Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Special Edition Rush brings eShop to its knees

Many Nintendo fans are sadly left in front of their screens right now.

The release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has been pushed forward by Nintendo to July 29th – a rarity in an age of regular postponements – and the size of the download is already known. In short: Everything is done and the hype about the JRPG is correspondingly high in the community.

This is also proven by a pre-order campaign by Nintendo for the special edition of the game, which paralyzed the company’s shop due to an apparently unexpectedly large rush.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 pre-order is too much for Nintendo’s online structure

That happened: Nintendo of America yesterday opened pre-orders for the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Edition – but exclusively in its own store. The company got in touch just half an hour after the starting signal Twitter and announced that the shop page is no longer working. Many prospects have not been able to secure a copy of the game even if the item is already in the virtual shopping cart. Nintendo promises to take care of the problem and unlock more pre-orders “at a later date”.

This is in the package: A look at the contents of the $90 edition could explain Nintendo’s shop overload (via Twitter). In addition to the game, the bundle contains a steel book and an art book. The latter in particular seems to go down well with fans, like a look at Reddit reveals. Incidentally, we call the Special Edition Collector’s Edition and it can only be pre-ordered at the end of July, shortly before the release of the game. In addition, all content except for the game will not be delivered until autumn.

The scalpers are back: Wherever a rare console or a special edition appears, the resellers are of course not far away. Shortly after the start of the pre-order phase, the first offers appeared on eBay – instead of $90 for $250 to $350 (via Twitter). The problems with the Nintendo Store also benefit scalpers, as some die-hard fans probably buy it out of fear of not being able to get the Special Edition at all.

The trailer shows the great setting again:

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Xenoblade Chronicles 3 trailer fuels our anticipation for the open world

Not an isolated case: In times of Corona, this is no longer a rarity, but Nintendo has been known for many years for not providing enough quantities for consoles and games – be it because they underestimate their fans or for tactical reasons.

Examples like Super Mario 3D Allstars – which was also only sold digitally for a certain period of time – show that the company likes to play with limiting their products. Unfortunately, as with Xenoblade Chronicles 3, it is the fans who suffer from these practices.