Mysterious 'googly eyes' popping up in Nintendo Switch games | Investigation

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A growing number of Nintendo Switch owners report they bought video games but opened up their packages to find the game cartridge was missing.

Instead, they were met with an "eye" staring back at them.

It happened to Roxborough resident Michael Delpome when he opened up his new Nintendo Switch game and found the "googly eye."

"I honestly didn't even know what to do. It was a googly eye. It's pretty uncommon," said Delpome.

Delpome bought the Mario Party game at an East Windsor Walmart in February.

Two weeks later, he opened it to play and found the googly eye peering at him.

"I can't say I didn't laugh when I saw it. One out of shock, but two out of like.....whattttt?" he said.

Delpome said a quick internet search revealed the googly eye was popping up in newly bought Nintendo Switch games across the country.

Jon Downey, who runs Spawn Wave Media, has a daily YouTube show that covers anything and everything related to current events in gaming.

He told the Investigative Team that the googly eye conundrum has been popping up in games all over the country in the past 6-7 months.

"It's actually a number of games," said Downey. "So I've seen Luigi's Mansion 2 HD, Mario versus Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Animal Crossing."

"Sometimes kids are buying these games with their chores, the money from their chores and it's pretty heartbreaking," added Delpome.

But how and who is swapping out games with the googly eyes?

Nintendo did not respond to repeated requests for comment by the Investigative Team.

Downey speculated it could be happening anywhere along the chain from manufacturing to packaging to shelving.

"For Nintendo, it's probably like a small thing that they maybe feel like might pass or that they can try to figure out quietly," said Downey. "It's not great marketing for them."

Downey said Nintendo Switch games hold their value regardless of whether they're used or not, and there's a robust secondary market.

Delpome said that after he reached out to Nintendo customer service and they did some legwork verifying his purchase, the company made him whole.

"They said, 'OK, we believe you and we'll send you a new game.' And a replacement came about three days later," he said.

Downey said a good idea after buying a game is to open up the package in the store, that way you can verify you're getting what you paid for.