Deep breaths, deep breaths. It’s not like Nintendo invented a genius product out of nowhere, massively underestimated sales encouraging a rampant black market, then decided to kill said popular product, just as supply was starting to hit stores again.
Oh wait — this is Nintendo we’re talking about here, so obviously a successful, well-received product that makes children happy can’t be allowed to continue, so the NES Classic Edition is being discontinued.
Nintendo confirmed that the NES Classic Edition is being discontinued in 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.
To paraphrase: we’ve noted that people like this product, it’s been difficult to find in stores, there’s still a high level of demand for it, but we’re going to stop producing anyway, because we hate money and happy customers.
Presumably, this announcement is going to cause more stock shortages at retail outlets, and another wave of obscenely-priced resales on the second-hand market. Long story short, Amazon is pretty much your only choice if you want an NES Classic Edition console before prices go through the roof.
