Yesterday we reported that a Scandinavian retailer had prompted concerns around production of the NES Mini Classic, albeit with a cautionary note that Nintendo had recently said restocks were in the works. The NES Mini was a hot ticket item before Christmas and it seems that the demand simply took Nintendo by surprise; since that time it has seemingly been unable to satisfy that demand.
However, there is hope - TechRadar has received a statement from Nintendo which refutes these claims. Here's what a Nintendo UK representative told them:
Production for the Nintendo Classic Mini: NES continues, and NOE [Nintendo of Europe] will continue to ship units to retail on a regular basis.
That's great news for anyone who missed out the first time; prices on eBay are eye-watering at the moment.
Let's just hope enough are made to avoid the same disappointment - with resellers snatching them all up - as we found last year.
[source techradar.com]
Comments 92
They also said that about the Wii U and lied!
they will continue to ship units even thought they havent shipped any units since november
"will continue to ship units to retail on a regular basis".
This means nothing.
Shipping 5 units per semester is regular.
@Spoony_Tech The Wii U was dying though, no one was buying it. This is the opposite of that.
I'll believe it when I see it.
lol
I can't even play this thing on a modern TV. The cables are all so ridiculously short. There are third party options, sure, but why aren't Nintendo providing the goods themselves? Silly. Silly. Silly.
It's a really cute collector's item though. I still need another controller to "complete" it.
In the area where I live they can be found very sporadicly at GameStops and Toysrus where I was able to purchase one, which I love mine I really hope they make a mini Super NES as well .
@Spoony_Tech I was going to add to your comment with a list of past "alternative facts" presented by Nintendo over the years. A quick Google search to refresh my memory and I realise that I don't even know where to start! 😂
That's weird, the empty shelves at all the stores in my area say otherwise.
What happened to the holiday push?
@Spoony_Tech The Wii U sat on store shelves for years. The NES Classic sold out instantly and has been impossible to get for some since its release last year. It's also relatively inexpensive and probably cheap to manufacture, it's stupid if they don't keep making more.
They have been restocking, but scalpers are continuing to pursue these in full force. Go on eBay and you will see sellers who show pictures of piles and piles of them. There are people out there who have over 20 NES minis with the intent to sell.
Ninty must have read all the backlash from previous article other day. Can't see this been much of a thing when switch comes out,if anything they should have had a huge stock at Christmas time. A missed opportunity possibly
Basically if the Switch stumbles, the market will be flooded with NES Minis. If it takes off, we'll never see another one again.
I don't believe them.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
Meh. They've lost my custom on this one. I was excited when it was announced and thought this would be a great impulse buy. Then I couldn't get it. Interest start to wane as it became impossible to find. I've better things to do frankly, and now the Switch is here, my time is going to be spent on that beauty instead
Does anyone take Nintendo seriously here? If I didn't physically have one of these things (got lucky on launch day back in November), I wouldn't believe they were real. I haven't even seen a skew or shelf space for these. lol
Umm yay? I'm frustrated.
I admit, I have bought 4 now. Sold 3 on eBay for $80 profit and paid for the last one and a little into my switch fund. They were just sitting there at Walmart each time I went and bought 1 each time. Got one yesterday. No joke.
"Yesterday we read on NeoGAF that a Scandinavian retailer had prompted concerns around production of the NES Mini Classic..."
FTFY
This is good news! I was lucky enough to get in on a second wave of orders through Best Buy but I know a lot of friends who still haven't found one. Hopefully the supply will start meeting the demand soon!
Call me cynical, but could they be holding back stock so as not to negatively affect Switch sales..?
Ahh, we didn't stop production. We just stopped SHIPPING the product. Yea that's why you can't ever see one on shelves 😒
Well, I suppose they just didn't see fit to ever ramp up production, which makes sense, seeing as they have other things to do.
@8itmap_k1d
More likely that they just aren't prioriticing any extra manufacturing lines for the thing. Which might also be becasue of Switch. The result is the same, ultimately, but holding back stock wouldn't achieve anything.
Well, Kimishima told investors that there were difficulties and delays in getting the parts required for assembly.
