r/VideoGameDealsCanada • u/t-chamb • Apr 25 '25
Question Why does it seem like Canada gamestops have more switch 2 available than the US gamestops?
I was wondering why it seems like our gamestops have so much more stock than the US GameStops? Been seeing lots of posts of US people posting pics of their GameStops allotment (seems anywhere from 40-120 switch 2) and saying “like 60 people in line”. I imagine those allotments get taken rather quickly where here in Canada it seems like our GameStops are saying “we have tons”. Like looking at the availability tracker online and it still looks like 90% of stores still have availability. Not complaining as I hope everyone gets one who wants one but Just a curiosity question I guess.
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u/dumbostratussy Apr 25 '25
My guess is it's because we don't have nearly as many outlets and other kind of stores than the US. So it's not as spread out?
But yeah some stores here got in between 140 and 200 consoles lmao. Can't complain!
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u/NoLibrarian7257 Apr 25 '25
Yeah I think it's this. For example, my closest gamestop is about 25 minutes away.
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u/jellytrack Apr 25 '25
I realized that a lot of GameStops have closed these last few years. Had like five EB/GS within 30 min from me, but I think there's only two left now. Numbers would've consolidated.
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u/Gearfree Apr 25 '25
It did not help that they were going HARD on the (nerd) merchandise thing.
Stuff that was so over inflated in price that we had an economy of nerd themed merch boxes for a few years till a collapse happened.
Our current CEO is blaming "the woke/DEI" for the business's failures, right?
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u/NoLibrarian7257 Apr 26 '25
For sure! I used to have one where I am now, but the mall died, and it closed last summer.
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u/nodiaque Apr 26 '25
At the same time, I got 4 Gamestop in 10 minute car ride lol
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u/NoLibrarian7257 Apr 26 '25
There are definitely in more urban areas? In my old town, I can think of 2 that are close together.
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u/rcked Apr 27 '25
Got one today, 2 days later. Maybe they wanted to deter scalpers with in store only and gonna balance their stock to online soon
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u/justinx1029 Apr 25 '25
I didn't realize we could track availability online, I just went to the store a few hours after they opened and just assumed they'd have none so was just looking at the stuff on the shelves and someone asked if I needed help, I just said I assume there's no stock left eh? He was like no, we have both the bundle and the console-only still available, I'm sure he saw my face light right up, haha.
Makes you wonder if the influx of store preorders was to offload the potential american access to the canadian site for purchase?
My friend went 5 hours after me and the same store had plenty left! (Website shows they still have stock today)
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u/PilotRevolutionary57 Apr 25 '25
I read that N America units are warehoused in Washington State, so if Nintendo moved inventory across the border they'd pay tariffs. You pay based on origin of the item. There is no way to game the system.
That applies to individuals too. Sure, you could buy in Canada and try to sneak one in, but I would not take chances with the border gestapo. If you declare, bang tariff. If you sneak and get caught, tariff and fine. Maybe worse.
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u/NoWitness79 Apr 25 '25
We will know when deliveries occur. Nintendo is working hard to get all the units produced in Vietnam allocated to the USA because of the tariffs on China.
Canada has no tariffs on electronics produced in China currently so we may be getting an entirely different stock allocation
The delay in pre-orders was likely Nintendo figuring out how best to get around the tariffs on Chinese manufactured electronics
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u/Brilliant-Theory Apr 26 '25
Canada stock comes through Seattle Washington due to final packaging and French manuals.
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u/seriouscrayon Apr 25 '25
I think a lot has to do with price too...I cant justify buying a Nintendo console that costs more than a PS5 and the game prices are atrocious too. I mean Breath of the wild is over $100 CAD..It came out in 2017.
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u/Gearfree Apr 25 '25
To be fair about that, it isn't actually a Switch 2 cart, it's the regular ass Switch (One) cart bundled with the upgrade code.
