Nintendo Confirms Production Of NES Classic Edition Will Continue

Published: February 14, 2017 2:00 PM /

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Nintendo Classic Mini NES

Rumors of the Nintendo NES Classic Edition going out of production are apparently unfounded, according to a statement from Nintendo UK. Their statement is in response to speculation about the continued production of the mini retro-consoles, after a Norwegian retailer had written a Facebook post stating they the NES Classic would cease production, and that they would not be able to fulfill future pre-orders.

This, however, has been refuted by Nintendo UK in a statement to TechRadar.

Production for the Nintendo Classic Mini: NES continues, and NOE [Nintendo of Europe] will continue to ship units to retail on a regular basis - Nintendo UK representative
The original rumors caused great distress among Nintendo fans who had as of yet been unable to track down one of the notoriously under-stocked consoles. As of writing, Nintendo's official Amazon page shows the NES Classic to be out-of-stock for at least one more week. However, a substantial amount of the consoles have entered the 'stock' of grey market resellers, who have been scooping up and reselling the consoles for high prices as the NES Classic continues to be under-stocked by Nintendo. Currently, the only available NES Classic consoles are from third-party sellers.

Had the rumors been true, it is most likely that scalpers would have increased their efforts in buying up more of the consoles as Nintendo produces them, in anticipation of their high collector's value after their rumored end of production. While Nintendo fans can be comforted that they have more time to buy the NES Classic, the concerns caused by the rumors does highlight Nintendo's slow production of the NES Classic in the face of such high consumer demand.

We reached out to Nintendo yesterday about this situation and will update if we learn more.


Quick Take

One thing that is still a mystery is to why the Norwegian retailer would have posted such an inflammatory post on its Facebook page. It is possible that they had received false information from a non-Nintendo source, or perhaps there was a simple mistake in translation when Neo-Gaf brought it to the attention of the greater gaming public. A more insidious reason is that the retailer could not fulfill its customer pre-orders and was hoping to deflect some blame to Nintendo. However, until another statement from the retailer in response to Nintendo's refute of the claim is given, it's still up in the air as to their motives.

Are you still trying to get a Nintendo NES Classic Edition? If you knew production was ending, how much would YOU pay for one? Let us know in the comments below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


Sam Ooi
| Staff Writer

Ex-game-studio grunt, now freelance writing and floating around. Just don't ask me about what I have seen~