Nintendo discontinuing the NES Classic

[Storm Eagle]

Originally Posted by Netkeeper

Hey, everything has to be discontinued eventually, let's not consider it impossible.

They discontinued it five months after its release though. Even Virtual Boy was around longer.

[sdp]

A public company doesn't just discontinue a product that not only is still selling but it hasn't even been able to meet demand yet. There has to be a reason like the ones I mentioned but no, this isn't a comic book limited edition thing, if something sells you don't just stop producing it. Nintendo makes really odd decisions but it's not because they're evil, they're just stupid at how the market works, they're a very Japanese company that does things their own way and doesn't really care for trends or what's happening outside their company culture. I'm guessing the reason for discontinuing it is something really stupid but to them it makes sense.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

It should be with all NES-games ever relased officially in English (maybe it wout require Internet connection, but still).

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Not surprising at all. It wasn't selling. It's hard to imagine anyone other than hipsters wanting that full retro experience coveting a 32 year-old video game system.

Originally Posted by Storm Eagle

They discontinued it five months after its release though. Even Virtual Boy was around longer.

That was Nintendo's initial assumption and thus the justification for the low-production run. They targeted it towards 30-40-year-olds who wanted a cheap retro thrill, but the mass-market demand surprised them and probably scared their higher-ups that it would undermine the long-term success of their primary hardware and Virtual Console strategy.

[Tyma]

Originally Posted by sdp

Already pointed out but you couldn't be more wrong Andrew, this was one of the holiday gifts last christmas and it's still near impossible to get.

It makes no sense why Nintendo would discontinue it but the my top 4 theories are:

1-Nintendo doesn't want the NES Mini to distract people from getting a switch
2-Nintendo is only discontinuing it for now and will launch it again soon and with new games (the wording makes this likely)
3-Nintendo didn't like that it was hacked and people could inject roms
4-Nintendo gotta Nintendo

Great post!

1 - I think in the grand scheme of things, the NES Classic is a loss-leader, and Nintendo's ultimate goal may have been to raise interest and add value to their back-catalogue. They've almost certainly done that, and even though it doesn't make business sense to continue making them, it was a nice gesture to release two more production waves, to try and help out people who feel they might be at the mercy of re-sellers.

2 - Ben Heck recently did a tear-down on the NES Classic, and found a lot of clues that hint to the idea that the circuit board of the system is designed to be somewhat modular, and can easily be re-housed as a 'SNES Classic', 'N64 Classic' or 'Gameboy Advance Classic', without having to make any chances at all to the hardware - you could just put the circuit board into a SNES-shaped box, re-flash the Kernal with some SNES games, and it would be good to go.

It also licenses games from Konami and Tecmo, who are both big believers in rinsing as much money as possible from their legacy titles. Nintendo may have their hands tied by the wording of their licensing contracts, and could potentially produce a second NES Classic for christmas, with different Nintendo titles replacing the licensed titles. As Ben Heck found out, it would be a simple case of re-flashing the Kernals, and shipping them out to stores.

3 - I don't know how Nintendo could possibly combat this with a re-release, but if Point 1 holds true, and Nintendo consider their Switch Virtual Console to be a big deal, then the NES Classic actually prevents them with a problem - it's currently the cheapest way to get an 'All In One' emulation box that just hooks upto a HDMI TV, and plays NES, SNES and N64 ROMs, with authentic Nintendo controllers (produced almost a decade ago, for the Wii Virtual Console).

4 - Nintendo traditionally go out of their way to create a market scarcity (Wii, Amiibo, Zelda 3DS), raise brand awareness, and then flood the market with the product that they've created a demand for. I don't actually think this is the case, but we can only hope?

[ProactiveMan]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Your tv didn't have the colored AV ports?

You'd be surprised how many don't. It's going to get worse too - As DVD fades away, so will RCA video.

You can get HDMI converters though, so you should be able to hook up an NES one way or another. I hook up my SNES through an HDMI upscaler and it looks pretty good. It's a PAL SNES, so I can get RGB out over scart.

[Cure]

Yeah, my TV only has HDMI. Future proof.

[oldmanwinters]

SNES Classic rumored to be on the way!

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

SNES Classic rumored to be on the way!

I saw that today!

Put me down for 1... time to show my wife and kids some Old School Mario.

[Storm Eagle]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

SNES Classic rumored to be on the way!

I'll most likely be interested in that. I just hope there wouldn't be a shortage of them for when people reserve. They did a good job with the Switch. Also, for Pete's sake, make the controller cords longer, dammit.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Turtles in Time should be at the SNES Classic.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Storm Eagle

I'll most likely be interested in that. I just hope there wouldn't be a shortage of them for when people reserve. They did a good job with the Switch. Also, for Pete's sake, make the controller cords longer, dammit.

Haha, yeah, I heard those NES classic cords were like 3-feet long or something crazy like that.

[Netkeeper]

They don't even need cords, there's few excuses for them to not be wireless tbh

[ProactiveMan]

Originally Posted by Netkeeper

They don't even need cords, there's few excuses for them to not be wireless tbh

They'd have to jack up the price. Bluetooth ain't free ya know. Plus then you've got to keep the controllers charged and you're on the friggin' merry go round.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy

I saw that today!

Put me down for 1... time to show my wife and kids some Old School Mario.

You can do that now. On your computer.

[DestronMirage22]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

You can do that now. On your computer.

Or even on your phone.

[Netkeeper]

Originally Posted by ProactiveMan

They'd have to jack up the price. Bluetooth ain't free ya know. Plus then you've got to keep the controllers charged and you're on the friggin' merry go round.

It isn't expensive either. It'd make the price go up a little bit. No big deal.

[ProactiveMan]

I dunno, it seems like I have to recharge everything nowadays. It's kind'a nice to jack something in and not have to worry about it.

[Netkeeper]

Vastly preferred to having to untangle a wire every time you want to use something, in my view.

[chrisdude]

I think it all plays into what they were saying. That this was a nostalgia product, not something for "gamers." So they would opt for authenticity over functionality. They probably thought for 40-something non-gamers, charging the controller would feel wrong.