Don't you people understand how long it can take to locate, acquire, and retrieve the parts required for this?
Come on, I want one.... It was supposed to be a birthday gift in January, but at this rate, I'll get for January 2018!
My worry is I have full-time scalpers in my area that make it their goal to stop by Best Buy/Target/Walmart/Toys R Us/etc EVERY. SINGLE. DAY to check for NES Mini's. I'll keep hope alive, but expectations low, and the only way this can be fixed is if Nintendo just stopped releasing ANY of them for a while, built up about 5 mil of them, then just release them across the country at once. Only then can I imagine I'd have a REALISTIC chance of getting one.
Maybe it was a way to push switch more. People that dont find a nes mini says... Well i get a switch instead
I really wish scalping was illegal somehow. I know that's not realistic, I just wish my family and friends could have got one. I only did by showing up to Gamestop 3 hours early in a day off from work. It should not require that. How dumb it is that these things weren't all over the shelves at places like Walmart where everyone could see.
It would have been nice if they provided some detail on this continued production. That vague statement doesn't refute the Scandinavian report that there will be a final restock soon. Or Nintendo could simply be lying. Wouldn't be the first time. Customers love that.
Phew!
Hmm. I don't think I even want one anymore. Sad
@Spoony_Tech
When exactly did they lie?
Just like how they said they didn't stop Wii U productions?
@Spoony_Tech nope, they did not lie. They continued the production until they announced the end of the console.
@Rontanamo_Bay they weren't talking about the us they where talking about europe and on amazon it hasn't come back in stock since november
My opinion is that they are researching to find a way of blocking the possibility of hacking (recently discovered) and maybe a longer controller cable. Then they will start to 'produce' again.
Regular basis nothing.
@Rontanamo_Bay i was saying amazon because that would be the place you would buy it from but i haven't seen any other site or retail store sell it ok
inb4 they fix the exploit to add more games and the first production run NES mini's become even more expensive.
It's good news, I hope Nintendo aren't just saying this. There's been no news about whether there be anymore controllers, I love them....
I was lucky I got two Nes Mini's one to play on and I am currently dipping into SM3 never completed that version only the All-stars version, my other nes mini sits unboxed in a cupboard. I'd like to get two more at least to keep as spares....
I live in europe-distribution-land germany. I ordered a 2nd one a week ago because I wanted to try out the Hakchi method you´ve reported about, just incase something would go wrongö Today my retailer called me that my Nes Mini can get picked up. Never saw any on the shelves, but both times I ordered one, one time in December, now in February, I have got one within one week of waiting. The hakchi works flawless with 60 games in total, dont know if i should still pick up the 2nd Nes Mini now. For your information, all!
Could've fooled me
Over here where I live the NES Mini is basically non-existence. Seeing one is as rare as seeing a whale humping a dolphin. Searching for one is as crazy as searching for a Latios or Latias, you just don't know where they'll show their face next and by the time you get there they'll be long gone.
If true it's still in production...there's no hope of ever seeing what one might call 'supply' at this rate
They said the same thing about the WiiU and a week later said that production was ending.
@BinaryFragger
All I ever see are controllers.
I've never seen an NES Mini in the wild.
My local Best Buy has 15 controllers.
Wal*Mart has 7
The only thing I can find is the Advantage attachment.
It really is not worth any more than MSRP so please please do not give your hard earned cash to a dirty rotten scalper. It's not all that great of a device, certainly not worth the hype it has garnered. It's cool for the nostalgia factor and the controller feels very authentic but the emulation of the games is not as good as what a Raspberry Pi can do, or FCE Ultra GX on Wii homebrew. The games do look a heck of a lot better than the Virtual Console on the Wii U but that's the because the NES virtual console on the Wii U is garbage, it's not a high bar to beat. I hope Nintendo gets enough stock in to satisfy everyone who wants one and I really hope that the rotten scalpers get stuck with their stock and have to sell it at MSRP or even a small loss. That would make my year.
The talk about the nes mini keeps reminding me that I need to buy a NES...
