News On Nintendo Switch SNES Controller Stock Expected This Month (North America)

The Canadian shop still shows as out of stock...

Remember when we thought we would have a GameCube virtual console

Still showing out of stock

I don't know if I should grab one just yet as I don't have an online subscription since I'm waiting for more games. As of now, the ones I really want are still not there (DKC2 and DKC3 come to mind).

Is it worth it to pre-emptively get a controller in hopes of those games eventually coming out or just wait til the games come out first then buy the controller?

Already out of stock? Come on!

I just tried in Mobile and Desktop, and it keeps saying "Out of Stock - check back Jan 2020 for news."

While these are nice, have limited functionality outside the Switch online service. The 8bitdo SN30 pro is a better choice, Im so glad I buy it.

@Severian You can’t buy one if you don’t have an online subscription. The retro controllers are a subscriber-only bonus.

Yeah, sorry, as cool as it looks, I already got myself an 8BitDo SN30 Pro+. Sorry, Nintendo, but you're not getting money from me, that's what you get for not having a good amount in stock.

They were available for about an hour. Nintendo Life was just late to the party 🙂

Aaaand they're gone!

@Severian
You need a NSO subscription to purchase a controller.

@millarrp oh yeah? damn, looks like we have to wait another 3 months again lol

An active Nintendo Switch Online subscription is required to purchase this item.

Biggest requirement before anything happens......

@danielman9

I still haven't given up hope

I watch every single Nintendo Direct with anticipation expecting (more hoping) for some kind of Gamecube announcement.

Maybe one day

I was literally just looking for one of these on the UK store this morning, it does say they'll be back in stock soon so I just bought the NES controllers for the time being

The NES controller pair that was on sale for $30 + shipping was a good deal... And it's by far the best way to play NES games.

But the SNES controller is well replicated by many other controllers...

@danielman9 it took a year to get from NES games to SNES games. They’re gonna make us waaaaait.

Let me get this straight. They announced a product in, what, October? They sell out in less than an hour. It takes them 2+ months to get more inventory. And they only get enough to last another hour of sales?!?!

I love Nintendo, but I would not even expect a startup to fail so hard at supply chain, let alone a manufacturing veteran company! How is it in any way possible for such a company to continuously fail in their supply chain so completely?!

@NEStalgia there is a single old master smith who has been entrusted upon a high mountain to individually forge the SNES controllers one at a time. Each plastic shell had been folded 1,000 times to ensure that Nintendo seal of quality means something again.

"Out of stock"

Yfyficyfjg

This is honestly so depressing. they know the demand is there, yet sell out so fast...

Not yet still says check in jan of 2020

"This item is currently unavailable"

Nintendo... this is pathetic. How can you not manage to make a simple SNES controller available? I have never once seen it in stock since it has been a thing. This isn't some super complex thing we are talking about here, it's a 90's style controller for the Switch. There is no excuse for it being this hard to buy. This just reflects very poorly upon them at this point, like they are incapable of making their products available.

GET ON IT!

Damn, Oh well wait for the next restock. Shame Nintendo allow people to buy upto 4 and you can buy them even if on the free trial.

The US variant is the only one I don't have yet.

But I do agree with people who say get an SN30 (Pro is better option as it has sticks, all the buttons and gyros for a Switch) from 8BitDo.

It's just nonsens. How hard is it to make them available?

Oh, come on! I have been checking back on this thing daily and they still manage to run out again while I sleep? Dammit, Nintendo!

I'm logged in with my valid Nintendo Network ID linked to my Nintendo Switch Online account and there's still just the standard "Out of stock, check back in January 2020 for additional information." Well it's the second-last day of the bloody month and there's no new info and no "Add to Cart" button. Geez. *EDIT I should say I'm on the Canadian shop so this must be yet another example of Nintendo Life not realizing that North America is THREE BLOODY COUNTRIES because this might only be available in the U.S.

European version is not available either.

@Illusion Your answer is honestly the only good thing about this mess. Well done!

How pathetic Nintendo...😑

Unbelievable, Nintendo. How hard is it to stock a freaking SNES controller? And why is the limit 4 per My Nintendo account when the NES controllers limit was 1 per account?

@danielman9 yeah I never thought that we’d get GameCube games. At that point you’re reaching games Nintendo can easily remake individually and sell for full price. N64 was already pushing that. Yeah, it’d be cool to have access to that library, but I would never hold my breath for it. That’s approaching the sort of collection PlayStation Now has and that’s $60 a year for JUST those games. If Nintendo was going to make the GameCube library accessible on Switch, that’s make more sense to be an entirely different subscription service. That would be a lot of meaty content.

@DarthFoxMcCloud Nope, not in the US either. Either NL is making stuff up just to get us worked up, it's a Mexico-only thing, or Nintendo managed to ship 30 to NoA for sale at 4:00AM PST on a Wednesday night.

More likely they found a box of prototypes in Reggie's old closet and decided to sell them off.

@Illusion Even the single old master could do more than that. Unless they're each hand-made by Sakurai. He can only make 5 per year in his spare time between playing every single Fire Emblem game in an endless loop while working.

