After the rocky initial launch, Nintendo says there will be another wave of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 special edition pre-orders

The store essentially exploded immediately after it went on sale

After an unfortunate rollout of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 special edition pre-order system, Nintendo says they’re taking another crack at it.

Everything seemed OK on the surface. Nintendo was having pre-orders take place on the My Nintendo store on June 8, with a “limit of two per account.” So far, so good. Then it actually launched.

Immediately after the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 special edition went on sale, the entire Nintendo storefront crashed. Folks were greeted with some combination of a 404 page or a “queue,” that took an indeterminate amount of time to load and didn’t have a progress bar. I came in a little after the initial rush and was taken out of the queue after roughly 10 minutes, and plopped onto a buggy store page with a “sold out” notice for the special edition.

Naturally, folks were disappointed. During the debacle, Nintendo issued a statement: “We apologize for any inconvenience that you may be experiencing while attempting to pre-order the #XenobladeChronicles3 Special Edition. The My Nintendo Store is experiencing a high volume of traffic and we appreciate your patience while we look into the issue.”

Shortly after, they noted that they’ll try, try again, eventually: “Pre-purchase of the Special Edition will be made available again at a later date. An update will be provided once that timing is determined.”

Launching any sort of “special edition” in 2022 with worldwide production issues on the rise is going to be a circus. Add Nintendo to that equation, who still hasn’t quite figured out how to distribute them in general (including midnight rollouts for pre-orders that sell out in a few minutes), and you have a whirlwind of problems. I’m not confident this “later” rollout for the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 special edition will go smoothly either, but if you were shorted, you have something to look forward to at least.

Chris Carter

Reviews Director, Co-EIC – Chris has been enjoying Destructoid avidly since 2008. He finally decided to take the next step, make an account, and start blogging in January of 2009. Now, he’s staff!