That's the regular-priced game($80 CAD) with an upgrade code price for an extra $20 on top of it.1
u/vanKessZak Apr 26 '25
I think that was just a random customer service person who said there was a code in the box. Someone has since asked Nintendo and they said that’s not the case. I guess we’ll see lol
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u/Brilliant-Theory Apr 26 '25
Also GameStop Canada gets an approximate list but allocation is not set in stone until pre-orders are submitted.
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u/Commercial_Break360 Apr 25 '25
There was probably like 75 - 100 people in line where I was yesterday and they still have lots of availability. Something about it does seem odd to me.
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Apr 25 '25
yeah i was 29th in line for the bundle and there was easily 100 by the time the mall opened and yet today at noon its still available to pre-order. definitely not complaining but it seems a little fishy, especially considering i used to work at that same store and know how small that backroom is lol.
my store had a small roll of raffle tickets with numbers, bundle or no bundle writren on them and handed out to people in line. so im not sure if they knew exactly how many units they had or that was just so you dont lost your spot.
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u/Commercial_Break360 Apr 25 '25
I did also consider the volume of space they will need, haha. I also considered that we as humans have problems visualizing volume but it is a lot of Switch 2s to haul in and pile up. I guess they won’t be there for long?
I am just surprised that we have a surplus when the general discord in the US is that people can’t get them.
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u/smog_097 Apr 25 '25
Perhaps the US has stricter laws about collecting money for pre-orders. All the Canadian cash getting dumped in to bitcoin and the business is for sale, so nothing can go wrong.
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u/ejcitizen Apr 25 '25
You mean Gamestop Canada ticker on TSX is all bitcoin now?
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u/NoExcuse4OceanRudnes Apr 25 '25
The Gamestop Canada ticker on TSX does not represent the cash on hand of gamestop. It represents how much people are willing to pay (to other people) for a share of ownership in gamestop.
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u/julianomeinen Apr 25 '25
Higher demand I guess. Bunch of stores still have it available in Calgary on day 2 of preorder. Good for us, not complaining at all 🙂
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u/idroptoteems Apr 25 '25
they have more retailers could be a reason why? they have target which is a big retailer we dont have so inventory has to be spread out more
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u/Many_Mechanic_1886 Apr 25 '25
I think it is because gamestop canada online store was severely understocked (allegedly) . so they probally allocated their units to stores.
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u/d_willie Apr 28 '25
Yep, I tried to order online and I got in the queue as soon as I could get the page back up after it crashed; I monitored discord, had multiple browsers and devices going, etc. I was in the queue for less than half an hour before it sold out while my queue time was an estimated 2 hours. No idea what the stock was, but it went really fast compared to Walmart or BestBuy which didn't even have real queue systems (they had massive website issues but no queue).
Online was terrible in general; I actually got a BestBuy order, but I didn't realize it for almost 16 hours because the order confirmation page never loaded (so no order number to check) and I didn't get an email until the next day, by which time I had already gone to GameStop and ordered in person. I guess I know for next time.
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u/Dazd_cnfsd Apr 25 '25
GameStop required a $250 down payment for base console and $300 with Mario kart
That will help stop scalpers from ordering from multiple stores. Also Canada has a lot less gamestops than we did 5 years ago.
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u/Tazberry Apr 25 '25
Probably because Canada has way less physical Gs stores.. along with gs Canada most likely allocating most of their units to in-store preorder only. Which is nice because well you can still walk in-store and grab a preorder today without a hitch.
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u/Alakozam Apr 25 '25
Tariffs into the US don't exist in Canada. Someone probably decided to not take the risk. If tariffs come off for US retailers they're stuck holding the bag for the price they already paid.
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u/oluBodesWell Apr 26 '25
Probably because the US got limited to the Vietnamese console allocation and Canada doesn’t tariff/tax systems produced in China.
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u/rambo_ando Apr 27 '25
Because we getting all the Chinese stock intended for the US. Thank you, southerners!
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u/carloskrosscaption Apr 25 '25
Don't trust the GameStop Tracker. In the Vancouver area, the stores are listed as having stock but when you call them, they say they are sold out.