@danielman9

I'm stil hoping for that and an N64 version too
Idle hope it may be.

“This is why I can hate rose-tinted nostalgia; people are willing to buy 4 of these and scalp the 3 of them. I wish @NintendoAmerica just let us order these anyways and deliver once they have enough of them.”

#SuperNES #NintendoSwitchOnline

That happens to be my Twitter right now.

"This item is currently unavailable. Please check back for more news in February 2020."

These are tempting, but I think 8bitdo might offer better alternatives.

Well dadgum, I had this on my wish list and have checked the website every day. Didn’t even get an email about them on sale.

@DrDaisy do you have 8bitdo? From the pictures it seems to me the right analog stick is to close to the buttons. Curious if you have played with it and if you feel that is a problem.

This article update, so far, seems to be completely untrue.

@imgrowinglegs I would much rather have virtual console like the Wii U... just better emulation on the games

I picked mine up a few months ago. Perfect for games like Hollow Knight and Celeste. A must buy for any switch owner.

Out of stock. Never even got a notification from them despite it being on my wishlist.

@Hordak Yeah I haven't seen anyone who managed to order one today lol. It's like they just had some flash sale that lasted less than a minute or something. As if they only produced about 100 or so controllers then they were all like "that's it everyone, we are all sold out for another 100 days!"

😢 Wanted one of these so badly... they’ll probably announce that they’ve restocked on Feb. 29th, and go back out of stock again...

Crying myself to sleep tonight. 😭

@Illusion You’d think they’d automate it by now, or at least hire more smiths.

Seems like it sold out while I was sleeping. This is beyond annoying... like the others said, how hard is it to keep these controllers in stock??? I really, really, really wanted one of them. I wish they would at least let us special-order the SNES Switch controller while they're sold out, that would've been nice. I might have to resort to an alternative...

If only gaming companies that have trouble predicting demand for inventory could develop a method by which they could take orders for items pre-production so they know the quantity to produce in advance to fulfill the waiting orders. Some sort of system by which to "pre-order" things, I suppose you could call it.

That would be useful.

A whole lot of BS being played here and if your NIN online subscription expired No Purchase.

@theberrage I've never actually used one other controllers, but from what I've seen and heard in reviews by people like Spawn Wave and Rerez, they're high quality.
There are also ones that don't have analog sticks and still work with the Switch as well as computers and certain smartphones. Aesthetically, there are still some slight differences, but they're still very close and they look like a good alternative if you can't get the official ones from Nintendo.

Just buy an 8bitDo controller instead. Which has the layout of the SNES controller, but all the other buttons you might need/want for modern gaming and you can use it with every other platform under the sun!

are these even good?

Just checked and... out of stock, come back in February.

Maybe they could temporally limit sales to 1 or 2 controllers an account until the stock is stable.

No thanks, I'll stick my 8bitdo Wii/Gamecube adapter and SNES Classic controllers. Does make me wonder (searches Ebay), Just as I suspected.

I haven't tried, nor care to but apparently they are out of stock.

@MortalKombat2007 Same, i don't know why people are so keen to get these.

@danielman9 I would love that as an added option. Having access to so many NES/SNES games on the apps is great, but I’d love to buy some to keep forever.

@YANDMAN maybe because they actually work and don't need 3rd party dongle to connect.

I still find the original 8Bitdo SNES30 controllers to be the better alternatives to these.

@Severian The games alone right now are already worth the 20 bucks a year let alone the classic controllers. As for DK 2 and 3 it will be coming. I will bet they will wait until close to the new DK game which I personally think will be announced this year.

I grabbed the official NES pair when it was on sale for $30 since I don't think anyone is making anything close and that price is unbeatable anyway (although shipping was high and SLOW).

Still undecided if I am going to try to grab an official SNES or an 8bitdo... or none and just use the Switch Pro.

@danielman9 The size of GameCube files itself might have something to do with it, the average size for GC games is 1.4GB (uncompressed) while NES/SNES games are tiny in comparison. So a GameCube service could potentially take up a lot more space on the Switch's limited internal memory. But I'm also still hoping we get them eventually...

the price is a little on the high end for me. Spawnwave's review wasn't too great for the nes/snes controllers. im not totally convinced yet; at least not at the current price or the last year sale price.

This artificial limited supply strategy is a really dumb idea on Nintendo’s part. They know people want these, they know people will people will pay for them so why do they insist on fleecing their customers this way? They did the same thing with the NES and SNES classics. It’s absurd. Make a steady amount of these products and everyone goes home happy. How is this such a difficult concept for the Big N?

This controller is a joke and if it does become available again this month, it'll likely be at the 11th hour on the last day of the month...just like January. And then we'll see a message that says "Check back in March 2020 for more information." And knowing Nintendo this pattern will repeat every month for the remainder of the year. I can't believe they can't actually keep these things in stock. Somebody should lose their job over this because it's just complete gross negligence at this point.

@Maschinenmensch Nintendo don't like money, they've done this for past 30 years, fans still haven't figured it out yet.

