Now this is a highly shocking piece of news -- Nintendo has just announced that their highly sought after NES Classic Edition will be discontinued. The long and short of it all is this: Nintendo is experiencing plenty of supply issues with the NES Classic Edition, which explains the extremely limited availability in the market which had driven the price of this 8-bit gaming machine to triple the recommended asking price among some third party sellers.
For those who would still like to wrap their fingers around the NES Classic Edition, you might even consider being best friends with your local retailers that carry it as the last batch of shipments for this particular console is set to be released some time later this month. Once that is done, it will all be over, and the only NES Classic Editions left that you will be able to find would be on the third party and reseller markets. You can be sure that the price of this 8-bit machine is probably going to shoot through the roof then as nostalgia, coupled with extraordinarily high demand, work their magic in the world of capitalism and free markets.
According to a Nintendo representative who issued a statement to IGN, “Throughout April, NOA 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. 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. NES Classic Edition wasn’t intended to be an ongoing, long-term product. However, due to high demand, we did add extra shipments to our original plans.”
It looks like there will be no more NES Classic Editions that will be produced for North America. Those who would like to ride on the wave of nostalgia, it is back to the drawing board. Either obtain a working NES from the 1980s, or to enjoy the titles on a Virtual Console from Nintendo. Assuming the discontinuation of the NES Classic Edition in the US is true, then it would be a truly short lived project, having first launched on November 10, 2016 with 30 retro games thrown into the mix.
I for one would like to believe that Nintendo is performing a brilliant yet risky market move on the masses by taking advantage of brand loyalty among their customer base. This announcement will not be a permanent one, but rather, a temporary one to create further frenzy and market demand. Once they have sorted out supply and production issues in the back line, and are sure that they can meet the insane demand, will they issue a relaunch of the NES Classic Edition which would definitely see a second wave of explosive sales. After all, why would they discontinue a product that has such high demand? It does not make too much sense at all. What do you think of this particular theory?
