Tokyo, Japan (AFP)—With shops planning midnight launch parties after a run on pre-orders, Nintendo releases the Switch 2 on Thursday, hoping to score record early sales for a games console.

But the Japanese company has its work cut out to match the overall success of the Switch, which became a must-have during the pandemic with hit games such as “Animal Crossing”.

Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since it came out in 2017 — making it the third best-selling console of all time.

Serkan Toto from Tokyo consultancy Kantan Games said he “would not be surprised to see Switch 2 breaking sales records in the next weeks and months”.

In Japan, Nintendo’s online store had 2.2 million pre-order applications for the Switch 2 — an “insane number the industry has never seen before”, Toto told AFP.

“We are looking at some sort of mega launch, and it will be interesting to see for how long this initial momentum will continue,” he added.

Challenges for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether it can convince enough people to pay the high price for its new device.

The Switch 2 costs $449.99 in the United States, more than Switch’s launch price of $299.99. Both are hybrid consoles which can connect to a TV or be played on the go.

New Switch 2 games such as “Donkey Kong Bananza” and “Mario Kart World” — which allows players to go exploring off-grid — are also more expensive than existing Switch titles.

Retailers in the United States, Europe and other major markets are also gearing up for a rush of excited fans, with some stores opening at midnight to welcome them.

“For us, this will be a record in terms of first-day sales for a games console,” said Charlotte Massicault, director of multimedia and gaming at France’s Fnac Darty.

Supply pressures have even forced retailers to cancel orders, with Britain’s Game saying it is “working hard to reinstate as many affected pre-orders as possible”.

“It seems that retailers in the US were especially confident in their ability to ship pre-orders and now need to deal with some serious backlash from customers,” Toto said.

He expects “it will be hard to get a Switch 2 not only at launch but for weeks and months after, possibly through the entire year,” as was the case for months with the Switch.

Nintendo forecasts it will shift 15 million Switch 2 consoles in the current financial year, roughly equal to the original in the same period after its release.

The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high” compared to its predecessor, so it “will not be easy” to keep initial momentum going, the company’s president Shuntaro Furukawa said at a financial results briefing in May.