In an interview, Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, explains why the NES Classic was discontinued. It’s a very unfortunate situation.
If you didn’t get your hands on an NES Classic by now, well you’re out of luck. Earlier this month, Nintendo announced that they would cease production on the retro mini console. After months of many people trying to purchase one, the company decided that they had to shift their focus elsewhere. Well, at least that’s what Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, had to say on the matter. TIME has the scoop.
You can check out his statement below, explaining how surprised Nintendo was with its success and what they tried to do in order to meet its demand:
"We had originally planned for this to be a product for last holiday. We just didn’t anticipate how incredible the response would be. Once we saw that response, we added shipments and extended the product for as long as we could to meet more of that consumer demand."
As you can see, their efforts didn’t really work. However, this seemed to be the plan for the company all along. Despite the surprising amount of shortages for the NES Classic, it was a minor success, selling 2.3 million units. Another statement explains why Nintendo ultimately decided to discontinue the console. He even apologizes to the fans, which only softens the wounds a tad:
"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."
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Like we said, this is an extremely unfortunate situation. But, at the same time, we understand their decision. Now, we just hope that they use this as a lesson for the future. They can now focus on the Nintendo Switch and they could continue to make it even more successful.
If they do make a SNES Classic, however, then they need more in stock, plain and simple. The next time around, they shouldn’t have an excuse.