Nintendo discontinues NES Classic Edition

The Japanese company Nintendo unexpectedly for many fans of its products announced the termination of the release of its miniature console NES Classic Edition . This is a palm-sized device equipped with an HDMI output. Included with this console comes 30 retro games.

"We wanted to give fans of all ages the opportunity to re-open the original Nintendo system, let them remember why they liked this console so much ... Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition is perfect for everyone who remembers how to play NES, or who would like to give feel the taste of such a game to a new generation of gamers, ” said Reginald Fils-Aimé, president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, at one time. And now the production of this console stops, despite the fact that sales are growing.

The company issued a formal appeal saying the following: “In April, Nintendo Entertainment System’s last shipment this year will be shipped: NES Classic Edition. We ask all those interested in obtaining this system to check the availability of the device from retailers. We understand that for some customers to find the console is a difficult task, for which we apologize. We pay a lot of attention to customer reviews and thank everyone for the incredible level of interest and support for this product. ”
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A company representative explained that NES Classic did not plan to produce for a long time. Moreover, due to the high demand, the project was taken to extend, since the initial plans assumed only a few months to manufacture the device. By the way, at the auctions the cost of the set-top box is about $ 100, despite a slight decrease in the initial price from the suppliers.

Last year, the Japanese company sold 1.5 million to Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition. And already then the president of the company apologized for the fact that Nintendo was not able to fully meet the demand of customers for this system. In general, NES Classic Edition in Nintendo decided to use it as an auxiliary product to popularize the new Nintendo Switch gaming system. But this game console unexpectedly became a completely independent product that attracted attention even more than Switch.

NES Classic not so long ago dismantled on the cog , to understand whether the unique elements of the design. As it turned out, nothing so rare is used there, so the delay in the production of the gadget raises many questions.

True, the company explains the insufficient level of production by the fact that analysts could not correctly assess Central Asia. Nintendo built a calculation on adults in the age group of 30–40 years old who played in the NES when they were children. But, as it turned out, NES Classic began to buy in the literal sense of "and old and young." Demand exceeded supply several times, which led to a shortage.


By the way, not so long ago, craftsmen from NESClassicMods decided to expand the range of games that are available on the NES Classic. To do this, you need to copy files from NES Classic to your PC, edit them there and upload them to the console again.

Over the past year, Nintendo has attracted attention more than once. This pokemon, and NES Classic, and the announcement of the work on the console of a new generation. All this, together with some other factors, has led to the fact that the Nintendo Switch is now selling very well. Presumably, the company will increase the annual production of the console from 8 to 16 million. Perhaps, in order not to disperse their efforts and production facilities, it was decided to complete the production of the “old” NES Classic console.



There are also suggestions that Nintendo is currently working on a second version of retroconsoli, with a lot of games and features. Or maybe the management was simply afraid that the NES Classic could negatively affect sales of digital copies of retro games in the Virtual Console catalog.

Whatever it was, but Nintendo refuses a clearly profitable and profitable project. This is quite strange, perhaps, in the future, an explanation will appear. It remains only to guess.



By the way, almost a year ago on Geektimes a survey was conducted regarding this console. Most readers answered that the console is unlikely to become popular, but the device will find its buyer. As it turned out, this is not quite true: the console could not only become popular, but very popular. 1.6 million shipments in the first half say a lot.