Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp

So it’s been a crazy few days. I figured if I were going to explain about the Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp thing, I should do it here. There’s only so far you can get with Twitter.

On Monday the 21st of February, I pre-ordered the digital version of the game from the My Nintendo Store. About half an hour later, I received the download code for the game which at that time had the release date of April 8th, 2022. I immediately redeemed the download code on my Switch Lite and I had the game placeholder sitting on my home screen. When I went to play it, it didn't work (obviously) saying it wasn't available to play yet.

 

A few weeks later, on the 9th of March, My Nintendo Store sent out an email saying the following:

Dear Rachael,

In light of recent world events, we have made the decision to delay Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, which was originally scheduled to release on Nintendo Switch on April 8th 2022.

Therefore, we regret to inform you that your pre-order of Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp on My Nintendo Store has been cancelled. No action is required on your part, and you will not be charged for this pre-order. Please note that you will also receive an automated email confirming this cancellation closer to the original launch date. Thank you for trusting My Nintendo Store with your pre-order.

A new release date for the game will be announced at a later time. Please stay tuned to the official Nintendo website and Nintendo's social media channels for further updates.

- My Nintendo Store

The issue here is that they had already took the payment of £44.99 for the pre-order on 23/02/22. I waited a few days for a refund that never arrived before contacting Nintendo to say, "If my pre-order is cancelled, where is my refund?" I received the following reply on the 15th of March:

Hi Rachael,

Thank you for contacting My Nintendo Store.

After checking with our dedicated department, I am happy to inform you that Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (Digital) from your pre-order [pre-order # removed] has not been cancelled.

The download code you have redeemed will still be valid when the game is released.

Please, let us know if you would like to keep it, or if you'd prefer we revoke the code and process a refund.

If you need any further assistance, don't hesitate to contact us again.

Kind Regards,

My Nintendo Store Team

So that was fine. As far as I was concerned, I still had my pre-order for when the game would eventually come out (if ever). The title sat on my Lite continuing to say that the game was not able to be played yet and as we all know, the game then vanished from the eShop and practically everywhere.

Fast-forward to last weekend. I was away all day on Friday on holiday so the unlock could have and probably did happen then as it was the original release date. I wasn’t really playing my Switch that day, so didn’t notice. But when I looked after coming home in the evening, it said that the game was now playable.

This was surprising to me, as I definitely remembered it being delayed. I wondered if they’d decided to do a silent release with no promotion (or something along those lines) to get the game released but be sensitive at the same time. I thought others had access to it (I still do, I’m sure this has happened to someone else out there aside from me), hence why I tweeted about my excitement at getting to play it on Saturday afternoon. I don't go on Twitter that much, so I didn't really go on for the rest of the day and I was not prepared for the response that tweet received. 

I woke up on Sunday morning to an influx of social interaction on Twitter which gave me a mild panic attack. People were suggesting I turn on flight mode on my Switch, so I did, after having been playing the game normally with my internet on for a while. Just before noon on the Sunday, I received an email from Nintendo saying, "We have successfully received your return!" with the item listed as Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp. They also said they were going to be in touch regarding a refund or replacement. Obviously I didn't arrange a return at any point, so I was super confused. I did get in contact with Nintendo at this point, talking to customer service about a refund I hadn't arranged, and they said they would "elevate it to the dedicated department". Shortly after I received a further email telling me:

Hi Rachael,

Thank you for contacting My Nintendo Store.

Further to your query, we are sorry to inform unfortuntalety the Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp item on your order [pre-order # removed] has been cancelled, the  refund of 44.99 GBP should be with you shortly.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Please come back to us if you have any further queries.

Have a nice day!

Kind Regards,

My Nintendo Store Team

It is pretty strange for a Nintendo email to have misspellings like "unfortuntalety" and the double spacing between "the" and "refund". I can only assume it was whipped up quickly once they realised what was going on. After this, I assumed my time was up with the game. I was being forced to take a refund and would no longer have access to the game. This is when I put up the "fun while it lasted" tweet. Today I received an email saying my order has been successfully refunded.

(I still have not received a refund.)

In the meantime, I have been utterly swamped with people tweeting me about multiple things, including accusations of being a hacker, requests to share the game files, or sell my Switch. I've been trying to answer people that have asked questions relevant to the game and I've been trying to post some screenshots and clips now and then of minor things. Most of all, I've been enjoying the game. It's very nostalgic for me personally having played AW quite a bit as a child. I'm really happy to see others are excited by what I've posted, and I hope it gets released soon for everyone.

I do wonder about the ramifications of releasing a game to someone and then cancelling their order and forcing them to take a refund though. Clearly it was someone at Nintendo who messed up in this situation, not me, yet I'm the one sitting here feeling nervous about posting screenshots and clips from a game I paid for and that was released to me. Maybe I'm missing something here.

I just wanted to clarify things for people wondering about the timeline of events. I do have the emails to backup what's been quoted here, and I know there are people out there saying some pretty crazy things about the situation like how I've mocked it all up, it's fake, I'm a liar, I'm being paid by Nintendo to promote the game, etc. It's up to you whether you believe what I've typed up here or not, or if you even care, I just wanted to get it out there and clear some things up.