Will you actually be able to buy a Super NES Classic?

Like the Magic 8-Ball is fond of saying, “signs point to no.”

Just like the NES Classic, the Super NES Classic seems too good to be true, and it’s likely to be just as hard to get one.

Yes, plenty of people did actually get their hands on the NES Classic last year, plenty of them paying the suggested retail price. Many others did not, or they sucked it up and paid ridiculous mark-up prices to resellers.

Nintendo seemed strangely caught off-guard by the idea that a $60 product that played a bunch of games people remember fondly on modern TVs would be popular. And then after the company sold all it made, it shrugged its shoulders and said the NES Classic would cease production as planned instead of making more.

In other words, it’s more or less Nintendo doing Nintendo. Its ways are mysterious and don’t seem to follow the commonly held truths about creating supply to meet demand, but you have to give the company high marks for consistency.

Now here we are again, in the wake of the expected but still cool announcement of the Super NES Classic (or SNES Classic, if you prefer). For just $80, you get 21 games, including Star Fox 2, which you never even got to play on your Super NES back in the day. And while Nintendo is saying the right things about making more of this follow-up, it still insists when 2017 is over, that’s it.

If you know anything about human nature, you know that’s only going to create more of a frenzy for the SNES Classic’s release. Some retailers are offering pre-orders, but actually landing one is going to be a matter of being online at the right time and then still getting lucky on top of that. Major retailers like Toys ‘R’ Us and Target haven’t revealed how they are going to handle the Super NES Classic, probably because they haven’t figured it out yet.

Meanwhile, Gizmodo has declared that the Super NES Classic won’t be worth the effort — or the price, figuring that some people are going to pay as much or more than they would for a Nintendo Switch (which also has supply problems at the retail level, because Nintendo). That’s insane.

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So yes, the Super NES Classic is really cool. But no, it isn’t going to be easy, and in some cases even possible, for you to buy one this fall for $80. That’s just the way it is.