Nintendo has stopped producing its NES and SNES Classic Edition consoles
The NES Classic and SNES Classic Editions have been great successes for Nintendo. The company sold over 1.5 million NES Classic Editions during the 2016 holiday season and followed the console up with the SNES Classic Edition, which it released last year. Reggie Fils-Aimé, Nintendo of America President and COO confirmed last month that the company would not be releasing an N64 Classic Edition, and now it looks like Nintendo is pulling out of the retro console market altogether.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Fils-Aimé reconfirmed that Nintendo would only be producing two classic consoles and highlighted that there is no option to supply add-on content to either the NES or SNES Classic Edition consoles. Moreover, he stated that:
...these products are going to be available through the holiday season, and once they sell out, they're gone. And that's it.
So, this month may be the last opportunity to buy either console from Nintendo before they start becoming scarce. Both Classic Editions consoles are currently in stock on Amazon UK, but they are out of stock until the end of December on Amazon US. It is possible to order both consoles on Amazon US though, so hopefully Amazon will not change either console’s status to unavailable at the end of the month.
Nintendo only re-released the NES Classic Edition on June 29 this year, having discontinued it in April 2017, so it could reverse its decision again at some point. It is worth keeping in mind that Fils-Aimé was referring to NES and SNES Classic Edition availability in the Americas, and we have seen not seen any other Nintendo regional divisions echoing his statement. Hence, the NES and SNES Classic Editions may be pardoned in other regions. Expect to see resellers raise the prices of both Classic Editions consoles when they go out of stock in the US though.
Source(s)