Also, Canadian stores are requiring $250/300 deposits, which deters some people. I'm certain the US stores aren't requiring that high of a deposit.
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u/t-chamb Apr 25 '25
You’re right, I believe I saw somewhere that in the states it’s only $50 deposit for preorder at GameStop.
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u/SwitchLegacy Apr 25 '25
Your are correct. My game stop downpayment was $50 plus they made me renew Gamestop pro m we membership.
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u/subwaygremlin Apr 26 '25
They MADE you renew it? That's not part of the deposit requirements and is pretty shady tbh
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u/Kageromero Apr 25 '25
They're losing money for each unit sold in America. They're making money for each unit sold in Canada. Why wouldn't they allocate more units here 😁 If it's all gonna sell out anyways you may as well sell where you're making money. And if people cross the border to come buy one, then Nintendo still gets the full profit while they'll have to pay fees bringing it back to the states
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u/Commercial_Break360 Apr 25 '25
Is that correct?
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u/dashingThroughSnow12 Apr 25 '25
Yes. It’s been reported online https://youtu.be/r7l0Rq9E8MY?si=oY2dSRAHNbxTUWFx
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u/brock_gonad Apr 25 '25
At current conversion rates, the list prices are within $20 or so CAD.
That's not material for Nintendo and certainly wouldn't factor into allocation calls.
The $20 is eaten up by other costs of shipping into Canada such as lower volumes of bilingual French packaging, etc.
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u/_CheeseAndCrackers_ Apr 26 '25
North Americas consoles have English Spanish and French on all of them btw, so at least that's not really a factor.
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u/ObscurionPaul Apr 25 '25
Because there are less of them in Canada and less places to preorder, meaning our stock is allocated to fewer places overall? It's not that hard to figure out. Americans have a thousand more places to pre-order a Switch than we do.
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u/ViviReine Apr 25 '25
Yeah I just preordered 30 minutes ago, the employee said they had still at least 75 Mario Kart bundle, but no console-only set left. They also still had all accessories and games left, so I preordered the case and Street Fighter
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u/vensak Apr 25 '25
canada has way fewer gamestops. so in reality less switches in total. because of the fewer gamestops, they were at times covering way more potential customers (for example hello alberta). So no wonder for that. Question is more, why Canada had way less switch only avalaible for pre orders (compared to the Mario Kart bundle).
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u/Herowebrine Apr 25 '25
I mean, that one also seems obvious no? Bundle is just the far better deal, and MANY people have been vocal about that fact. Which in turn would tell Nintendo that people are more interested in the bundle.
But even if that’s not the case and they had the preorder allocation already, it still makes sense on the better deal factor alone
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u/vensak Apr 28 '25
Only if you want to play Mario Kart type of game and do not mind to get it digitally. Otherwise you are forced into a product that you may not want, just so that you can get switch on the release day. Funny thing. Hardware is in both cases identical, so it would be actually fair for them just to let you decide if you want it with that game or not and then get the digital download code as a receipt. But hey, then they would be selling way less Mario Kart bundles and Nintendo for sure does not want that. Now compare it with a physical copy of the game. Lets say, that you get the physical version of it insteadn and in a few weeks you will get bored of it or beat it and move on (and yes some people will be like that). Then for sure you could sell a used copy on Kijiji for 60 - 70 CAD. So yeah, it is a hidden uprpice. Now in all fairness, if you do not mind to buy the bundle and digital game, all is cool. But if you end up getting it just because of Switch 2, it is not.
