Nintendo Offers Refunds for Overwatch on Switch as Blizzard Cancels Promotional Event

Spencer Baculi |

Oct 17, 2019

Despite the popularity of Blizzard’s multiplayer first-person shooter Overwatch, the game’s arrival on the Nintendo Switch (NSW) after three years of the console’s existence was met with little fanfare as the recent controversy surrounding Blizzard’s relationship with China has led to Nintendo offering refunds for the game and Blizzard cancelling a promotional Nintendo launch event.

As Blizzard’s relationship with China was brought to the surface of public discourse, due to the company banning Hearthstone player Chung “blitzchung” Ng Wai from competitive play for demonstrating his support of the Hong Kong protestors in a post-game interview, some players who had pre-ordered Overwatch became concerned that their pre-orders, completed before Blizzard’s recent actions, would support Blizzard and their decisions.

In an effort to cease their support of Blizzard, players reached out to Nintendo seeking assistance, as Nintendo holds a firm “All Sales Are Final” policy regarding digital sales.

In a rare reversal of policy, Twitter user GetVent reported Nintendo was offering refunds for Overwatch, though in eShop credit rather than in a direct refund to the initial form of payment, for the game as the situation was a “unique case.”

good news! if u pre-ordered Overwatch on Switch but u don’t want to continue to support Blizzard, u can call Nintendo support they can give u a refund. just went through the process myself, they said they normally don’t cancel digital pre-orders but this is a unique case.

— charl-EEEK! bryant [@getvent]🎃💨 (@getvent) October 14, 2019

though: the refund was in eshop credit, and they wanted to make sure I hadn’t cancelled any pre-orders before. made sure to say this was a one time thing, so you can’t really abuse the system to constantly cancel pre-orders. i’m still happy they were able to! #boycottblizzard

— charl-EEEK! bryant [@getvent]🎃💨 (@getvent) October 14, 2019

On the same day, October 14^th, Nintendo announced through their official Twitter account that a previously scheduled and promoted Overwatch event, to be held at the NintendoNYC store and featuring appearances by Overwatch voice actors, was abruptly cancelled by Blizzard:

Please be aware that the previously announced Overwatch launch event scheduled for Wednesday, 10/16 at NintendoNYC has been cancelled by Blizzard. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

— Nintendo NY (@NintendoNYC) October 15, 2019

Curiously, when the game arrived on the Nintendo Switch on October 15^th, players noticed that Nintendo failed to promote the game in any capacity on their official Twitter page, in a possible attempt to distance themselves from Blizzard’s controversies:

How fucking CRAZY is it, that Nintendo hasn’t posted ANYTHING regarding Overwatch’s release on Switch today?

That was LEGIT the LEAD announcement of last months Nintendo Direct.

Absolutely wild😳! I feel so bad for the Overwatch team because none of this is their fault……..

— FADEL – Master Of Hype (@TheGamesCage) October 16, 2019

> quickly throws Blizzard under the bus for cancelling the event

> completely ignores OW’s launch

> offers full refund for Overwatch, unlike any other e-shop game

when even nintendo is having beef with you, you know you fucked up lmao, don’t expect Tracer in Smash anytime soon pic.twitter.com/EH59eDffUh

— Storm Yorha🌛 @spooky season (@StormYorha) October 16, 2019

As of writing, Blizzard has neither commented publicly on Nintendo’s policy exemption or given a reason for the cancellation of the NintendoNYC event.