Honestly, I stopped wanting to get an NES mini just because I missed getting one day one. Makes me pretty happy that that's $60 that can go toward my new Nintendo Switch
@Spoony_Tech
It's probably that weird spot where technically an memo has gone to stop production but technically there is a machine running at this exact second that is finishing the last run so it's "still in production" even though production is being stopped.
Semantics ftw! That said, I hope they keep rolling them out. Heck, make it a pre-order bonus for switch and you'll sell 60 million switches by Christmas!
WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what if production is stopped, because they're designing NES Mini 2.0 with longer control chords and VC capability to add games!?!?!?
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one!
Okay, so nothing they didn't already say before, right? Yeah, that's what I thought. It would be nice if they gave us a window of time to expect to start seeing more and more of them. Like, "Returning to stores Fall 2017," or whatever.
@speedracer216 Either that, or they're updating the original so it won't be as easy to hack. You may say I'm a pessimist, but we outnumber the dreamers.
I check BrickSeek multiple times a day, and not one single Wal-Mart within 50 miles of me (16 of them) has ever had a NES Mini in stock.
Why would they stop selling a product that sells out? Nintendo is in the business of making money. The only way this stops being produced is when an updated version is sold or if they think it'll canabalize sales away from the Switch.
The histrionics on here are a bit much sometimes.
Come on Nintendo put more up on your UK store!
If assembly of these are giving them a headache then can you imagine what it would be like if they made the SNES mini?
I also seriously wonder if they are loads to ship from a warehouse somewhere....
I'll believe that when I see it, and I haven't.
So when are they going to "start" shipping units on a "regular" basis? All I see are dribs and drabs here and there. You can't "continue" if you've never started.
never really wanted to buy the nes mini, but i think its more common here in the uk than it is in america.
or not.
its just a tiny little official plug and play system, why is there such a shortage? is there like difficulties with getting the parts or something? how the heck can you have difficulties getting parts for a plastic little box that is very roughly the size of an adults hand?
why and how?
I wanted buy one when they were released, now I really don't have any interest in the Mini anymore.
I'm skeptical. I'd like an NES mini but I've never even seen one.
If they come in stock I will get one but I am starting to lose hope that they will ever be freely available looks like it is destined to be double the price on ebay forever.
If you follow the Nintendo NYC twitter account they seem to get in about 120 every few days. So they are technically still making them and shipping them out, to 1 store in the entire world.
https://mobile.twitter.com/nintendonyc?lang=en
Maybe the woman who made the yarn Yoshi is making each one by hand?
I don't see ant conflict between what was said yesterday and today. Yesterday stores said they would be getting more shipments in future minths, today they said they are still making them. Well obviously they are still making them if stores are getting shipments months from now. Based on yesterday's comments I'd say they are making them at least until May. I don't see where that Nintendo guy today said they would still be making them 6 months from now. Nintendo will not lie, they will keep saying they are making them until the last one rolls off of the assembly line, even if that date was know a year ago. They don't lie, they hide.
Yes one unit per territory per day...
This is the official Nintendo statement LOL
@NEStalgia actually I have a theory that the initial shipment of NES mini consoles was just using up the left over Wii Remote connectors that Nintendo probably over produced when Wii skyrocketed. Now they're scrambling to make some new ones to carry on building them. Why else use a controller connection so old not even Wii U used it? If they were going for nostalgic effect, why not use a miniature version of the original connection.
There's more to the story of them using the Wii connector than just supplying a controller you can use on a machine that died 5 years previous.
I was just at EB here in Canada, and they were told that no more NES mini past the end of February, and that mini SNES was expected by years end. Not sure how true this is, but at this point I gotta go retron or raspberry pi - I really want a mini!
@Baker1000 You know, that's a really interesting observation! I hadn't thought about it, but that actually makes a whole lot of sense! I can't think of any other reason to use the Wii connectors at all. I mean they're well made and designed for frequent insertion/removal cycles...so they fit the task perfectly, but it's not period-accurate for the NES, and it's not as universal and cheap as something like USB, or any of the other normal connectors around. That makes a lot of sense!
You should see Australia, for the past couple weeks there's been about 3 or 4 restocks of both consoles and controllers at most major outlets... it certainly doesn't look like production is winding down here!
