Nintendo Talks NES Classic Edition Discontinuation As Sales Surpass 2 Million

"We've got a lot going on right now and we don't have unlimited resources."

With the system now discontinued, Nintendo has revealed that it has shipped 2.3 million NES Classic Editions around the world since its launch last November.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime shared the figure with Time (and Nintendo subsequently confirmed it with GameSpot). This is a sell-in figure, which accounts for the number of units shipped to retailers, as opposed to sell-through numbers that only track units actually purchased by consumers. That said, given the incredible popularity of the system, there's likely little distinction between the two in this case.

This figure is up from the 1.5 million that Nintendo announced at the beginning of February. Since then, demand has remained unsatisfied. And that's not about to change, as the company announced earlier this month that it was discontinuing the system worldwide. It provided no reasoning for the move at the time, but Fils-Aime offered some insight to Time.

Regarding the supply issues, he said the Classic Edition was only intended as "a product for last holiday," noting that Nintendo "added shipments and extended the product for as long as we could to meet more of that consumer demand."

He also cited logistics as a factor in the decision to move on from the system, saying, "Even with that extraordinary level of performance, we understand that people are frustrated about not being able to find the system, and for that we really do apologize. But from our perspective, it's important to recognize where our future is and the key areas that we need to drive. We've got a lot going on right now and we don't have unlimited resources."

It's an element of the business that often goes unconsidered by fans, as it's both unsexy and something that's typically unseen by the public. And Nintendo does have a lot going on: It has to deal with Switch supply issues, the upcoming New 2DS XL, and--reportedly--the SNES Classic Edition, among other things.

That said, fans remain understandably frustrated by how the entire situation has been handled--particularly as scalpers make huge profits by scooping up Classic Editions and reselling them through places like eBay. This frustration has only been exacerbated by the lack of clear communication from Nintendo, which did not initially say that the Classic Edition was intended as such a limited-time product. In February, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima said the long wait to replenish stock was partially due to the fact that "some parts require time to procure." He added that Nintendo was "working to increase production" to meet demand.

When asked by Time if the NES Classic Edition could return in the future, Fils-Aime had nothing to reveal.

The Switch, meanwhile, remains out of stock at most retailers almost two months after its launch. GameStop has suggested supply issues for the console could last for the entire year.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-talks-nes-classic-edition-discontinuation/1100-6449668/

Crazy sales. I wanted one but...doesn't seem possible at this rate. There's a classmate that wants to sell me one for 200 bucks, but ain't no money for that.

"We also want to sell it for more come next holiday season. Please understand."

Pretty much in line with exactly what I've been saying except for the fact that they have are phasing it out faster than I anticipated.

I believe it if the SNES Mini doesn't become a reality.

I get the feeling they'll revise it at some point anyway. Add Duck Hunt, original cart and a basic online service and this thing will be just as big as it was before.

But giving up on this in favor of the New 2DS XL? lol ok.

Basically Nintendo has no idea what they are doing when it comes to meeting demand for their products. Less than a decade ago they were shipping over 50 million Wii + DSs a year for a couple years. Now they don't have the resources to make let's say 10 million more extremely simple products of NES Classic while only needing lets say 10 million 2ds/3ds systems a year (assuming the new 2ds gives that brand line a sales boost - last year they sold what 7 million only?) and 15 or so million Switch's? Come on Nintendo. And having to get the SNES classic ready if they are indeed doing that doesn't make sense as a reason to switch gears from the NES classic because they could have just kept selling the NES classic to the huge demand for the rest of this year and then replaced it next year with a SNES classic.

Just really terrible management all around between the massive supply shortages of both the Switch and NES Classic.

Crazy sales for such a thing. They're stupid to not keep this going for at least a year until a hypothetical SNES Classic comes out with these kind of sales.

"We've got a lot going on right now and we don't have to keep making money"

I think there are two things we can derive from Reggie's statements

1. The system was only intended for the 2016 Holiday (where Nintendo has basically nothing)
2. The reason for the cancellation is to make way for Switch productions (i.e. Priorities).