Topic: Why isn’t Nintendo making more Classic Edition consoles

The NES and Super NES Classic Edition sold really well. Why did Nintendo stop making additional mini consoles like the N64 or Gamecube CE? Doug Bowser said to look into Nintendo Switch Online for retro games but N64 and GC games are not on there. Is there some kind of technical hurdles in developing N64 and GC mini consoles?

NES and SNES mini had basically the same hardware. They just changed the shell and the controllers. They couldn't use the same hardware for a N64 or Gamecube mini. The N64 emulation is a mess, the N64 controller is a mess (the dpad is almost never used in all the big N64 games and it has a slot for memory card and rumble pack that would be pointless now) and good luck making a hardware that could emulate the gamecube in a $100 price range (including 2 gamecube controllers). I think the main appeal of the mini consoles was the cheap price (it provided 2 official controllers) and the easiness to hack them and add more games. I don't think they could do that anymore. Maybe a gameboy mini but I doubt it will happen. Handheld hardware cost more to make and are less profitable than non handheld hardware.

Possibly because there wasn't a guaranteed hit normal system between the NES Mini's creation and the SNES Mini's creation. 3DS was starting to lose ground due to its age and Wii U was a commercial failure from the start. After holiday 2017 it became extremely clear that the Switch was a massive hit and so drip feeding retro games through NSO became their strategy.

@Don
I prefer actual machine to play specific games i want rather than Mini machine with pre-installed games inside that you cannot choose.

I feel as though that they probably just want to focus on Switch and its hardware variants. They also probably realized that they created a surge of interest retro mini consoles and then they might have to compete with the likes of SEGA and Sony if they were to create N64 and G.C. minis.

They would undoubtedly dominate but, for Nintendo, it was mostly a one-off thing that they extended due to the unexpected success.

The N64 and GameCube weren't as successful as the NES and SNES, so it's likely their retro mini versions also wouldn't be as successful. Like how SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive mini retro consoles have long been a thing, but SEGA Saturn Mini or SEGA Master System Mini haven't. I wouldn't be surprised if they only do NES and SNES (which I imagine was mostly used a post-Wii U strategy to get the Nintendo brand back out there, create a wave of nostalgia and bring lapsed gamers back to Nintendo for the Switch).

The minis were a stop-gap to get the Nintendo brand name out there more after the Wii U massively failed.
Next, progressively, would be n64, which some of the games that people would want most would are lost in licensing hell (n64 without Goldeneye would be a travesty, for example). But then there's also Banjo Kazooie, Shadows of the Empire, Rogue Squadron, Jet Force Gemini, Conker, Turok, Perfect Dark and list goes on. Given the licenses of some of these games the n64 was known for, involving Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Rare, EA (who has the Star Wars license currently and is no supporter of Switch/Nintendo), it'd be a nightmare.
Nintendo themselves had some killer n64 games, but I doubt enough to carry a mini without some of the key third party titles.

Erm... yes they could, at least for the N64. And it only takes a little amount of research to find that out, so I've literally got no idea how the heck you came to that incorrect conclusion.

Every single person that has hacked his or her NES or SNES Mini knows that RetroArch adds cores for a multitude of consoles and handhelds, N64 and even PSX included. Obviously, it doesn't run ALL games of those two consoles, but more than enough to make it more than interesting. The N64 core in RetroArch is based upon Mupen64, which is already quite a decent emulator to begin with, so where you got the notion from that N64 emulation is a mess, is beyond me, because it couldn't be further from the truth.

And besides Mupen64 and all its forks, such as Not64 and Wii64, which already run a lot of N64 games just fine on the Wii and Wii U, there's Project64 on PC, an emulator that I've been using for many years now, and which also runs many games just fine, and adding extra features such as high res texture packs for certain games as well.

No emulator is perfect, but any of these are more than good enough to provide for a good list of games to add to a potential N64 Mini. And even without Rare and some of those third parties stuck in licensing hell, it would still be relatively easy to make a list of around 20 to 30 great games to put on this mini console.

But having said all that, I'm not expecting there to be an N64 Mini, although I personally wouldn't mind there being one, because it's one of my favorite consoles of all time, that supposed "mess of a controller" included...

Because Nintendo is weird.

Or maybe Nintendo knows a Virtual Boy classic edition would be way past sophisticated for this world to handle.

I just want a N64 classic. I love my 64 and would like to reduce wear and tear on it. I dont care what games are on it because I'll hack it and add my entire library.

It seems as though Nintendo has given up on supporting retro content and I think it is because of the prevalence of piracy, hacking and emulation. While I and many others do want that retro support through legal means, most people seem to have no qualms about just setting up a Raspberry Pi or Nvidia Shield with a bunch of emulators and pirated roms.

You hit the nail on the head. Controllers would be cheap to make because the original ones were basically a piece of hollow plastic but a N64 without Rare doesn't make much sense.