Nintendo confirms leaked Switch systems were stolen and illegally resold

It’s been a crazy week for Nintendo Switch leaks with systems arriving early at people’s doors after stores apparently shipped them early.

We’ve has a lot of leaked videos, especially of the system’s user interface from this leak. However it’s now been revealed not to be just a simple case of a store shipping it early, it’s actually a little more nefarious.

Earlier today the NeoGAF user who received the unit had revealed that “Nintendo has the console back”. He says once he learned it was possibly stolen he “didn’t feel comfortable keeping it”. The user now doesn’t have the Switch but also won’t be getting his money back as he has allegedly purchased stolen goods.

Nintendo has now issued a statement confirming what’s happened and that they were stolen from a distributor in America and one of them resold.

“Earlier this week, individuals claimed to prematurely purchase a small number of Nintendo Switch systems from an unspecified retailer. Nintendo has determined these units were stolen in an isolated incident by employees of a U.S. distributor, with one system being illegally resold. The individuals involved have been identified, terminated from their place of employment and are under investigation by local law enforcement authorities on criminal charges.

Nintendo Switch will launch worldwide on March 3, 2017, and we look forward to everyone being able to discover the wonders of the new system for themselves at that time.”

While it’s really frustrating not to know about everything about the Switch so close to launch, this probably wasn’t the way to go around getting that information.