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The more I think about it, it kinda makes sense that Nintendo is cancelling these since it's essentially a dead-end product. With every 3DS or Switch sold, Nintendo can sell the customer games and accessories. With a NES Classic, once they buy the unit itself, that's it, Nintendo stands to make no more money on it.

No, you may try as hard as you can to spin this but it still won't make sense.

 

[dickroach]

$10 NES games on the Switch VC incomming.

 

[pirateluigi]

Also, this made me realize I've never actually seen an NES Classic in real life. It did actually exist, correct?

Same. I have never once seen one in a store.

 

[Lothars]

The more I think about it, it kinda makes sense that Nintendo is cancelling these since it's essentially a dead-end product. With every 3DS or Switch sold, Nintendo can sell the customer games and accessories. With a NES Classic, once they buy the unit itself, that's it, Nintendo stands to make no more money on it.

I'm sorry this makes no sense and I know you constantly defend Nintendo but this is indefensible. What a shitty thing for them to do.

Short term product to the very end.

LOL @ those cursing Nintendo. $300 Switches are selling out with a big attach rate. Ditch this thing and focus on the system.

They can always bring these back every holiday to fuck with people for extra money and it will NEVER fail.

Until it doesn't and there's really no guarantee the switch will keep selling long term, it all depends on what they keep announcing. This is a stupid short sighted move from nintendo designed to fuck over the fans.

 

[Glix]

Wow. Just wow. Fuck you NOA.

I was in no rush to get this, I didnt go nuts hunting one down. Figured I'd wait until stock was there and just pick one up for msrp.

I am super dissappointed and kinda mad too.

I wonder how much the ease of hacking played into the decision.

 

[awilliams213]

Reminds me of the tv commercials for last chance to buy this Disney dvd before it goes "Back in the vault"

 

[tsundoku]

I have a feeling that between paying licensing for some of the games they didn't own directly, and how cheap this technology inside should have been compared to what they were paying for it, and the unique manufacturing that lines up with nothing else in their product line, that Nintendo wasn't actually making much on this.

They're clearly ramping up for virtual console on the switch to get back to making their sweet 15-5 dollars per game instead of dimes

 

[Jafku]

scalpers are disgusting motherfuckers

I can't I opened it already ��

perfect example

 

[Rambler]

See you in hell! NES Mini!

 

[BocoDragon]

Glad I got mine. Didn't expect that would be the one and only time I'd see it in the wild.

Sorry to others though.

 

[Protein]

I found 3 in retail and bought them all. I got lucky I guess

Congrats on your new car.

 

[Zedark]

The more I think about it, it kinda makes sense that Nintendo is cancelling these since it's essentially a dead-end product. With every 3DS or Switch sold, Nintendo can sell the customer games and accessories. With a NES Classic, once they buy the unit itself, that's it, Nintendo stands to make no more money on it.

And I wonder how much profit they make on the system: it's only 60 dollars, so the margin can't be that high.

Spoiler

Definitely not as high as selling you 2 or 3 VC titles directly from the eShop.

 

[Pavaloo]

damn, lucky i just got one a couple days ago

 

[WhupTroyGAF]

Who wants to sell me an extra controller?

 

[Dishwalla]

Never saw one on a store shelf either, only got one because I was lucky enough to see someone post about it being up on Prime Now within a few minutes of them posting it.

 

[Joey Ravn]

wtf was teh point of this - there was never even enough of a supply for people to pick one up for retail

It was a limited-release product. Scarcity is exactly what it strived for. It's not really hard to grasp.

I'm sure Nintendo could keep on making a profit if it turned it into a regular product, but given how easily hackable it is, doing so could put a dent on their VC plans for the Switch.

 

[Kthulhu]

Fucking hell. The thing wasn't even out for a year.

I can understand halting production to make improvements, but full cancelation?

I swear, it feels like Nintendo hates money sometimes.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

People are manipulating the device to provide a greater service than Nintendo provided themselves. It makes business sense to stop production, patch the hole, and re-release.

Unless of course they really don't give a shit which I find unlikely as any business is out to profit.

Despite that people still wanted to buy one. The demand was high regardless of better options out there like the Pi.

 

[manzoman96]

Well I guess they're not getting my $60. I was ready to buy day one but never even got to see it.

 

[EloquentM]

Scalpers rejoice.

I can't I opened it already 😔

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Still don't believe in artificial scarcity?

 

[Lgndryhr]

Glad I got one, but feel bad for those that did not.

 

[zerokoolpsx]

That's a good way to piss off a bunch of people besides scalpers. In the end, they won.

 

[tim1138]

My wife and I were gonna buy a couple of these as Christmas gifts, but weren't able to because they were impossible to find. To this day I've never actually seen one in a store or in stock on Amazon.

 

[Randomizer]

I mean $60 for 30 games was overly generous for Nintendo, usually they sell each game for $5 each on Virtual Console.

 

[jett]

I can't say I understand what's Nintendo's problem.

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

Please don't pirate our old games but our NES classic is only getting one print run. Thanks.

 

[ViolentP]

And I wonder how much profit they make on the system: it's only 60 dollars, so the margin can't be that high.

Spoiler

Definitely not as high as selling you 2 or 3 VC titles directly from the eShop.

That thing looks super cheap to make so the profits made on each are likely pretty high.

 

[Common Knowledge]

But they aren't purposely holding back stock

Seriously, this pretty much obliterates any defensive argument that Nintendo just underestimates demand for some things and will try to increase supplies in the future.


