Ars Technica reports that Nintendo, citing "high demand," has decided to cease production of its NES Classic Edition game console, also known as the NES Classic Mini. According to the story,
Nintendo has announced that it will cease production of the 30-game NES Classic Edition plug-and-play system by the end of the month, even though retailers have been unable to keep the system on store shelves for pretty much the entirety of its six-month run on the market so far. In a statement provided to IGN, a Nintendo representative said:
Throughout April, NOA territories will receive the last shipments of Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition systems for this year. We encourage anyone interested in obtaining this system to check with retail outlets regarding availability. We understand that it has been difficult for many consumers to find a system, and for that we apologize. We have paid close attention to consumer feedback, and we greatly appreciate the incredible level of consumer interest and support for this product.
[...] The fact that the miniature unit could be hacked to run any number of NES ROMs (or even to run Linux) may have had something to do with that surge of interest.
Also at The Verge.
Previously: Famicom Classic Mini Console Sold 263k Units in Japan
Nintendo to Bring $60 "Retro" Video Gaming Console to U.S. Market
Related Stories
A Nintendo press release promotes the company's upcoming product, which may be available during the "holiday shopping season." Enclosed in a case that imitates the styling of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the future console is to have an HDMI video output and will include 30 built-in games which the company describes as "retro." It will also include a controller; a second controller (not supported by all of the games) is to be sold for $10. The console is intended to sell for about $60, and will come with an HDMI cable and AC adapter.
The possibility of playing other games instead of the pre-loaded ones was not mentioned.
[Continues with a complete list of the 30 pre-loaded games...]
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
In yet another example that nostalgia is one hell of a drug, the newly released $60 dollar Famicom Classic Mini (the Japanese version of the NES Classic) has managed to sell like hot cakes in Nintendo's native country of Japan.
According to a report by MCV based on sales figures provided by Japanese games website Famitsu, the tiny NES Classic Mini has sold over 263k units in its first 4 days on store shelves. The little machine has a host of classic NES games installed on its hard drive and is sure to be a blast from the past for everyone who grew up in the early-to-mid-90s.
[...] The NES Classic Mini launched in Western territories on November 11 and has since gone on to sell out in many stores thanks to Nintendo's limited supply, which has led to third party sellers increasing the price of the device as the consumer demand for the console remains higher than the current supply.
Source: TechRaptor
Following the discontinuation of the NES Classic Edition, Nintendo has announced a September release of another miniature, retro game console with pre-loaded games. It will come in two versions: one for Europe, Australia, Japan and the UK; the other for America. They will differ in styling and in the included games. US Gamer lists the games that will be built into both versions. Star Fox 2, written circa 1995, is to be released for the first time as one of the built-in games.
The consoles will be powered by USB and will not include a mains adaptor; output will be over HDMI and
all games included in the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System are the original US 60 Hz releases.
Two controllers will be hard-wired.
As usual, the console is expected to be in short supply. Nintendo's share price fell after the announcement.
additional coverage:
- official announcement (in Japanese)
- Polygon (about short supply)
- Express (about short supply in UK)
- BBC News
- Engadget
- Wikipedia article
- The Verge (about Star Fox 2)
- Polygon (about Star Fox 2)
previous stories:
Nintendo to Bring $60 "Retro" Video Gaming Console to U.S. Market
Nintendo to Discontinue NES Classic Edition/NES Classic Mini
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @02:41PM (3 children)
A computer is a computer.
I mean, that one particular company stops producing computers should be irrelevant.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Friday April 14 2017, @03:01PM
It's news for me. If I'd have known it was a limited release, I'd have sat on a few new and gouged for it on ebay a few months later. That's a damn good return over 3-4 months or so. Not bad, not bad at all.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday April 14 2017, @05:45PM (1 child)
A computer is a computer.
Not if a particular computer is the most practical way to obtain a lawfully made copy of a particular notable copyrighted work. Just as people buy a Mac just for an Xcode license, people bought this device for the 30 games on it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @06:59PM
s/t
(Score: 5, Funny) by ikanreed on Friday April 14 2017, @03:08PM (10 children)
Fearing that the Wii U might have been as popular as the Wii, to avoid a dangerous cash infusion, Nintendo didn't market the device at all.
Rather than produce enough NES Classics, new 3DSs, or Switch consoles, Nintendo wisely decided to make sure not every person willing to pay for one could get one.
Now that Breath of the Wild is one of the most critically acclaimed games of the last decade, they're definitely going to have to limit its production run or risk not going bankrupt.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Friday April 14 2017, @04:08PM
I'm sure it was probably some batshit RIAA-math MBA rationalization where it was cutting into their virtual console (I assume that's still a thing?) division revenue which has higher profit margin or something asinine like that, entirely missing the fucking point.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday April 14 2017, @04:47PM (8 children)
They want people to be really hungry for the upcoming SNES classic edition...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 14 2017, @04:52PM (7 children)
Shame, because N64 has the vastly superior Mario Kart 64 (3D, 4 players instead of 2).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday April 14 2017, @05:12PM (6 children)
That's the year after ...
