The Switch 2 launch · a cabinet post-mortem

The cabinet's Switch 2 launch was, by any reasonable measure, our best single-day sales event since 2017. Six units, sold within ten minutes of the doors opening, every customer happy. The numbers told a clean story. The post-mortem, six weeks on, tells a more interesting one.

The launch-day mechanics

We took the unusual step (for us) of taking pre-payment deposits in the fortnight before launch — £20 against a £339 unit, refundable up to launch morning. Two of the six deposits were collected by post. Four were taken in person at the shop. None had to be refunded. The arithmetic suggested we could have sold ten units; the supplier in Slough had six available and that was that.

What went right

The deposit mechanism prevented launch-day chaos at the shop. We did not have to manage a queue. Customers who had pre-paid knew their unit was in the back room with their name on it. Walk-ins on launch morning were turned away with a politeness that — judging by subsequent emails — they appreciated more than the launch unit itself.

What did not go right

One of the six pre-paid units had a faulty left joycon-rail. The customer, a thoughtful gentleman in Bristol, returned the unit within two days under his statutory rights. We exchanged it for the seventh unit our supplier had unexpectedly become able to ship that week. The matter was closed by the following Monday. The cabinet was very lucky in this — had the supplier not had a spare, we would have had a refund-and-no-stock problem.

The second thing that did not go right was, on reflection, the marketing. We did not advertise the launch publicly. We did not put a sign in the shop window. The pre-payment deposits came entirely from customers who had previously bought from us, who were on Iris's small "console-news" letter list, which we run because regular customers ask to be told about console launches. New customers would not have known we had any units at all. In hindsight, this was an unforced act of obscurity that we should have corrected.

The surprising letters

In the three weeks after the launch, Iris received eleven letters from regular customers, all variations on the same theme: "thank you for not making a fuss." Several mentioned that the cabinet's quiet handling of the launch was a reason they preferred us to the larger retailers. One letter, from a couple in Devon, included a hand-drawn cartoon of Bertram looking exhausted on launch night, which now sits framed above the bench.

The other surprise

The second wave of Switch 2 sales, in the four weeks after launch, was almost entirely composed of customers buying for someone else — a son, a partner, a grown-up grandchild. The "want one for myself" launch buyer ended at the six pre-paid units. The "buying for someone else, no rush, please can the cabinet wrap it" buyer became the dominant pattern, and looks set to continue through the autumn.

This has changed how we are thinking about the rest of 2026. Bertram has been quietly building a small "gift-wrapping" service into the back room: brown kraft paper, hand-lettered name tag, a small wooden ribbon-tie. No surcharge. Available on request at checkout. The first ten orders have arrived in the last fortnight and the cabinet may quietly make a habit of this.

The numbers, briefly

Six launch units. Eleven pre-orders processed. One return-and-exchange. Forty-three second-wave Switch 2 sales between launch day and the date of this piece. £18,360 of revenue from Switch 2 sales alone in the first six weeks; £12,920 of cost-of-goods. Net margin of £5,440 on the console side, before postage. By cabinet standards, an extraordinary six weeks — but probably a one-off, since the launch wave is now over and the second-hand market has not yet built up.

The Switch 2 is not currently in stock at the cabinet. We will be on the second-hand market in September, when the first wave of "actually I prefer my OG Switch" trade-ins comes through the wholesalers. Drop Iris a note at [email protected] if you'd like to be told when units appear on the shelf.