The Nintendo Switch 2 is finally a thing you can buy in the US — or at least, a thing you can try to buy. The $450 console officially went up for sale at midnight ET on June 5, with numerous retailers offering the device both online and in-store. Predictably, online stock dried up fairly quickly and remains highly limited as of Thursday evening.

Broadly speaking, it appears people have had a bit more luck by heading to a physical retail store. There’s still no guarantee that you’ll be able to snag one that way, but a couple of Engadget staffers managed to grab a Switch 2 on Thursday at their local Target and GameStop, even with no pre-order in place.

If you can’t find the device out in the wild, your next best chance to get the Switch 2 online looks to be via Target. The retailer says it’ll resume selling the console online in the “early morning” on Friday, June 6, though it hasn’t confirmed an exact time beyond that.

To make things a little easier for those still on the hunt, we’re rounding up all of the information we can find on how to buy the Nintendo Switch 2 at launch and tracking any restocks that pop up.

Where to buy the Nintendo Switch 2

Walmart opened up online purchases at midnight on June 5, but both the console alone and Nintendo’s Mario Kart World bundle remain out of stock as of our latest update. Naturally, the world’s largest retailer is also selling the console at its brick-and-mortar locations. The company has noted that quantities are limited and inventory will vary by location, but it’s worth checking if any store near you still has devices available.

Target began selling the Switch 2 in stores on June 5. The retailer has warned that supply will be limited, but some stores still appear to have the console in stock as of Thursday evening, so it’s worth looking into the locations closest to you. Anecdotally, Engadget’s Billy Steele was able to pick up the device at a Target just outside of Greensboro, North Carolina as late as 4:15pm ET on Thursday.

The company says it’ll restock its online inventory in the “early morning” on Friday, June 6, while supplies last. That may be the next best opportunity to secure the Switch 2 without going to a store.

GameStop held launch events on Wednesday and is advertising in-store availability, though again this will vary by location. Engadget’s Cherlynn Low was able to buy the console without a pre-order at a GameStop store in the New York City area on Thursday morning. That particular location had a little under 80 units available, but its manager told Low that inventory will differ at other stores based on population.

As we write this, the device is unavailable on GameStop’s website. A $625 bundle that includes Mario Kart World, a microSD Express card and a few other accessories has been in and out of stock more frequently than the standard SKUs, though it’s sold out now (and kind of scummy anyway). We briefly saw it pop back up around 2:30pm ET, so it may be one to bookmark if you can stomach the extra cost. The listings for the base console and Mario Kart bundle, meanwhile, now point to a “Find a Store” page.

Best Buy held in-store launch events at midnight and said it’d have limited stock at its retail locations starting June 5. It is not selling the console online during launch week, however.

You may also have some luck at certain membership-based retailers. A Mario Kart World bundle at Costco that includes a 12-month Switch Online membership has gone in and out of stock, while Sam’s Club has had a bundle without the Switch Online sub available as well. You’ll need a membership to check on either of those, though. We’ve also seen online stock at BJ’s, but those listings are unavailable as of our most recent update.

Verizon briefly had the Switch 2 available on Thursday morning, but that’s dried up, and only those with Verizon service were able to order.

As of now, Amazon is the only major retailer that doesn’t have some form of Switch 2 listing on its website. The company didn’t take any pre-orders for the Switch 2 either, so it’s unclear if and when it will sell the device.

Newegg has listed the Switch 2 on its site for several weeks, but it hasn’t started sales yet.

With all of these stores, we’ve generally seen the Mario Kart World bundle available in greater quantities online than the base console, which costs $50 less. But considering Mario Kart is the Switch 2’s biggest launch game and retails for $80 on its own, that may not be the worst thing.

Nintendo, meanwhile, is still only selling the Switch 2 via an invite system. This requires you to have been a Switch Online member for at least 12 months and logged at least 50 hours of Switch 1 playtime as of April 2. It can’t hurt to put your name on the list if you meet that criteria, but don’t expect it to bear fruit anytime soon — several people who registered in April still haven’t received an invite, and shipments haven’t gone out yet for many of those who did order (including yours truly).

You can find a list of every Switch 2 retail listing we could find below. Just be aware that this is meant to be a reference, not a rundown of everywhere the device is available right this second.

Where to buy Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle:

Where to buy Switch 2:

Where to buy Nintendo Switch 2 games and accessories

Nintendo is also selling a bunch of new accessories for the Switch 2, most of which became available on June 5 alongside the console. The same thing goes for games such as Mario Kart World and the Switch 2 edition of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Another big Switch 2 title, Donkey Kong Bananza, won’t be available until mid-July, though you can still pre-order it today.

As of Thursday evening, just about all Switch 2 games remain widely available. Stock for the accessories is a little patchier, but most devices are generally in stock at certain retailers. Note that you’ll need to have received an invite to purchase most accessories at Nintendo’s online store.

