Did you spend hours over Christmas crawling the web, searching for a NES Classic Edition? Well, that search is about to get that bit more difficult as Nintendo announce they are discontinuing the tiny, plug-and-play retro console.
Nintendo says the last shipments to North American territories will arrive in April. They advise checking with your local retailer for availability. However, you might have a better chance of finding a unit online.
Why Is It Going?
The sudden demise of the NES Classic Edition is a surprise. Its phenomenal popularity at the time of release pointed to a retro-cash-cow for Nintendo. It was essentially sold out everywhere. However, according to a statement given to IGN, the "NES Classic Edition wasn't intended to be an ongoing, long-term product." Nintendo added that the extra 196,000 units shipped in 2016 already extended the product way beyond its initial lifespan.
The announcement also confirmed that the NES Classic Controller would also be discontinued. However, decisions relating to third-party accessories remain with individual manufacturers.
Nintendo of America refused to confirm whether this decision means the discontinuation of the NES Classic for worldwide markets, leading some to question why the North American market was first to lose retail access to the console.
What Do I Do?
The teardowns of the NES Classic Edition didn’t find any particularly rare proprietary chips that would suddenly cause a production issue. Nor has demand suddenly dropped. In fact, the very opposite is the case: chronic supply issues have often made the retro console incredibly difficult to buy.
You can do a few things. As Nintendo suggest, contact your local retailer and ask -- nay, beg -- them to reserve you a copy. Alternatively, head straight to the internet and track a unit down now. Once the supply completely ends, I'm sure eBay prices will rocket.
Did you grab a NES Classic Edition in the early days? How much would you sell it for? Are Nintendo gearing up for another product? Are we set to see a SNES Classic Edition before the end of the year? Let us know your thoughts below!
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