Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has some advice for fans preparing to pay outrageous amounts for the SNES Classic Edition. Relax and don’t pay more than the $79.99 list price. Speaking to the Financial Times, Reggie Fils-Aime said the company has “dramatically increased” production and that despite issues with pre-orders at retailers, there should be no shortage of stock.
I’d give this more credence if I had seen a Switch on a retailer’s shelf more than one time in the last six months. The perception of scarcity is obviously part of Nintendo’s business planning.
Obviously! Nothing to do with the complexities of production chains for advanced electronic devices… or the mismanagement thereof. :)
I’d imagine making a Switch is a significantly more complicated endeavour than making a SNES Mini. In fact in the very same FT interview where Reggie says there’s no supply issues with SNES Mini, he also says there may be a Switch shortage this Christmas! Shocking news I know… ;)
FT says that many analysts in Japan believe Alps Electric, which makes the motors for the vibrating Joy-Cons may be causing a bottleneck, but others think it’s parts Nintendo is making themselves instead.
Regarding shortages of the NES Classic Edition last year, Reggie explained that Nintendo wasn’t intentionally making the hardware scarce as a means of stirring interest. Rather, production volumes were based on the historically low sales of other retro-gaming devices from other manufacturers.
Wherever there’s more than a small group of core people working together, some level of incompetence is almost guaranteed. Doubly so when there’s interaction between multiple disparate groups.
I don’t see why anyone should get offended by facts of life. :)
SNES / Genesis titles were the dividing line between ancien régime and modern gaming, imo. Even with all the fond memories of Master System / NES games, they just don’t hold up well. SNES had some of the founding franchises of modern gaming like the early Final Fantasies or ROTK, while Genesis had Sonic and Ecco and games. If i picked up a ColecoVision emulator i’d get bored in 10 minutes but you can still play some of the better SNES games, and the move to pixel art and chiptunes in indie gaming make what is old, young again and probably SNES era games as relevant as they’ll ever be.
I feel much the same way. I have a Raspberry Pi hooked up to my 27" CRT TV and many games from the 16 bit era still look and play beautifully, and I don’t mean that in a “for its time” kind of way. I do have a NES emulator as well mostly because it’s the best way to play Super Mario Brothers 1 and 3, but there aren’t many other 8 bit games I fire up routinely.
The SNES and Genesis I find hold up better than the PSX and N64 in many ways, simply because those systems are from the unfortunate era where everything had to be 3D, even though the hardware wasn’t well equipped to do nice looking 3D.
Ok, so now Nintendo will apparently un-cancel and ship more NES Classics next year!
Nintendo Increases Inventory of Super NES Classic Edition; NES Classic Edition Returns to Stores in 2018
Next summer, Nintendo will also bring back the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition system with new shipments. More information about the timing of the return of NES Classic Edition will be announced in the future.
NES Classic Edition features 30 classic NES games such as the original Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong. For more information about NES Classic Edition, visit http://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic/.
I read a rumor that Best Buy is getting 30 SNESes per store, and WalMart is getting 30-60 units depending on the population density of the area. That’s a lot, I think we might get one.
I plan on camping Toys R Us because I like them over there. The store manager there helped me get a rare toy last Christmas for my son so I didn’t have to buy it from an eBay scalper at 300% markup.
It sounds like we’ll be able to get them even if you’re not in the first shipment. SNES Classics being produced into 2018 makes it a pretty solid bet you’ll find one. I think the $80 price is enough to discourage some people, too.
Exactly. The peak before the start of the 3d modern era. The SNES games hold up better than pretty much everything on the N64. For all the nostalgic feelings I might have for Goldeneye or Perfect Dark, they just look like crappy shooters now.
