Unsurprisingly, SNES Classics Won’t Be Any Easier to Find

The limited pre-orders for the console are already gone and Nintendo is facing a lot of back lash, as if they care.

I write about video game stuff so I have a few notification systems running to help me stay on top of the industry. This week is Gamescom so my email and twitter feed have been particularly busy but when I got up this morning one tweet really stood out. It was Nintendos’s new super retro trailer for the Super Nintendo Classic, well not so much the trailer as the over 900 comments, almost exclusively negative. Fans enraged by yet another Nintendo supply shortage (as if they didn’t see it coming).

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OK Nintendo, let’s rewind to the 2016 Holiday season. The first of these retro systems, The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES if you prefer, had been brought back to life. Fans were excited to play the original Castlevania, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Metroid, The Legend of Zelda and more. Alas, it was not meant to be for many. The system sold out immediately and continued to be in short supply for months. The manager at my EB Games told me they only received a handful in the following months despite receiving calls about it EVERYDAY.

This is why it was a surprise and a disappointment to find out that Nintendo would stop production of the $60 system just six months after its release. It didn’t make any sense, there was clearly a demand, why not sell them? The answer it seemed was to make way for Nintendo’s next retro console the Super Nintendo. The SNES Classic will be “available” this November, but if you don’t already have a pre-order you probably won’t be getting one.

At this point you may be asking, “Wait, when could I pre-order it?!”. Yes, pre-orders went live online in the dead of night early Tuesday morning. That did not stop them from selling out with minutes though and selling out didn’t stop Nintendo from posting their new trailer first thing in the morning, almost as if to taunt their own customers. A day later and the tweet has racked up hundreds of negative comments. About what?

Well, there are ones like these confused and disappointed.

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Or like these who were downright angry,

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Those growing jaded about the industry,

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Of course, there are plenty of people who just find it funny in that so ridiculous you can’t help but laugh.

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Nintendo said earlier this year that they would be shipping “significantly more units” of the SNES Classic yet they appear to be coming up short on yet another console and it almost seems intentional. Nowhere near enough NES units were shipped and the Switch has been in almost as short supply since its launch. They know there is a demand and seem unwilling to try and meet it.

The demand for the SNES is likely going to be even greater given it is the only place you will be able to play the as yet unreleased Starfox 2. If it is part of a strategy to preserve or increase their brand value they are making a mistake.

This kind of shortage hurts fans and only fuels a pricey aftermarket where scalpers sell the systems for significantly more than their recommended MSRP. Rumors are circulating about resellers picking up 30 units during the pre-order window. Whether or not it is true, rumors like that and many $250 SNES listings already on eBay are whipping fans into a frenzy. People are furious with Nintendo, and yes there are still fans willing to fight to get their hands on Nintendo’s consoles, but there are also plenty of fans who are done.

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At this point, Nintendo is just trolling their fans or is lazy, either way, it is damaging their relationship with fans. None of it matters though because Nintendo doesn’t seem to care. They do the same thing console after console not flinching at a single negative article or even 900+ negative comments. You can tweet them until you’re blue in the face but Nintendo doesn’t care you or the 900 other people in the comments didn’t get a SNES pre-order.

Whatever Nintendo’s problem is it doesn’t look like they are changing anytime soon so maybe we should all take a page out of this guy’s book:

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How’s your relationship with Nintendo faring of late? Let us know in our discussions and join us on Discord, on our Facebook, or Twitter! or let Nintendo know with the now trending #HeyNintendo.

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