When Nintendo first unveiled their plug-and-play console, the NES Classic Edition, they likely didn’t realize just how massive of a success the device would grow to be. The console quickly sold out everywhere and while gamers hunted for a unit in the wild, Nintendo failed to meet the demand with the lack of units available per shipment.
For those who may not be aware of the console, the NES Classic Edition was a miniature size Nintendo Entertainment System, which was half the size of an NES cartridge. While the console was unable to actually play physical cartridge video games, Nintendo did pre-load thirty video game titles that they felt were classic hits.
As mentioned, the console was a massive success with gamers everywhere having trouble finding a unit out in the wild. Selling over two million units, the company ultimately cancelled production during the height of its success leaving an enormous amount of gamers left without a unit.
This has left plenty of gamers baffled and recently Nintendo of America’s President, Reggie Fils-Aime, spoke up about the situation with Time. It’s here that Reggie stated that Nintendo honestly had no idea just how much of a demand they would receive for the NES Classic Edition.
“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.”
“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.”
Ultimately, the console production had to be killed off as Nintendo felt they needed the resources in other projects within the company rather than continuing to produce more units of the NES Classic Edition. Do you feel that Nintendo made the right decision or should have that kept up production of the NES Classic Edition? Let us know by leaving a comment down below.