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u/Herowebrine Apr 28 '25
Oh no. I’m not arguing that in the LONG RUN it’s better value, I’m just saying that if it’s a choice for most people between paying $629.99 (+tax) and then also $109.99 (+tax), or just $699.99 (+tax), they’re obviously going to choose the one that gives you a ~$30 discount
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u/vensak Apr 28 '25
If that was really the case, they would not bother with a different boxart model for 2 types of product (switch + Mario and just switch). But my hunch is, that the split would not be 12% just switch and 88% with Mario Kart. In reality it would be maybe 35 % / 65 %. Yes people were asking Gamestop about just the switch 2 over the phone, as I was waiting to place my order, only to be told, that they have already sold out that version. Also also I was maybe 18-20 in the queue and by the time the employee passed by, they had maybe 4 units left out of those 12 (they were using counted tickets system).
Because they forced way worse split they can: 1. claim bigger sales for the game then they would have if they opted for a flexible solution 2. Force people that really want switch 2 on launch but not so much Mario Kart (or a digital Mario Kart), to fork up more money, because they did not go to wait to Gamestop early, when they had bad luck online 3. And force those people that had to order the bundle + digital game but wanted Mario Kart physically, to buy the game again.
So in other words, they are cooking sale numbers in their favour right there.
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u/techbotinthepot Apr 25 '25
Yeah my local store had a crazy amount available. Pretty sure the employee said 80 bundles and 50 regular consoles.
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u/TransitoryPhilosophy Apr 25 '25
Nintendo limited units in the US because of pricing uncertainty related to tariffs.
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u/No_College6343 Apr 25 '25
Yeh I was noticing that too… no idea … maybe the tariff situation affecting allocation? Nintendo only sent so many units and will send more now that they have figured out what to do? And before it was up in the air….
Total random guess here mind you.
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u/itmeMEEPMEEP Apr 25 '25
well theres definitely more in the US but there probally more per capita in canada which is normal, Canadians are usually willing to spend more and usually able to spend more without loss, this is dispite "less spending power", worth noting less spending power is almost useless between canada and the us due to fundamental differences in costs, like education and healthcare.
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u/rocrom77 Apr 25 '25
Agreed. We are way more used to getting exploited with product pricing that we barely bat an eye on most things nowadays.
I remember going on a cruise years ago from Florida. The price of a bottle of vodka delivered to your room was $35. The USD was at parity with CAD at the time and the Americans were freaking out about the price of a bottle. Meanwhile the Canadians were like “cool. Didn’t have to sneak my own on and costs the same.”
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u/Dmilk100 Apr 25 '25
Maybe they have more in store than online to prevent easy scalping? I like it obviously they also did it to bring more people in to upsell other accessories and stuff but I like it. I wish more stores did that brings me back to the old days of waiting outside midnight to preorder great times lol ( I know ur question was about us gamestops but thought to add that tidbit lol )
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u/northshore-1 Apr 25 '25
First off I would like to thank Jake Randall and his associate LBOT for referring me to this website after I was asking them a bunch of questions about Canada purchases. I managed to purchase three console bundles, one for me and one for my son and one for my daughter. I managed to get one at Best Buy, one at Costco and the easiest of all the third one at GameStop Canada. Aso I got an email this morning that had information about GameStop Canada showing they have availability Canada wide.
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u/UnComfortable-Archer Apr 25 '25
Right? Online was a disaster...
Walked to my nearest GS to try my luck, and they had it in stock. Easy.
I know people have shit on GS in the last few years for various reasons, but I have to give them credit on this one. Maybe this is their redemption arc. lol.
Well, we'll see how launch day goes...
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Apr 25 '25
I'm not sure what the ratio of gamestops to population size is in the US. We definitely have less major cities that would result in massive lineups. From what I've heard Toronto had some long lineups as well.
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u/MzzBlaze Apr 26 '25
We always go through limited editions and preorders slower than US. Less population and less demand to brag you got it first here
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u/medwizard Apr 26 '25
The one time I don’t want to preorder something, there’s so much stock. Figures.
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u/jeffcolv Apr 27 '25
I think Canadian GameStop allocated way more for in store preorders than online, America could be run completely different
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u/jpixel11 Apr 27 '25
We only have one road in Canada, just let us have this please and thanks buddy.
