One of the wildest stories in Nintendo history is that of the NES Classic Edition. The thing sold, sold, and sold some more, causing people who wanted it to act like lunatics. After one initial restock that went about the same as the launch, Nintendo stated it would eventually bring it back in 2018 after the continued success of the SNES follow-up. Now, Nintendo has announced the date for the re-release, which is June 29, with it and the SNES Classic planned to be available through the end of 2018. Get your refresh keys ready, folks.
Nintendo made a little emulation box, charged $60 for it, and loaded it with a curated list of 30 NES games. It was bundled with a Wii input controller replica of an original NES pad, and was outfitted with HDMI out. It was intended to be a limited product for the 2016 holiday season, something Nintendo just threw out there to see what would happen while the Wii U died off and the Switch wasn’t quite ready to launch. It sold out more or less instantly in November 2016 when it launched, but between low stock and scalpers, the outcry was wide-reaching.
Since then, the SNES Classic has sold millions as well, and the Switch has also done super well. Nintendo is experiencing a boom, but there are a lot of questions about the future of Nintendo’s retro library. With the Virtual Console branding dead and the Nintendo Switch Online service bringing NES games with added online play, there’s a lot happening in the near future, but a lot of mystery tagging along with it.
Source: The Verge