No, when there's extremely limited stock of something, Nintendo fucking meant it to be limited.

 

[Persona7]

I can't I opened it already ��

Reset it and put it back in the box. Nobody will ever know because Nintendo is too cheap to seal their hardware boxes.

 

[Deku89]

I can see three reasons for this:

1) They will redesign it at release it later on (probably during the holidays). Hopefully with a longer cord, more games, and easier to manufacture.

2) The deal they made with the manufacturer ran out (because it was only a short termed deal). They couldn't get a profitable situation with that same company and decided to cut their losses.

3) It will conflict too much with the Switch VC and they make more money that way.

Obviously, the success caught them by surprise, but they don't want to commit fully to it because in case the bubble bursts and they're left with a bunch of extra stock. I expect we'll see a SNES classic eventually.

 

[Kthulhu]

It was a limited-release product. Scarcity is exactly what it strived for. It's not really hard to grasp.

I'm sure Nintendo could keep on making a profit if it turned it into a regular product, but given how easily hackable it is, doing so could put a dent on their VC plans for the Switch.

I can emulate all of these games on my PC and phone already. The NES classic didn't do shit to hurt VC that emulators weren't already doing.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

lmaooooo Nintendo wtf? I should have bought a second when I had the chance.

 

[Transistor]

Well, I wanted to buy one, and I have no interest in a Switch, so I guess Nintendo just doesn't get my money

 

[The Omega Man]

You can't discontinue what never existed

 

[Sanador]

I was going to get one for my grandkids when they were actually available. Well, now they are getting a PS4.

 

[cyba89]

So the NES Mini could pay the college for my future kids in a couple of years?

 

[flyover]

This is a perfect time for Sony to strike. Imagine if they released an inexpensive, tiny console capable of playing classic PlayStation games on modern TVs. Heck, they could run it off some forked Vita OS, making it compatible with most Vita games, too. And if they were really ambitious, it could run PlayStation Now and even PS4 remote play. It's brilliant...

 

[LambdaTeos]

Mine is accumulating dust...
Mm.. maybe I should sell it and recover what I spent on it...

 

[Beer Monkey]

Just bought a controller for $39.99 (I never wanted the system, I have an Analogue NT Mini). Sigh. I'm guessing they'll be even more someday.

 

[dickroach]

Fucking hell. The thing wasn't even out for a year.

I can understand halting production to make improvements, but full cancelation?

I swear, it feels like Nintendo hates money sometimes.

they hate consumers. they know how to make money


30 games on the NES Classic - a profit of a couple dollars
30 games on the VC - a profit of a couple of hundred dollars

 

[Nosgotham]

Congrats on your new car.

I don't have a new car. It's from 1999. But it's paid off so that nice. I actually have no intention of selling any.i bought 3.

I gave one as a gift to a friend for his birthday.

I opened one to play.

I'm keeping one for my sealed collection as I am a collector.

 

[bananafactory]

Huh? The NES classic sold consistently. I think it sold well over 1.5 million by this point.

These people got one by being in the right place at the right time, or sitting at their computer hitting F5

They've never been in stock online for more than 5 minutes at a time, often weeks or months between restocks.

I don't know a single person who was able to buy one in a store.

You're kidding yourself if you think anyone other than the extremely lucky just went to Walmart and bought a NES Classic. I'd wager a good amount of that 1.5 were sold to scalpers

 

[Fury451]

This is pretty scummy that they create these scenarios to keep the value high.

Like Disney with the "movie vault", except horrible.

Still don't believe in artificial scarcity?

It's true. It's damn true. But here, they can fall back on it being a "limited run collector's product" basically, so it's not quite the same.

 

[Yukinari]

So i guess the hundreds of NES Classics on Ebay will forever be unopened.

 

[Mushroomer25]

Wow. Just wow. Fuck you NOA.

I was in no rush to get this, I didnt go nuts hunting one down. Figured I'd wait until stock was there and just pick one up for msrp.

I am super dissappointed and kinda mad too.

I wonder how much the ease of hacking played into the decision.

A lot, I'd imagine. Remember, Nintendo is vigilant at trying to stop hacks on their systems in any way possible. The NES Classic ended up being fairly easy to hack, and they have no way to stop it (unless they fully redesign the system). Putting out more units only makes it easier for more people to access ROMs that Nintendo would much rather keep exclusive to their new, very important Switch ecosystem.

 

[Principate]

Still don't believe in artificial scarcity?

Technically this has nothing to do with artificial scarcity it's a limited run product that they didn't want to continue producing stock for. There's no payoff to this unlike the concept of artificial scarcity.

 

[Diablohead]

upsetting, they are popular and nintendo just feels like stopping production?

 

[OrbitalBeard]

This is a perfect time for Sony to strike. Imagine if they released an inexpensive, tiny console capable of playing classic PlayStation games on modern TVs. Heck, they could run it off some forked Vita OS, making it compatible with most Vita games, too. And if they were really ambitious, it could run PlayStation Now and even PS4 remote play. It's brilliant...

The type of consumer who still wants an NES Classic doesn't give a shit about anything you've listed. No one wants a PS TV.

 

[ViolentP]

Despite that people still wanted to buy one. The demand was high regardless of better options out there like the Pi.

Nintendo has an obligation to protect it's properties, however. If the public were allowed free reign with them, they run the risk of having their values diminished. That is of greater value than the money made on these.