Nintendo stops making NES Classic and the Switch is to blame

Were you excited to get your hands-on videogame giant Nintendo’s NES Classic? Well so was I. But it would appear that we are all out of luck.

During November, when Nintendo’s NES Classic was first being released I woke up early and drove 45 minutes into town, only to be disappointed when we got to BestBuy and found out that they had only received 12 units and all were spoken for.

Around North America it also seemed to be the same thing, they sold out instantly and were in short supply and of course were being re-sold for over $1000 on eBay and Amazon, that’s over 12x its $80 price tag. Since then most people have had zero luck trying to get their hands on this system, and Nintendo has decided to kick us all in the ribs by announcing that the NES Classic is being discontinued.

“Throughout April, [Nintendo of America] territories will receive the last shipments of Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition systems for this year. We encourage anyone interested in obtaining this system to check with retail outlets regarding availability.” Nintendo officials said to IGN.

There’s been some speculation as to why Nintendo has decided to do, Business Insider speculated that the NES Classic was Nintendo’s best way to regain a lot of lost attention with nostalgia. Its recent consoles were failing, such as the Wii U, and the switch was still a few months away but nobody was thinking about Nintendo anymore. So, if that was their game plan with the NES Classic it certainly appeared to work.

“We understand that it has been difficult for many consumers to find a system, and for that, we apologize. We have paid close attention to consumer feedback, and we greatly appreciate the incredible level of consumer interest and support for this product.” Nintendo’s statement to IGN continued.

But another idea, which makes a lot of sense as well, is that Nintendo is going to discontinue the NES Classic while most consumers still do not have one, so that they can re-release all the old classic NES games on its newest system, the Switch. Why sell $80 NES Classics that have 30 classic games included, when you can sell $400 Switches instead and make people buy every game separately?

Several Reddit users appeared to agree with me as well. But we are still going to have to wait a bit to see if this prediction comes true.

“I bet they are going to allow you to buy the games for the switch and don’t want to compete with themselves,” says Reddit user Sylanthra.

Others were certainly not happy about this decision.

“I grew up with Nintendo. I’m 33 years old, and had a Nintendo console in my house growing up. It’s what made me love gaming, and I will never forget what it did to my love for the medium. But Nintendo can only hold their product for ransom for so long before we say enough is enough, and take the company out behind the shed” Angry Reddit user DeweyCox4YourHealth said.

Smart PR move or greedy business plan, nobody knows for sure what Nintendo was thinking. One thing is for sure though, prices of NES Classics are going to skyrocket on the second-hand market.

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