Nintendo Says There is No Switch Exchange Program
Nintendo of America denies last week's reports of Switch exchanges.
This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.
Last Friday, reports showed that Nintendo support was offering to exchange old Switch consoles with the newly revised model. But now it seems that no such program exists, according to Nintendo themselves.
In response to comment on last week's story, Nintendo of America sent USgamer the following statement:
"We do not have a Nintendo Switch exchange program. We always want players to enjoy their Nintendo Switch systems, and if anything ever gets in the way of that, we encourage them to visit http://support.nintendo.com for support, or to contact our consumer support team."
Reports first surfaced when Reddit users asked support representatives about a potential upgrade. Users in the thread shared their own successes.
Nintendo support representatives told USG that Switch consoles bought on or after July 17, the day the new Switch revision was revealed, could be exchanged for the new version through either a retailer or Nintendo itself. Other outlets, like CNET and Polygon, also independently verified this with customer service representatives at Nintendo. We've followed up with Nintendo to try and get more information about the confusion.
The new Nintendo Switch model is, unlike the portable-only Switch Lite, an update to the base model of the Nintendo Switch. The big draw is a longer battery life, which would be appealing for folks looking to take big battery draining games on the go.
While there seems to be some mixed signals, it looks like the option to swap up is no longer on the table. If you're looking to buy a new Switch off the shelf, be sure to check the model number.