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Nintendo Switch to be sold at Best Buy, even if you didn’t pre-order

Hundreds of stores holding midnight launches

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Nintendo Switch back photo Samit Sarkar/Polygon
Samit Sarkar (he/him) is Polygon’s deputy managing editor. He has more than 15 years of experience covering video games, movies, television, and technology.

Best Buy is holding midnight launch events for the Nintendo Switch at hundreds of locations, and depending on how many consoles are available at your local store, you might be able to buy a Switch even if you didn’t pre-order, the retailer announced today.

Pre-order customers will have to wait in line to pick up their Switch, as usual. But people looking to snag the new console without a pre-order will want to line up even earlier — “quantities will be limited,” said Best Buy. The company will handle those Switch sales the same way it runs Black Friday doorbuster deals: Employees will hand out tickets for as many Switch systems as are in stock, and purchases will be limited to one per customer.

Midnight launch events will take place at more than 600 Best Buy stores, with the Switch as well as its games and accessories going on sale at 12:01 a.m. local time on Friday, March 3. (You can search by state here to find out if any locations near you are opening at midnight.) The company said locations that don’t do a midnight launch will start selling the Switch at the time when they normally open on Fridays — usually 10 a.m. but possibly 9 a.m., depending on the store.

Best Buy joins GameStop as a retailer offering limited quantities of the Switch to customers who didn’t pre-order the console. GameStop will also sell two Switch bundles on its website sometime on the night of Thursday, March 2.

For more on the Switch, read our initial impressions of the console.