@NEStalgia the other theory that was floating around was Nintendo made a bunch of NES classic controllers for use on Wii (like the SNES one) but never released them. So they decided to make this console to put them to use. This would explain the short wire as it was supposed to connect to the Wii Remote. Either way I think the controller wasn't made for the console but rather the console for the controller. And it's this shortage of controllers that has stalled the stock fulfilment of NES mini
@SaKo Scalpers are buying it, but no one else is.
@Luna_110 No need to wait any longer. With a little effort, you can play any NES game on your PC right now...for FREE!! Go ahead...google it....
If they ever bother to start production back up of NES Mini, It will be the only Nintendo system I buy this year.
Nintendo seems out to get people's money in droves with Switch, here is more cash they are missing out on.
@eaglesfly76
But you can't play with the legit NES controller! (Short of crazy mods to an original....which is blasphemous!)
@Baker1000 I think your first idea was probably more on the mark. If they had a stock full of complete controllers sitting around since the Wii era, they would have definitely put them to market one way or another much sooner to unload them. But an inventory of connectors...particularly, an inventory of connectors they ordered with knowledge that the WiiU would be compatible with them and an inventory with an expectation that WiiU would top Wii sales....yeah, they had a lot of connectors sitting around to unload and nowhere to send them. They'd have considered them WiiU parts (since WiiU was Wii family and supported Wii controllers) until it was clear the WiiU was dead, and then unloaded them in the Mini. I wonder what other parts they've stockpiled from the Wii era for the WiiU that they were never able to sell?
It also puts Kimishima's odd comment about parts in perspective. My tongue in cheek image of harvesting parts from genuine original NES's by hand for each Mini aside, I couldn't imagine what parts would be so hard to source for it. Proprietary connector ports for which assembly was shut down years ago just might do the trick. Didn't one of the Wii component fabs end up fulfilling contracts for Toyota instead after the WiiU faltered?
@Luna_110 Happy belated bday and here's hoping you get one soon.
@retro_player_22
Lmao!
@Gold_Ranger Same.
@Equinox Then blame it on the fans.
@speedracer216 That would be beautiful.
@NEStalgia True, but you can buy a gamepad that will perform just fine...plus you can play all 700 NES games for free instead of just 30! Not a bad trade off to me!
FAKE NEWS! 🙂
@eaglesfly76 The pad may be functional, but it's just not the same. I can play many of those games LEALLY, on my Wii, 3DS, or WiiU....but the controllers just aren't the same. (Of course I can play most of those 30 on my real NES, too....if not for a lack of RF converter box.)
Just got mine in from Gamestop today, played it till I can't feel my thumb. Boy that takes me back!
@kamikazilucas Exactly, just make the damn things. Nintendo are so stupid ...........a lot these days.
Has Nintendo seen eBay? It’s out of control! There is lots of money being made but not by them, crap loads of people biding too. What a mess / missed opportunity. Makes me worry about the switch. Reggie says "nar man its cool the switch will be fine" (not a direct quote), but then he said they were on to the mini problem. If this is on to it then holy crap!
@eaglesfly76 It's not free. If you play games that you don't own, you will suffer from bad conscience forever. If not, then you are a terrible person.
No offense, but that mini sucks. Do not waste your money unless you want to crack it open and mod it. The cables are to short. There is only 30 games that most people on this site probably own. It is is cute but it is just that.
I have yet to even see one or the accessories in the stores near me. I want this more than the Switch. It's an actual gaming console with a wired controller and not like the newer systems with online apps and so forth. I just wish it offered a cartridge slot and longer controller cord.
@KoopaTheGamer I'm pretty far from a terrible person, lol, but I will save my money, because it is indeed...FREE.
Not buying the pr quote. NES Mini is done and case closed. People were ready to buy millions of these in Christmas rush, but Nintendo missed the boat when they deliberately made only like 300k limited supply of these to the scalpers.
@KoopaTheGamer Don't worry, if I play a game on the computer, it's a game that hasn't been sold in over 25 years. Otherwise I buy all Nintendo products and support them fully.
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