We have an interesting story tonight from our investigative team that'll peique the interest of gamers. A growing number of Nintendo Switch owners say they bought video games but open up their packages to a surprise. The game cartridge was missing.
Investigative reporter Chadelli shows us what was inside instead. Our viewer says he opened up this Nintendo Switch game and found a smaller version of this, a googly eye. I honestly didn't even know what to do.
It was a googly eye. It's pretty uncommon. Michael Delpo bought this Mario Party game from an East Windsor Walmart in February.
Two weeks later, he opened it and found this googly eye peering at him. I can't say I didn't laugh when I saw it. One out of shock, but two out of like, what?
A quick internet search revealed the googly eye was popping up in newly bought Nintendo Switch games across the country. Had to do with what I was dubbing like the googlyeyed bandit. John Downey, who runs Spunwave Media, has a daily YouTube show that covers anything and everything related to current events in gaming.
He says the googly eye conundrum has been popping up over the past six, seven months. It's actually a number of games. So, I've seen Luigi's Mansion 2 HD, Mario versus Donkey Kong, the The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and Animal Crossing.
Sometimes kids are buying these games with their chores, the money from their chores, and it's pretty heartbreaking. But how and who is swapping out games with the googly eyes? Nintendo wouldn't respond to repeated requests for comment.
Downey says it could be happening anywhere along the chain, from manufacturing to packaging to shelving. For Nintendo, it's probably like a small thing that they maybe feel like might pass or that they can try to figure out quietly. It's not great marketing for them.
Downey says Nintendo Switch games hold their value, used or not, and there's a robust secondary market. Delome says he reached out to Nintendo after some leg work verifying his purchase. The company made him whole.
They said, "Okay, like we believe you and we'll send you a new game. " And then the replacement came about 3 days later. And Downey says, "A good idea after buying a game, open up the package in the store to verify you're getting what you paid for.
" I'm investigative reporter Chad Pradelli, Channel 6 Action News.
