BODY: Nintendo has found a tidy way to sweeten its cheapest Switch 2 ahead of the Japanese holiday rush: throw in a game and let buyers pick which one.
Announced on October 6, the Nintendo Switch 2 (Japanese Language / Domestic Use Only) Choose Your Game Set pairs the region-restricted console with one downloadable title of the buyer's choosing. It ships November 12 at ¥63,980 including tax — ¥4,000 more than the standalone Japanese-language console. Preorders opened immediately on the Nintendo Store, with general retailers and online shops to follow "once arrangements are complete."
The three options span both generations of hardware. Mario Kart World (¥8,980 on its own) is the Switch 2 launch headliner, with its continent-spanning course structure, knockout-style Survival mode, and open Free Roam. Nintendo Switch Sports Resort (¥5,980), out October 22, adds finger sumo, skateboarding, marine bike, and propeller plane to the previous game's eight events for twelve total, plus a free-roaming Wuhu World. The outlier is Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream (¥7,100), an original Switch title — playable on Switch 2 — and the first entry in the Mii life-sim series in roughly thirteen years.
Do the arithmetic and the discount tops out around ¥5,000 if you take Mario Kart World, shrinking for the cheaper picks. One caveat worth repeating: the game is not preinstalled. A leaflet in the box carries a redemption code to enter on the Nintendo eShop or Nintendo Store, and it expires March 31, 2027. You will be downloading, not playing, in the first hour.
The insider take
The Japanese-language-only SKU exists for one reason, and it isn't generosity. With the yen still weak, Nintendo split its domestic lineup so the cheap model locks to a Japanese UI and a Japanese Nintendo Account — a deliberate speed bump for scalpers buying in Akihabara and shipping overseas. That it now gets a game attached signals the supply crunch has genuinely eased: after more than a year of lottery sign-ups at Bic Camera and Yodobashi, Nintendo is competing for Japanese wallets rather than rationing hardware to them. A bundle landing a month before the year-end gift season is not an accident.
Originally reported by AUTOMATON (Japanese).