Mario Kart World ($80)

Donkey Kong Bananza ($70)

Additional Switch 2 games

Samsung microSD Express Card (256GB) for Nintendo Switch 2 ($60)

Joy-Con 2 bundle ($95)

Switch 2 Pro Controller ($85)

Switch 2 Camera ($55)

Hori Nintendo Switch 2 Piranha Plant Camera ($60)

Joy-Con 2 Charging Grip ($40)

Joy-Con 2 Wheels (set of 2) ($25)

Switch 2 All-in-One Carrying Case ($85)

Switch 2 Carrying Case and Screen Protector ($40)

Nintendo Switch 2 Dock Set ($120)

YouTube Music has been testing a redesign of the Now Playing screen since November of 2024. It’s not yet rolled out, and still in flux with YouTube Music now moving the thumbs up and down buttons.

Compared to the current design from 2023, the control line with play/pause, next/last, shuffle, and repeat appear underneath the song name and artist. The timeline remains in the middle, but is now blockier to match the main YouTube app. The carousel with various actions is the last line, with the Song/Video switcher moving down there as well. YTM first introduced that change in February.

The latest Now Playing design sees YouTube Music move the thumbs up/down from the carousel. Instead of a joint pill, they become two circular buttons to the right of the song name/artist. 

Current vs. redesign

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To me, this visually looks cluttered and not symmetrical enough. However, one upside is that the carousel can show more with Comments, Save, Video, Share, and Download able to appear without swiping (depending on your screen). 

This Now Playing redesign has been heavily A/B tested in recent months. There are reports of people losing it every so often.

In space, no one can hear you, uh, stream. We finally have a real trailer for the upcoming Alien: Earth TV series and it looks extremely cool. FX dropped a teaser a few months back, but that was just vibes. This is an actual two-minute trailer that’s absolutely packed with footage.

For the uninitiated, Alien: Earth is the first TV series in the franchise’s long history and is being helmed by Noah Hawley. That’s the guy who made the Fargo TV series and the criminally underrated Marvel show Legion. Franchise creator Ridley Scott is also on board as an executive producer.

This is a prequel that’s set just two years before the original film. As the name suggests, it takes place on Earth. The trailer indicates the story will involve a ship crashing into a large corporate-controlled city. This vessel may or may not have a fearsome Xenomorph aboard, among other notable alien species.

A character in the clip says that the ship “collected five different life forms from the darkest corners of the universe,” going on to suggest that one is “predatory.” That’s right. We could be getting a dang Predator in our Alien TV show.

Alien: Earth premieres on August 12 on FX and will be available to stream on Hulu. The show stars Sydney Chandler as a hybrid robot/human lifeform tasked with investigating the crash. The rest of the cast includes Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther and Samuel Blenkin, among others.

In addition to the 2.5 Pro model update today, Google is also rolling out some UI tweaks to the Gemini app on Android, including a swipe left gesture for Live.

Google today reverted the ‘plus’ menu to a list instead of having side-by-side, pill-shaped buttons for Camera, Gallery, Files, and Drive. With the pre-I/O prompt bar redesign last month, this menu shrunk down a great deal to just show those four items.

This could be a bug, but the list matches the web and iOS (which switched to native floating menus) approaches. Additionally, the Gemini overlay on Android never switched away from the list.

Old vs. new

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Meanwhile, Gemini has reordered the chips in the prompt box so that Video (Veo) appears first, with (Deep) Research and Canvas following. This follows the web app. On most devices, you only see two of those items at a time, with the third accessed from the menu. 

Speaking of the overflow, an update today made this list a bit more compact (like the model picker above), while Canvas has a new icon. This is its third logo since launch, with Google opting for a split circle instead of a ‘plus’ symbol. 

Lastly, you can now swipe left to quickly launch Gemini Live. Serving as an alternative to the corner button, this takes you to the fullscreen interface.

This new gesture is still in the Google app beta channel on Android (wide for iOS), but the other changes are available with the stable release of Google app 16.21 today.

More on Gemini:

Multiplayer: Y | Year released: 2019

I was on the fence about Astral Chain from the day the first trailer came out until a good few hours into my playthrough. It all felt a little too generic, almost a paint-by-numbers rendition of an action game. I needn’t have been so worried, as it’s one of the more original titles to come from PlatinumGames, the developer behind the Bayonetta series, in recent years.

In a future where the world is under constant attack from creatures that exist on another plane of existence, you play as an officer in a special force that deals with this threat. The game’s gimmick is that you can tame these creatures to become Legions that you use in combat. Encounters play out with you controlling both your character and the Legion simultaneously to deal with waves of mobs and larger, more challenging enemies. As well as for combat, you’ll use your Legion(s) to solve crimes and traverse environments.

Astral Chain sticks closely to a loop of detective work, platforming puzzles and combat — a little too closely, if I’m being critical — with the game split into cases that serve as chapters. The story starts off well enough but quickly devolves into a mashup of various anime tropes, including twists and arcs ripped straight from some very famous shows and films. However, the minute-to-minute gameplay is enough to keep you engaged through the 20-hour or so main campaign and into the fairly significant end-game content.

Does Astral Chain reach the heights of Nier: Automata? No, not at all, but its combat and environments can often surpass that game, which all-told is probably my favorite of this generation. Often available for under $50 these days, it’s well worth your time.