A bit like Disney re-releasing old movies regularly, Nintendo will do short-term "classics" runs, for the nostalgics who don't run emulators.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 14 2017, @06:07PM (5 children)
A $60 ARM box with HDMI and some controllers is probably worth it. That's not that much more expensive than a new top-of-the-line RasPi with accessories or a Chrome/Amazon/etc. streaming stick.
N64 could be the killer one due to its support for 4 players, making it better for groups and parties.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by julian on Friday April 14 2017, @06:16PM (1 child)
I'm wondering how they'll choose to do the N64, if they rerelease one at all. It's notoriously difficult to emulate accurately. They could go the route of using an ARM chip and running an emulator, but it might be better to make a custom N64 SoC. That would ensure perfect accuracy and 100% compatibility.
But if anyone could write a perfect emulator it would be Nintendo since they have access to all the hardware documentation. The emulator community is working blind--and has produced some amazing work considering that handicap.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @01:06PM
And they already did it. Nintendo's re-releases of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask for the GameCube were literally just those N64 ROMs running in an N64 emulator compiled for the 'Cube.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 14 2017, @06:35PM (2 children)
Would a Raspberry-Pi 2 or better be able to emulate the NES classic fully?
It's after all a 6502 based thing..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @10:22PM
Depends on what you mean by "fully." Most emulators have 100% library compatibility but they are not actually 100% accurate in their emulation. There are weird edge cases where they differ from the actual machines, but they either don't have an effect on gameplay, don't show up on anything in the library, or are on rare mappers and titles (which makes testing and finding them hard).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @03:30PM
Not 100% accurate, but the NES mini is basically an ARM SoC running an emulator, and it isn't 100% accurate either. You can do a pretty good job with it, and quite possibly won't notice the inaccuracies though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @04:18PM
I got the urge play some old school NES games the other day like Crystalis and FF1.
I wanted to use Blargg's NTSC [slack.net] like I use for SNES games, and Nestopia [sourceforge.net] was the winner. The GTK frontend is actually not horrible but not as mature as the Windows one.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Friday April 14 2017, @06:07PM (1 child)
Emulators are on every device you can imagine (hey, why would you want Apple anyway?).
The app stores have them, or they are a two second download, and then you just search for a game and "ROM" and you'll find something you can use in minutes. It's been like that since the late 90's.
RetroPie - £30 and you have a complete, silent multi-system HDMI / wireless / bluetooth machine set up for emulation for almost all systems classic systems from NES to PS1. Hell, a couple of menus and you can install Kodi on the same thing (don't know whether it has all those modules that let you see everything, because I don't use it).
Yes, I know it's not legitimate. I'm one of the few people who DOESN'T pirate stuff. But it's there, it exists, it's cheaper, better, modern and "just works". If you have anything approaching a USB controller, even XBox 360 controllers, etc. then it can just use them so you don't have to pay out.
In that market, you could make a killing just selling legal versions of the original ROMs. But Nintendo and others have never even tried that. Instead they pay someone to recreate all the above, license a ROM, put it into consumers hands, where it gets hacked to be like the above in days, and then they discontinue it and try to shut them down.
In that climate, you cannot just sell a box that plays a very limited number of "classic games". It's dead in the water.
But I bet you could make a fortune selling official "Nintendo" NES/SNES/N64 controllers that have a USB plug on them, or even wireless.
Nintendo et al lose on everything but the legitimacy and branding. They don't play on it, either. Sell "official" Nintendo retro merchandise, including ROMs and controllers and even empty shells of the classic machines, and you could make money. Hell, tie it into the modern stuff so if you have an account that bought the Super Mario 3 NES ROM, you can play it on Wii Console, etc. too for free and vice versa.
When StarROMs started up, I thought companies were learning. But nothing big ever came of it and it disappeared. I *want* to play my old games, on the old controllers. Unless I break the law, cobble it together or pay over-the-odds for very limited equipment, I can't.
(Score: 2) by julian on Friday April 14 2017, @06:20PM
Yes, I know it's not legitimate.
It's not strictly *legal*, but it's not unethical if you've bought the games before.
(Score: 3, Informative) by kaszz on Friday April 14 2017, @06:18PM
For 60 US$ one gets [wikipedia.org]:
* CPU: Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A7 (ie MMU, DRAM)
* RAM: 256 MB DDR3
* Storage: 512 MB Flash
* GPU: Mali-400 MP
One question is how well the Lima FOSS driver for Mali 200/400 is doing. It still is a neat system for a cheap buck.
As always there is always the Multi Emulator Super System [wikipedia.org] (MESS). Can't be that hard to build a clone? ARM + RAM + Flash + Mali400 Done!