After years of delays, the next game in Nintendo’s beloved Zelda franchise is finally almost here: the release date for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was finally officially confirmed earlier this week, and preorders are now open. The game arrives May 12, but at a cost—it’s the first Switch game with a retail price of $70 ($10 higher than most of Nintendo’s other high-profile first-party titles). You can start saving your rupees now…or take advantage of a deal that will allow you to preorder it for a mere $50.
How to get The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for $50 or less
First, to take advantage of this deal, you’ll need to be a Nintendo Switch Online member, but you can sign up for free with a seven-day trial. (An annual membership will run you $20, although that comes with a lot of other benefits, including save backups, online play, and cloud access to older NES, SNES, and, now, Game Boy games.)
With that out of the way, here’s the deal: Nintendo is currently selling Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers that you can redeem to purchase any digital game in a 74-game catalog. You have to buy the vouchers in pairs, and two will run you $99.98. That means you can use one to preorder The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for $50, and the other for another of Nintendo’s pricey exclusive titles, which rarely go on sale and almost never drop in price. (Tears of the Kingdom’s predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, came out in 2017 and still costs $60.)
Nintendo claims new games will continually be added to the catalog of titles eligible for voucher redemption, including upcoming releases, so if there’s nothing you want right now you can hold your second voucher for a future release (Pikmin 4 arrives July 31, just saying). The vouchers are good for 12 months from the date of purchase, so don’t feel pressured to choose a game from the catalog right away.
You can have up to eight active vouchers at a time, so if you know you’ll be buying a lot of Nintendo games this year, it’s a good idea to stock up on vouchers while they’re still available (there’s no indication how long Nintendo will be offering them).
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Here is just a smattering of current voucher-eligible titles: the aforementioned Pikmin 4, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Mario Party Superstars, Metroid Dread, and Splatoon 3.
How to get The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for even less than $50
If you’re a Costco or Sam’s Club member, you can buy discounted Nintendo eShop gift cards and redeem them for Nintendo Switch vouchers, essentially stacking your discounts.
Costco offers $50 digital Nintendo gift cards for $45 (you’d need to buy at least two) and Sam’s Club sells $100 physical Nintendo gift cards for $90.Either offer will price your out-of-pocket cost for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom would come down to $45—or more than 33% off.
