I think it makes sense.

Most folks I know who were interested in Nov/Dec just don't care now. I really don't see them selling millions at this point, even though they could have in Nov/Dec.

Now its also a risk to devalue their VC business which will surely be defined by E3 for Switch.

the Japanese top execs at the big N are kind of oblivious at times of how popular the retro gaming scene is, that's true. They did wayyyy understock the Classic last holiday. but there was no way they were going to bother manufacturing it longterm when an NES classic takes up a decent amount of shelf space at the same pricy as a tiny software case would ($60)

it is interesting though that some people claimed Nintendo was understocking to build demand- that obviously isn't the case now that they're discontinuing. They just seem unaware of how much people like retro PHYSICAL related game stuff. A cute mini NES is a universally popular type of thing 

but 30 games for 60$ is cheaper than they would be on the Virtual Console, and involves manufacturing. I don't like it but I grasp why Nintendo doesn't see incentive in continuing the system 

Shit that infuriates me, been waiting all this time for supply to start finally catching up with demand.

I refuse to give those scalping assholes any money, so I guess I just won't be getting this. Fuck I hate Nintendo sometimes lol

I bet that the same architecture setup will be on the Switch VC. 4 save states, pixel perfect mode, crt mode. Would make more sense to buy the games you want even at $5 apiece on VC than pay $60 for for a bunch you won't ever play more than once. I understand that many of us have already purchased these games for many other devices, but the genius of the Switch will make us dip again.

"We have paid close attention to consumer feedback, and we greatly appreciate the incredible level of consumer interest and support for the product"

...but they're discontinuing it. What? That makes zero sense. Really missed opportunity to make a profit and many happy consumers.

Wtf Nintendo. Do they enjoy doing things the hard way?!?

Its not important product for Nintendo, its mostly used like marketing tool, they were giving 30 NES Mini games and hardware for $60, while they charging $5 for one NES game.

Nintendo should totally offer all 30 games on the NES Classic model available on Switch eShop day 1 when they start offering their online service, lol.

They ain't even worth $5

This is such a stupid business decision. Japanese businessmen just refusing to change their plans I guess?!?! First off I had never heard anywhere that this was just going to be a limited run, maybe they did say that when it launched but it seems most people were not aware of this. Even so, they obviously just thought it'd be a interesting little holiday pickup and not have huge interest, seeing as how the supply massively underestimated the demand. So Nintendo's answer to expecting to make a product with limited holiday interest and nothing else and ending up with a product with massive ongoing demand is to shut down production and refuse to make money??!!!

I get that they want to sell VC titles, but its not like everyone who buys a NES Classic is gonna go out and buy a Switch! So that argument makes no sense from a business perspective. The reason the NES Classic has such crazy demand is partially because its an actual physical mini NES so you feel like you're playing the original NES, and also because it costs $2 per game. If they had sold it for $150 ($5/game like VC) the demand would have been much much lower, as most people have no interest in paying those types of prices from scalpers now.

And many of the people who would pick up both a Classic and the Switch are probably the type of people who will by their favorite NES games on the Switch as well in order to play them on the go, so the loss in money from overlap in these two products is likely very low, while the direct loss in profits from discontinuing the Classic is likely hundred of millions of dollars. It's not gonna make or break the company, but why throw away profits AND piss off customers just because they made a product that was way more popular than they thought it would be. That'd not when you discontinue something, that's when you ramp up production and rake in the money!

The only possible reason that would make any sense would be that they don't physically have enough money to manufacture both the Classic and the Switch (and 3ds) at the same time, but to me that just seems unlikely. And if that were the case why would they not say hey we are temporarily stopping production in order to focus on the Switch but we'll bring back this super hot product by say next holidays to satisfy are consumer base.

I mean they could make gobs of money selling millions and millions of NES, SNES, and N64 classics each. Then more money for selling additional controllers especially for 4 player N64.

Nintendo hates money. The dumbest business decision I've heard of by any company in quite some time.