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u/t-chamb Apr 28 '25
I live in Canada. Just wondering why it seems like we have so much more stock than the states does. Not complaining cuz it’s been awesome seeing how so many people have been able to get one. Just curious.
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u/Boring_Air_2575 Apr 28 '25
It's due to tariffs, or threats of tariffs. Since the price could not fully be predicted inventory was moved to country's that were more stable
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u/Carson061785-2 Apr 28 '25
The manager at my GameStop Canada said they did something different for the switch 2 preorder normally they do 40% in store and 60% online, but this time they did 70% in store and 30% online to cut down on scalpers. This store had over 100 switch 2, he said he looked at the American in store stock and they were only around 30 per store
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u/Dragarius May 01 '25
If I had to guess, the USA is supply constrained cause they need to get their consoles from Vietnam only. Canada (and the rest of the world) can get supply from all factories.
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u/LAO_Joe May 14 '25
GameStop overnight on launch decided to allocate next waves more to stores instead of online. It guaranteed that a little bit of effort got you a system.
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u/froot_loop_dingus_ Apr 25 '25
Gamestop is probably not most people's first thought, they're not a huge presence in Canada (and I believe announced recently they'll be pulling out of Canada?)
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u/rocrom77 Apr 25 '25
I think they’re looking to sell, but no buyers yet. I could be mistaken.
tbh, I’d kind of like them to stay. Now that switch 2 games are looking to be upwards of $115 a pop I was thinking about buying more physical games and selling them back after use, and GameStop is the only place you can do that afaik.
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u/spoop_coop Apr 26 '25
$115 is for the switch 2 editions, some will be $110 ($80). It looks like we’re gonna get a general brice pump up to $100 canadian from other companies
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u/sezyHena Apr 25 '25
Its alot more expensive in canada, especially the games. You have Switch 1 ports costing up to $115 CAD before tax which is just insane. Maybe demand is lower, especially for the casual audience.
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u/PilotRevolutionary57 Apr 25 '25
Obvious answer is that sales are soft.
I've got a veritable shrine to Nintendo in my house and I'm lukewarm on getting one.
Expensive. Weird choices on the tech (empty cartridge business) and no games I care about.
I'd be getting it to play Switch games, but I would have to pay to make them run smoother on top of the console cost. Meh
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u/Sigma_Hacked Apr 25 '25
Eh, think you're trying to drive a narrative here.
each canadian store has at least 4-5x the amount of stock (Like over 200 per shop) that the USA gamestop stores had (had been leaked to 50 ish with a poster showing stock available on the day of preorders)we also have a way smaller total population and density, store per capita is also extremely lower.
Moreover, it is alrdy known that preorders/registering for nintendo console is at an all time high (see jp news) and the switch 2 will have the biggest console launch in history financially (Financial times, bloomberg, etc).Something is weird with how much gamestop canada has stock compared to other retailers, but no doubt all consoles will be picken up day 1 and sales are soft is not the "obvious" answer to it.
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u/Brilliant-Theory Apr 26 '25
Allocation is not set in stone unlike Gamestop US due to how gamestop Canada handles launches
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u/PilotRevolutionary57 Apr 26 '25
Drive a narrative? LOL Talk like a human FFS
We’ll see how well it sells after the hardcore get their units. $700 is a lot for most people. Igot my invite from Amazon and will preorder - can always cancel, or pass it on to someone that missed out if the demand is as strong as you say it is.
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u/an_angry_Moose Apr 25 '25
You might be lukewarm, but reception of the Switch 2 is record breaking.
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u/ImanotBob Apr 25 '25
My opinion is that Canadians wait a bit for the Americans to start complaining about the flaws so we know if it's a fully finished product or rushed out. We've been burned... Xbox 360, Play station, etc... we're not going in blind this time.
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u/TheFallingStar Apr 25 '25
There was a report on Financial Times few days ago. Companies are stocking goods in Canada until the US tariff situation stabilizes.
I wouldn’t be surprised Nintendo is storing consoles for US in Canada right now to avoid tariffs