today that it was just a growth, that my wife doesn't have cancer. So I'm happy as can be!

Hope your day is swell~

There's been a disproportionate number of Thursday eshop releases and sale start dates for most if not all of the Switch's lifespan. I wouldn't be surprised if they were bringing things more in line with that.

@BodkinDQ so glad ur doing well!!🙃

@BodkinDQ omy gosh so happy your wife is OK!
cancer is VERY scary.

Seems like Nintendo is really SWITCHing things up, am I right?

I don't like change

Ages ago I worked at BestBuy and I swear it was Tuesday for big releases and midnight releases. I live in a relatively small town and midnight releases were so boring. Corporate eventually saw how much payroll was going out the door with almost no product sold. We didn't do it for long

@ThatZeldaNerd I'm blessed to still have her~

Anywho, prolly better get back on topic of release days, lol. Super excited for TTYD myself, it's my most looked forward to game coming out this year.

@rvcolem1 It was Tuesdays. Pepperidge Farm remembers...

@tseliot haha i'm almost to start liking those cookies

I didn’t even realize they weren’t releasing on Fridays, lol.

Back when I worked at GameStop, about 13-14 years ago, Nintendos preferred release day was always Sunday. Other major companies released games typically on Tuesdays with a few releases being Wednesday or Friday.

Thursday is a smart move. A lot of people order a new game to play during the coming weekend and with all the shipping hiccups that can happen to a new title, ordering a game online can mean missing the fun first weekend of playing for some folks.

Same thing's going to occur in Australia, I've seen Endless Ocean and Paper Mario have Thursday releases here instead of the usual Friday too.

I miss the Monday releases we had on the Wii Shop Channel in North America.

For TTYD at least, it doesn't matter to me whether it comes out on a Friday or a Thursday. That weekend is my high school graduation week, so I figure I'll be way too busy to play it until things calm down for awhile. Interesting that they're shifting to Thursdays now though.

Since the eShop updates on Thursdays anyway it makes more sense this way.

They also did a price increase on their games in some areas. Without a headsup this time.

Went to Walmart today for weekly stuff and did my usual rounds in electronics, ect. They already have the code cards up for Princess Peach. You probably can't redeem it, but they put it out anyway.

I think the reason for the change is few retailers are respecting street date anymore. GameStop still does, but I know for sure the Walmarts in my area don't care, cause I've picked up a physical copy of Metroid Prime a day or two early, after GameStop stopped taking preorders. Even PlayStation stuff gets put out, and sold, before it should.

Release day is arbitrary anyway. It used to be Tuesday, and the only reasons anyone at the time could come up for it changing was it was the same day as album drops, or Friday is when, or just after, people get paid in America. Between that and many other things being released on the same day, they ran the risk of people having no money for their games, instead of being able to prey on their fear of missing out. It makes the whole idea of a set release day for all things seem... Less than smart. Especially during months when lots of high profile games drop. Ubisoft and Activision fighting over Friday, when Thursday or Wednesday is just sitting there.

@BIG3 Above the new, forced, industry standard of $69.99 (us) or... ?

Either way, Nintendo's pricing seems very "what we personally think is fair for the product in front of you." Which is, funny enough, a very traditionally Nintendo take on things. Lately, remakes have generally been around $49.99, Princess Peach is releasing at $59.99, Tears of the Kingdom was $69.99. This teir system is a little all over the place, and it's kind of rough, but it makes a certain amount of sense. Seems like Ubisoft is another company quietly taking this approach.

As for game prices, I've found my best bet, if Amazon hasn't done something to knock the price down, is to wait a few months and check Walmart. Up until recently Walmart was knocking the base price of Switch games down $10, but since somewhere around Christmas it changed to only $5. That's still better than you're going to get from most other places, or waiting for sales/used/Christmas (and Christmas comes with the issue of things often going out of stock).

And that's sticker price, in store. If you look at the Walmart app, a lot of games have deeper discounts. I just picked up the Switch Kirby games for $10-$20 off, each.

