A whole heap of placeholder Nintendo Switch games and accessories have popped up on Amazon UK during the lead-up to E3 2019. The bulk update comes only days after GameStop added 21 upcoming Switch titles to their internal system.
It’s time to don your speculation hats again, as Amazon has listed a plethora of “Nintendo Dummy” products on their UK website. All 18 of the potential releases are shown as “currently unavailable”, have been assigned to “Nintendo”, and also feature “2019” in their titles. Among the new listings are what appear to be 14 potential Nintendo Switch games, a Nintendo console listing, 2 accessories, and… if you can believe it…. a 3DS title!
With Nintendo’s E3 Direct just around the corner, it’s not unlikely that retail giants (like Amazon) would have already been provided basic information on upcoming releases. This would allow them to insert placeholder products, assign internal product codes for stock management, and be ready for sales as soon as the real things get announced.
However, as with previous years, there is always a possibility that some of these dummy listings may not (fully) come to fruition the same year. Jumping back to Amazon’s E3 2018 placeholders, there are examples of products simply being listed far too early. “Placeholder 5” (which stood in for Bayonetta 3) simply never became available to pre-order, as it didn’t get a release date. Instead, Amazon simply added artwork to the listing and left everything else in its placeholder state. The addition of “2019” this year though, does provide a little more hope.
Past listings aside, probably the most interesting product added this year is the “Nintendo Switch Console Dummy 2019 2“. Considering the rumours of two new Nintendo Switch models coming at some point in the future, it’s not hard to instantly become intrigued. Not only does the inclusion of “2” in the dummy product’s title suggest that there will be more than one console releasing in future, but previous rumours also suggested a Summer 2019 reveal/release wouldn’t be off the table.
Nintendo has already stated that new hardware won’t be shown during E3 this year. However, things certainly seem to be lining up to suggest otherwise.
Whether or not these listings bear any fruit is anyone’s guess right now, so be sure to tune in to Nintendo’s E3 Direct on June 11th for official announcements.
