Walmart reportedly canceled some pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Edition, then told affected customers the orders had been canceled “in error.” Some buyers were offered a $519.99 Walmart eGift Card, and some were also given an Exclusive Reservation that opened a 48-hour window to reorder the same console.
The timing matters because the affected customers had already locked in the Zelda 40th Anniversary Edition of the Switch 2 through Walmart at a reported price of $519.99, and the replacement offer matched that amount. As of November 3, 2026, the story rested on customer emails and press reports rather than a public Walmart statement, which left the key question unresolved: who gets the gift card, who gets the reservation, and who gets both.
The reports said the eGift card should arrive by email within 10 business days. That gives the reversal a clear clock, but it does not explain how the retailer sorted the canceled orders in the first place. Not everyone appears to have received both forms of compensation, and no outlet established the exact rules for qualifying for one offer, the other, or both. That gap is what makes the episode harder to dismiss as a routine preorder glitch.
Walmart’s description of the cancellations as an error points to a mistake, but not to its cause. For buyers who had secured a special-edition console that was already sold at $519.99, the immediate reality is simple: some orders disappeared, some customers were offered money back in gift-card form, and some were given only 48 hours to place the order again. The next fact that matters is whether the retailer explains the split, because that will decide whether this was a broad correction or a selective fix.