@Yorumi My 8bitdo Pro + sometimes misreads the up and down. I do not understand why so many dpads this generation have that problem or similar.

Also not sure why this article was reposted, you're saying zero new in the update part of it. Clickbait? Must be, literally are saying nothing new.

I still say these updates are click bait of the worst kind. There has been absolutely no proof shown that they were available last month. None.

@Maschinenmensch @Yorumi Seeing that coronavirus has slowed down production of Nintendo's products, I don't think the idea of "artificial limited supply strategy" holds any real ground.

Maybe they wouldn't sell out so quickly if Nintendo limited purchases to 2 per account instead of 4. People are selling these for $130; that's $100 more than what Nintendo sells them for.
So for each account someone makes, they can make roughly $400 off of these things. Cut those scalping profits in half, Nintendo!

Only if you have a active subscription of which mine has lapsed. What a drag....

@Hordak Exactly, at this point Nintendo is just trolling everyone with this controller.

@KayFiOS Nintendo loves helping others make money instead of them. They are very kind.

@Dang69 The wireless communication, maybe? I've only cracked open Nintendo's own Pro Controllers and Right Joy-Con, can't really speak to the quality of 8bitdo's contacts and circuit boards.

@Dakka-Dakka I think they should just go vc with it

@retro_player_22 That particular model is not that much easier to find on a trusted site.

Why doesn't Nintendo just offer pre-order options? Afraid not as many people will try to buy them if it puts them on a waiting list?

@DrDaisy because at this point they are Stupid....

@Heavyarms55 they are not the same quality

@Yorumi heh. I agree.

The only reason I would consider getting the NES ones is because the NSO service currently doesn’t allow you to remap the buttons. After playing Super Mario Maker 2, I can’t go back to strictly using only the A and B buttons.

@Severian Rare holds the rights to DKC1, 2, and 3. If Nintendo wanted to, they would have to negotiate with Rare to put them on the service. In the meantime, I have all three on the SNES Classic Edition.

I've 100% given up on these.

How about, like, more SNES games, more often?

@YoshiAngemon You sure about that. If you truly thought that to be true, how come Rare can't release those games on Rare Replay?

@mattmanvsuperman @YoshiAngemon Strange, I only have DKC1 on my SNES Classic.

@danielman9 Yeah that would be the ideal solution but sadly I can't see that happening anytime soon either.

I bought an 8bitdo SN30 Pro+. Best controller I've ever had. Easily the best 3rd party controller I've ever used. It's like if a SNES controller made sweet, tender love to a Dualshock 3.

@RyanCraddock If not a mention in the article, at least a private "thank you" would have been nice for bringing this to your attention. No biggie, just weird to see this the day after messaging NL with no response. OK, take care.

@mesome713 Well, Nintendo still gets the money, but they're encouraging people to use their products to make even more money off of total suckers. I was one of those suckers when I bought a second NES Classic controller for $40.

can't say i want something manufactured in china right now until the whole virus thing gets under control...

@Nalverus that's called giving misleading stop trying to make something that isn't something. Then one shouldn't drive or use electricity because it causes pollution. That's the very mindset why one digs their own hole.

@Tandy255 Look up ModMyClassic.com, and you can install a piece of hardware known as hakchi2 CE. You'll get your results.

@SwitchForce I have no idea what you just said or how that is misleading. Distribution centers have been testing positive for the virus.

I'm saying I, as in myself, do not want to run a risk. You do what you want but I don't recall giving false information.
Don't be that guy.

edit: also work on your english.

So pissed off at Nintendo’s stocking issues on this item. I only want two.

Hmmm, great controllers but with 2 SNES games added every 3+ months it's a no from me. I know they can be used with many other titles but it just doesn't seem right. With Nintendo going to the effort to release these controllers the games need to be released at a much faster rate.

@ryancraddock Fair enough my man, I appreciate the comment. Keep up the good work! 😁

More on the way?

Why are the journalists asking us when they should be telling us if more are on the way?

That's the only controller I ever use in Super Mario Maker 2, it's much more accurate than the d-pad in the Pro controller or the 8bitdo SN30 and it seems to work just perfect with that game, control-wise. But, I still wish it had rumble and a home button.

@Nalverus giving misleading information is giving misleading information. Sounds like you have bias against anyone with China origin and that makes you even sadder.

Also how one types and respond is their word of choice. Giving out Misleading information will be called out.

@SwitchForce I have quite a few chinese friends. Two are like family to me. Do not insult this or throw random racist slander on no basis whatsoever.

Grow up kid.

edit: Actually, done giving you the light of day. You're just pulling this out of your butt for the sake of it i'm sure.

Back in stock for anyone looking to buy!

I finally bought mine today. I was out of town the first time they went on sale, so I missed it. Then, I went out of town again the 2nd time too. So I missed them both, as they were out of stock both times by the time I got online. This time tho, I was online, and kept refreshing the page for days, until it finally popped up as available. So I got mine this morning. Finally.

@KingBowser86 No it's the actual pad. It's not the worst, but it happens. You can force it to do it to prove it isn't some kind of input lag.