Covid-19 Corona Virus originating from Wuhan China now spread across the Globe to become the most horrible Pandemic where the States now has FiVE times more infected and more than twice more dead than any other country in the World, has put children and adults alike into homes – leaving them to learn On-Line, video-conference and play more games . here hybrid game console able to be played on TV as well as hand-held is virtually out-of-stock World-Wide due to popularity but also its manufacturing country Japan rising in diagnostics and death .
however it is still available in South Korea . the catch is when, where and more-over for how much . we are talking about game machines and console-and-game sets here than game software alone . we will mention mostly the main console and NOT Light edition which cannot separate handles to play on TV, nor the old original edition before battery enhancement . battery-enhanced edition sold from August 2019 and is distinguishable from box cover photo .
the normal route is to go stand-in-line to queue-up on special events at local super-mart branch as yesterday at LotteMart and HomePlus (and even CostCo which now has 16 outlets throughout Korean where half is in SEOUL metropolitan satellite limits) where they handed-out 300 drawing slips to pick 45 Animal Crossing New Horizon Editions where more than a thousand people young-and-old gathered an hour before open in the morning .
the option above is that it will be still affordable, where if you head onto the more expensive stores will cost W100,000 W200,000 and even W300,000 more at independent toy and game stores, than if you wait in-line at super-marts .
for the latter you will have largly two choices in the Capital of SEOUL, so if you live and work in other cities you have to take the dangerous challenge to travel in the middle of this epidemic . both locations are explained in-detail on dedicated Page on Top-Menu although out-dated in building contents . Korea Tech BLog does not promote any single store, so yonder-on and ask around where Thou Shall See the Light (ofcourse The Heavens will open upon you if you have a bundle of cash at-hand : Buddha and God does not work here). and as SEOUL City limits has vastly enlarged since the Korean War : the former is at South-Western end of KangNam, South of the Han River where the scal is small thus should find a couple of stores that has it, and the latter at Western end of former downtown SEOUL where you will find a hand-ful of stores selling Special Edition.
- international Electronics Market : this is a single-building located at SEOUL Subway Line3 NamBu Terminal Station (which is terminus for Express Bus going the Southern rural areas) Exit 3 and Right on the next block. 9th Floor is where small-scale action figures and TV game stores are most concentrated than any single building in all of Korea, while its lower floors has some the cheapest office and store rent space – although tiny, again compared to any building in the Capital of SEOUL in immediate access to out-of-city bus and subway .
- YongSan Electronics Market : search for Ghost Market in the map in YongSan Electronics Market Page on Top-Menu . this is at SEOUL Subway Line 1 YongSan Station and hard-to-find Exit 3 is across a walk-way bridge above 4th Floor of KTX Bullet Train Station onto the newly-built Novotel Ambassador Hotel-side . walk straight ahead between the two ground-floor open parking lots and the last building to your Left is NaJin Electronics Market 12 & 13 Dong (low 3~4 story flat-building). what can be called computer game haven in all of Korea, with much hacked software also : game stores are concentrated on its ground-floor, under-ground on immediate path-way South and across the road under-ground floor .
[ Nintendo Switch Console variables ]
- Nintendo Switch game console began selling in South Korea from December 2017
– with sky-blue and pink-red joy-pad handles on either side, - battery-enhanced edition from August 2019
– distinguishable from its product-box without photo of a person’s hands, - Animal Crossing New Horizons Edition from March 2020
– has light-green and sky-blue color game-pads instead .
[ Nintendo Switch Price ]
- Nintendo Switch Official Retail Price W360,000
- March 2020 Price for Nintendo Switch W470,000
+20,000 for battery-enhanced edition - April 2020 Price for battery-enhanced edition W590,000
– grey color is the same price but harder to get - April 2020 Price for Animal Crossing New Horizon Edition W770,000
Please note: prices toward the bottom of this Post are Premium-added going rates where you can actually purchase from On-Line Stores and will offer slight discount when paid in cash directly at brick-and-motar store-fronts .
& soon-to-come : where to buy The Official Nintendo Switch Animal Crossing New Horizons Edition-Dedicated Case and accessories – Korea Tech BLog circa beginning of May 2020
( June 28 Sunday Update ) as the manufacturing country of Japan and its top-market North America in heighten alert on Corona Virus infections, getting worse by-the-day : prices have come-down to almost original level in South Korea, as availability laxed with Nintendo Switch portable game consoles stocked . prices are the same for all three models in Battery-Enhanced Edition, Animal Crossings NEW Horizons and Grey Color at W380,000 ~ W440,000 . price-fluntuates as On-Line Shopping Malls offer accumilation point-discounts as well as promotional discounts on certain credit cards which differ by-day . plus, smaller game stores cluttered into YongSan Electronics Market may sell slightly cheaper if you pay cash .
for actual game-playing, please refer to our island-travel BLog at Jejuisle.com .
