Nintendo eShop Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch: list of games available for pre-purchase / pre-load

With Ver.4.0 of the Nintendo Switch Firmware, Nintendo added a pretty useful feature: the ability to pre-purchase and pre-load games on the Nintendo eShop. That way, you can buy a game and start downloading it right away, in order to be able to start playing as soon as the game goes live. This is particularly interesting for meaty games like Resident Evil Revelations 2 (23.6GB!).

On this page, you will find all there is to know about pre-purchasing games on the Nintendo eShop of the Nintendo Switch, including an up to date list of games available for pre-purchase. We always list those in the weekly Nintendo eShop threads, but only in the week they go live and they’re released.

Nintendo Switch – Pre-purchase: how does it work?

It’s nothing really special: you buy the game as you would a game already available for purchase, you start downloading the game, and then… you wait until release day. When the game goes live, you have to connect to the internet in ordrer to download a small “update” (basically, the unlock key). That step is mandatory: you cannot play a pre-purchased game if you don’t connect to the internet after the game has gone live.

Be careful though: Nintendo does not offer refunds on the Nintendo eShop (yet?), so if you pre-purchase a game, you’re stuck with it even if you change your mind and decide you don’t want it anymore.

Nintendo Switch – List of games available for pre-purchase

  • [Europe, North America] Pic-a-Pix Deluxe (Lightwood Games): 7.99€ / $7.99 [10] [requires 41MB] (out on January 4th, demo available)
  • [Europe, North America] The Escapists 2 (Team17): 19.99 € / £19.99/ $19.99 [20] (from January 4th, available on January 11th)
  • [Japan] Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Nintendo): 6 458 Yen (out on January 18th)
  • [Japan] Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle + Adventure Pack (Nintendo): 8 458 Yen (out on January 18th)
  • [NA] Lost Sphear (Square-Enix): $49.99 [50] (out on January 23rd 2017)

NB: you can click on the region icon (EU, NA, JP) to go to the web eShop page of the game.

You can find the list of Upcoming Games on this page! As for demos, it’s this one. Finally, for games with English language option in Japan, check out this post!