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Is Nintendo going to make a SNES Classic Edition?

Published Dec 27th, 2016 3:13PM EST
SNES Classic Edition

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The NES Classic Edition is still riding a wave of popularity (and it’s still out of stock!), but Nintendo might be preparing for another round of nostalgia. A Twitter account that keeps an eye on trademark filings has caught Nintendo trademarking an image of a Super Nintendo controller.

This could be nothing, or it could be the first glimpse of next Christmas’s must-have console.

A SNES Classic Edition would make all kinds of sense for Nintendo. Hardware-wise, the current NES Classic Edition is just a basic board inside retro packaging with a bunch of pre-loaded games. To turn that into a SNES Classic Edition would mostly just require writing different emulator software, and pre-loading different games.

Oh, and a different controller — which might be what you’re seeing here.

I don’t really have to answer “why would Nintendo want to re-release another retro game console.” The NES Classic Edition has been sold out since its launch, and Nintendo would have to be run by a deaf bat to not see the opportunities here. The Classic Edition is meant to retail at $60, but consoles are going on eBay for upwards of $300. Releasing the SNES Classic Edition would give people another console to covet, but also allow Nintendo to sneak the price up a little if it wanted.

In any case, this is just idle speculation for now, and could be nothing more than Nintendo moving to protect its intellectual property from knockoffs. But I find myself hoping — along with the purchasing managers for GameStop — that it’s something more.

Chris Mills
Chris Mills News Editor

Chris Mills has been a news editor and writer for over 15 years, starting at Future Publishing, Gawker Media, and then BGR. He studied at McGill University in Quebec, Canada.