Nintendo Switch players are reporting that their new games have been replaced by… wide-eyed

Typically around the holidays, thousands of people look in their stockings or under the tree to find brand new Nintendo games waiting for them. But this year, many Nintendo Switch fans say they unboxed a much less pleasant surprise on Christmas morning: Instead of a Switch cartridge in their game box, some say they found a single googly eye staring back at them.

Over the holidays, a number of posts appeared on Reddit and Twitter/X from individuals claiming that their brand new, apparently sealed Nintendo Switch cases contained a googly eye and a piece of black plastic instead of the actual game cartridge . Why a wide eye? The common theory is that the googly eye will shake if you shake the Switch box, similar to how the box shakes with an actual game inside. And the black plastic on the side fools individuals who attempt to peer through the cracks at the top or bottom to see if the outlines of a game are visible without unboxing it. Without these items, someone could be notified that a game was stolen from the package, but this method ensures that no one will notice the crime until they open the case.

It is not yet clear how or why this happens, on what scale or at what point in the distribution process. Games that were reportedly affected included Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario Party Jamboree, Echoes of Wisdom and others. The reports also appear to go back several months, although there has been a larger influx recently, likely due to more games being purchased over the holidays. And all appear to include a googly eye and the same piece of black plastic, although at least one person claims to have only received the plastic, with no eye included.

IGN contacted several people claiming they had received googly eyes instead of games over the past year and a half, but none of the people we spoke to had taken video of them unwrapping the shrink wrap and uncovering the eye, as they (naturally) did. I didn’t know they opened one eye wide to begin with. Until all of these reports are confirmed, it’s still possible that this is just some sort of viral prank. Yet based on our conversations with people claiming to have been affected, all appeared to be legitimate accounts. A few had return receipts or were able to direct me to specific Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target stores where googly eyes had been acquired, all located in the Western United States. One person reported purchasing their Google Eye game online. As for the timeline, the googly eyes claims date back to June 2023, although most have occurred within the last six months.

In order to confirm this information, I tried to reach specific stores where googly eyes were reportedly found. One of the Reddit posters claimed in private messages with me that they returned their googly eye box to a specific Wal-Mart store, so I called them. I couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone at the store for over an hour, despite calling from different departments. When I finally contacted someone in a completely unrelated department, they transferred me to Loss Prevention, who, upon hearing what I was calling, suggested I speak to a higher-up manager, before hanging up completely the phone. Multiple callbacks to the same departments resulted in no further response. I tried a second Wal-Mart store marked with signs, where I eventually contacted an electronics employee who had never heard of it. However, the incident at their store reportedly happened months ago and was handled by returns, not electronics, so their lack of awareness wasn’t much of a debunking.

A very similar scenario occurred when I tried to reach a specific target location where someone claimed to have successfully returned a Google Eye game. Repeated calls to the relevant departments went unanswered, until I finally reached someone from an independent department who transferred me to customer service. Customer services then directed me to Target’s corporate media line, which I have previously contacted and received no response from. In total, I spent about three hours on a Friday afternoon calling various big box stores, but learned absolutely nothing about googly eyes.

With the direct route failing, I reached out to Nintendo for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication. I also reached out to Target and Best Buy for comment on this story, but also did not hear back in time for publication.

Wal-Mart corporate PR got back to me on Friday, but the PR rep I spoke to seemed baffled. They told me on the phone that the company hadn’t heard anything about it and we spent most of the afternoon exchanging emails trying to investigate. The representative said they would look into some specific stores where googly eyes were reported over the weekend and get back to me with a statement first thing Monday, but IGN received no further response to our inquiry until after deadline. We will update if this changes.

So the takeaway from all of this is simply a PSA that your recently purchased Nintendo Switch cartridge may or may not contain a game or a googly eye. It’s unclear whether this is a real problem affecting many people, a real problem affecting a very small number of people caught in a supply chain where communication is poor and with no way to confirm these things, or a joke problem invented by the Internet. Luckily, if this is indeed a real problem, it seems that most stores are swapping googly eyes for games if you find yourself falling victim to this strange but admittedly quite frustrating switcheroo. Let’s hope they manage to catch this Googly Eye Bandit, if they are indeed real, and save future Christmases from disaster.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find his post on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Do you have a history tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.