Nintendo, which has gotten as skilled at generating artificial scarcity as it has at designing platformers, will soon be ceasing production of the NES and SNES Classics, if it hasn’t already.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told The Hollywood Reporter as much in an interview this week:
We worked very hard, both for the NES Classic and the SNES Classic, to really have the best games that defined that generation. We’ve said that the current systems are the extent of our classic program. We’ve also been clear that, at least from an Americas perspective, these products are going to be available through the holiday season and once they sell out, they’re gone. And that’s it. The way that consumers will be able to continue participating with our classic content is going to be through Nintendo Switch Online, and we just released three new games (Ninja Gaiden, Wario’s Woods and Adventures of Lolo) from the NES generation onto that platform. We look at that as the main way that consumers will be able to experience that legacy content.
That reasoning makes some sense for the $60 NES Classic, but since Nintendo Switch Online currently has exactly zero SNES games available, it’s a bitter pill to swallow for anyone who enjoys those (far superior) 16 bit classics.
So! If you’ve been procrastinating on buying one of the classic consoles (which have actually been pretty easy to get for awhile now), the clock’s officially ticking. The $60 NES Classic (Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, GameStop) and $80 SNES Classic (Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, GameStop) are both still in stock, but that’s not likely to be the case for long, at least until they inevitably re-release them alongside the N64 Classic (please, please, please) in a year or so.
h/t Polygon