Gifting a Switch for Christmas? Nintendo suggests setting it up early

Buying someone a Nintendo Switch for Christmas? You may want to set up an account for them before they open the console on Christmas morning.

The Japan-based gaming company warned there could be delays or other issues over the holiday weekend with its servers, especially with account creation. IGN spotted the warning in a tweet from Nintendo’s Japanese customer service account, which reads as follows (thanks to Google Translate):

“This weekend, access will be concentrated on the server of #Nintendo Account, and it is expected that Nintendo Account will not be created immediately. If you are planning to use the Nintendo Switch family for the first time, we recommend that you create it in advance.”

Part of the issue is that the Switch requires a Nintendo account and the first time you set up the console, you need to create an account or sign in with an existing one. Since there will likely be an influx of new consoles on Christmas, there’s also a good chance a bunch of people will try to create new accounts at the same time, which could cause problems.

For example, IGN noted that the Nintendo eShop went down on Christmas Day in 2020. It’s possible all the new Switch owners trying to create new accounts overloaded the system.

Along with creating an account ahead of time, if you’re relying on the eShop to get digital games rather than physical copies, it may be worth taking the time to download those games to the Switch too. Like with accounts, having tons of people trying to download games all at once on Christmas morning could also overload the system. It might even be worth checking physical copies of games — many physical games require patches before you can launch them for the first time. Downloading those patches now so the game’s ready to go could be a great idea.

It may be some extra work, but if there are any issues with Nintendo’s servers on Christmas morning, it should make everything go much smoother.

Source: IGN