Nintendo Switch 2 reportedly hits the black market for $40,000

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Legitimate model leakers may already have Nintendo Switch 2 before its release later this year.

Official Nintendo Switch 2 render
(Image credit: Nintendo)

The Chinese leaker who posted CAD images of the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 claims to have a functioning unit for sale. The mysterious seller (via Reddit) allegedly offers the unreleased next-generation console to an accessory manufacturer for about $39,800.

The design from the leaked CAD files seems to have been used by Dbrand and other pre-reveal Switch 2 accessory manufacturers. The leaker would seem to be the most legitimate source, as the console's final design in its reveal video perfectly matched the Dbrand-corroborated leak. Nonetheless, we still recommend treating the information with some salt.

The leaker, who uses the Xiaohongshu forums, told the interested buyer that he or she could experiment with the Switch 2 dock, joystick, and tablet. He also claimed that Pro controllers would become available next week, potentially Nintendo's follow-up to its official Switch Pro peripheral.

Chinese CAD model leaker shows a screenshot of his DMs with a black market seller, saying the prices for the Switch 2 dock, joycons, and tablet will cost him $39,780 from r/NintendoSwitch2

So, will he cough up the dough to access a complete pre-release Switch 2? It may depend on how much money he can make from the endeavor. Full early access to Nintendo Switch 2 hardware could help several cases and peripheral manufacturers— legitimate or otherwise— get an early crack at the hardware and make appropriate accessories for their purposes.

Of course, dealing with stacks of cash like this on the black market, it would seem likely that our CAD design leaker would also demand quite a healthy sum from any prospective Switch 2 flash cart (or other unofficial accessory) manufacturer for each session with such a high-value piece of hardware.

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After all, there's no other reason for someone to want a pre-release Nintendo Switch 2. Games enhanced on Switch 2 will likely need Pro-console-esque patches to enable the functionality. Of course, no Switch 2 games will become available, even in physical form, until much closer to the release date. However, the console, especially if it will be shipping with the same out-of-box operating system, seems quite open to the potential of pre-release exploitation and development, considering the details of this story.

Hopefully, Nintendo will confirm a proper release date soon. However, it would be funny if that release date were so far in the future that this early buyer's purchase would be irrelevant.

Christopher Harper
Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • atomicWAR
    At those rock bottom prices I'll take two...to the head. Scalpers are the bane of the tech/ticket worlds. No thank you!!! :poop:
    Reply
  • derekullo
    atomicWAR said:
    At those rock bottom prices I'll take two...to the head. Scalpers are the bane of the tech/ticket worlds. No thank you!!! :poop:
    Scalpers are bad but he isn't exactly a scalper.

    The console isn't released yet and so even if the mainstream public had it they literally have no games.

    Going online is equally bad as soon as Nintendo detects the unreleased console.

    The only real use for the black market version is trying to hack it for homebrew and to discover its inner workings for emulation.

    "Piracy is bad but anyone willing to spend $40k has already made up their mind!"
    Reply
  • tbq
    If I owned a company making unlicensed, Switch 2 accessories I would drop $40k on a leaked model without a second thought. Being able to get one early would allow me to test that any case or grip or holder that I want to mass produce actually fits properly, before committing to making molds to fabricate thousands of copies that may fit incorrectly. Then I could be ready with a large inventory available by the time people start shopping for accessories for their pre-ordered Switch 2s.
    Otherwise I would have to rely on the leaked CAD files that are circulating online, without any guarantee that they're accurate. Or even wait until launch day to get one and miss out on sales since I wouldn't have anything produced yet to sell.
    Reply
  • thesyndrome
    40,000
    In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only Mario
    Reply
  • Pierce2623
    thesyndrome said:
    In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only Mario
    Well if gaming was limited to a single IP, at least Mario gives us mileage. He’s got just about every kind of game you can think of other than a FPS.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    derekullo said:
    Scalpers are bad but he isn't exactly a scalper.

    The console isn't released yet and so even if the mainstream public had it they literally have no games.

    Going online is equally bad as soon as Nintendo detects the unreleased console.

    The only real use for the black market version is trying to hack it for homebrew and to discover its inner workings for emulation.

    "Piracy is bad but anyone willing to spend $40k has already made up their mind!"
    It's supposed to be backwards compatible, at least to a pretty large part, you could run older games with better graphics performance.
    tbq said:
    If I owned a company making unlicensed, Switch 2 accessories I would drop $40k on a leaked model without a second thought. Being able to get one early would allow me to test that any case or grip or holder that I want to mass produce actually fits properly, before committing to making molds to fabricate thousands of copies that may fit incorrectly. Then I could be ready with a large inventory available by the time people start shopping for accessories for their pre-ordered Switch 2s.
    Otherwise I would have to rely on the leaked CAD files that are circulating online, without any guarantee that they're accurate. Or even wait until launch day to get one and miss out on sales since I wouldn't have anything produced yet to sell.
    Wasn't that why we had mock ups for like a year now?! Those were for 3rd party accessory makers.
    Reply