Problem with this is you have to buy from the app. They've changed their policy of adjusting prices on "sold and shipped by Walmart" items, in store, I think company-wide; so you can't ask the person in electronics to nab the game from the case and play with the pricing. Trust me, from 1st hand experience they're being pretty strict with the "when purchased online" marker. You also have to make sure you're buying direct from your local Walmart, and it's "sold and shipped" from the company, to expect anything like curbside pickup or same day delivery. Some of the secondary sellers on the app are pretty good, with even better prices, but if you're looking for the game you want immediately, or without a sneaky shipping charge, they're not going to be the way to go. So be mindful of who the seller is.

Either way, over the last few weeks I've picked up a pretty nice stack of 1st party Switch games that I've neglected buying sooner, and maybe saved $50 to $75, I think. And that's me hating having to praise Walmart for anything, but when it comes to Nintendo's often immovable pricing, you've got to do what you can.

@rvcolem1 It was Tuesday. That used to be the release day for Nintendo and much of the industry. It's been Friday for years now, I just don't recall when that changed. Some publishers still releases on Tuesday, though.

I ain’t complaining about a game arriving a day earlier… especially if you preorder it from an online store. More likely to arrive in the before the weekend

To get it more in line with their general eshop releases maybe? That's my guess. Either way I'm not against having it be a day earlier, haha.

As commenters on here have been saying for a few weeks now. And it's not just the US, it's every region Nintendo release games in. But that would have taken 2 seconds of research, rather than just copying a gamespot article...

Oh okay. Good for them 😘

That's nothing. New releases for Blu-Rays and DVDs come out on Tuesdays here in the U.S. Don't know how it works in other countries, though.

In Germany, the release of Princess Peach Showtime! remains on Friday. At least according to Amazon and Saturn.

Endless Ocean Luminous will be released on Thursday though, so I guess it will be changed here in the future too?

Thursday or Friday, both days seem reasonable to me.

Used to be Sundays, now Friday, soon to be Thursday!

I work from home on Fridays so I’m okay with this change 😎

@ThatZeldaNerd doing well, playing a lot of Splatoon 3 (beat side order for the first time, finally). Also finally beat Blaster Master Zero (what a game!).

Anyway, I hope you're doing well.

It's always been Thursday for me on the eShop so...🤷🏾‍♂️

I’m hoping that this seemingly innocuous observation will lead to an adventure in the spirit of Da Vinci Code/National Treasure, with all the usual ridiculous tropes, ending up with the reveal that Luigi is the head of an elite global organisation named the Luiginati.

“We shouldn’t have ignored the rumours about him. I mean it’s in the name, for Kooper’s sake!”

It's about time!

@Sequel Ha ha very seldomly do random internet comments so thoroughly resonate with me

Same for the UK from April.

@IronMan30 aw thx man

And in other news, rudy the clown is in my house.

@DannyBoi Pretty sure that's just Justin Beiber

@tseliot @rvcolem1 @Birdgas
At least for PS and Xbox, I remember video games and DVDs releases on Tuesdays. At least for the movies, some people would call it "DVDuesdays." For Nintendo during the GC and Wii eras, I think I remember it being Sundays and Mondays.

@OctolingKing13 It's not just here. I've seen this "news" on other sites too.

@Lanmanna heck i went into my old store bby938 no cds, no dvds, and barely any games. I loved my time at bby
But I don't see them lasting, but they've been shutting down for 15 years

@Lanmanna
I’m trying to remember when Monday happened, but around 2009 was when they were on Sundays, and you’re right, probably Monday around that era shortly after, too.

I worked at EB in 2002, then GameStop in 2003-5, and I remember Nintendo was doing releases on Tuesdays during that time. 3rd parties were doing Wednesday for a bit, then eventually everything got scooted up to Tuesday, probably around 2005.

It’s fun to see it shift around so often as social expectations also move, and Thursday is going to be an interesting one. Giving people a cushion before the weekend will be cool!

Day earlier works for me!

This is a very welcome change! So much nicer to pickup a game on Thursday and enjoy it one more day through the weekend.

Switch 2 confirmed!!1! Just kidding! A lot of movies have made the same change, launching on Thursday night instead of Friday.

Guys.... It's because of the leap year. They are super superstious and the leap year makes it that technically the Thursdays after February 29th would have been Fridays.

Next year they go back to friday I'm 99% sure

@MisterSmith LOL nice one!

I think Nintendo made this change because everyone knows Fridays are the end of the week and more people will be inclined to shop. I don’t know what changing to Thursdays means.