Mario Stapler
Image: Nintendo Life / Pexels / DS Stories

So, there you are, in the midnight launch line to collect your brand-spanking-new Nintendo Switch 2. It's been a bit of an ordeal getting your pre-order in, but none of that matters now - you're here, you've made it, you're about to get your first taste of Mario Kart World on pristine new Nintendo hardware!...

Except when you open the box you see that your hardware is less than pristine, thanks to a GameStop employee who apparently used a stapler to attach pre-order receipts directly to Switch 2 boxes, with predictable results. Oof.

As highlighted by the redoubtable Wario 64, reddit Konflick says they opened their new Switch 2 to find two neat staple marks scratched into the console's screen. Worse still, apparently they weren't alone. "At least 100" people had their receipts stapled directly to the boxes, according to a reply from Konflick.

Now, it's possible some of those Switch 2 screens escaped the scrape, but if this really is the case, it seems like this branch of GameStop is going to have plenty of returns and some upset people coming in today.

As many commenters on the thread have said, there's no need to be stapling receipts to anything — tape on the bag would do just fine! — but even if the screen weren't damaged, we'd be mighty pissed if even the console's box was punctured needlessly.

If we were being very generous to the unthinking staple-wielder, you could suggest that Nintendo placing the screen directly beneath the top of the box makes damage more likely to occur in transit. Indeed, Alex was surprised at how small the box is when he unpacked his own unit. As you can see in the pic above, the screen sits right there under the lid. Burying the tablet deeper within the box might have helped save some upset here.

You can't pin this one on Nintendo, though. Hopefully the store will have enough units to replace the damaged ones, although that seems extremely unlikely given the launch-day demand. Night. Mare.

Did this happen to you? Have you ever had your day one hardware turn up in a less-than-pristine state? Let us know in the usual place.

[source reddit.com, via bsky.app]