What do the colored triangles at the bottom of the Nintendo Switch physical game cases mean?
If you’ve purchased a physical Nintendo Switch game, you may notice a colored triangle on the spine. These colored triangles are a way to distinguish which European regions the game was originally distributed in. Do these colors matter for Switch games? No—Switch game cartridges are region-free.
This system used to matter when it was implemented back in 2001 by Nintendo of Europe. The triangles distinguish which languages the game ships with. Here’s a basic rundown of some of the more common colors. You can see a full list of colored triangles on Nintendo Switch games here.
Yellow is the most common color as it means distributed all across Europe and contains all languages. Hunter green is the United Kingdom, while the lime green color is Sweden. Red is France, while pink is Spain. Teal is The Netherlands and blue is Italy.
Do you live in Europe and you’re curious what colored triangles Nintendo has for Switch games in your country? Check out this handy guide.
If you’re a game collector, this can also help you determine which area games on eBay and other online sites are from. Asking to see the spine will quickly alert you to whether the game is from US (no triangles) or EUR (colored triangles). Japanese Switch game cases don’t have colored triangles on the spine, but the country’s rating system replaces it. Isn’t it interesting how different physical game cases are all around the world?
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