The SNES Classic Edition officially launches later this month, on September 29. Even before its actual release, the mini-console has had a bit of a rough start. Firstly, it’s coming off the heels of the NES Classic Edition, which came out last year and was immensely popular and understocked, causing the item to be extremely hard to get all the way up to its discontinuation earlier this year. After the announcement of the SNES Classic, many were worried that its fate would be similar to its predecessor. In July, Walmart made SNES Classics available for pre-order, only to later announce that pre-orders went live due to a technical glitch and then proceeded to cancel all the pre-orders. Most recently, pre-orders became available for real at various retailers, but pre-orders sold out within minutes. Based on its track record so far, you can’t blame Nintendo fans for being skeptical about the SNES Classic.
Polygon recently reported on an interview with Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America, about the SNES Classic. In it, Fils-Aime seems to want to assure fans that under-production of the item won’t be a problem like it was with the NES Classic. He explains that one of the reasons why the NES Classic was produced in such low numbers was that most retro mini-consoles by other companies did not sell very well, so the fact that the NES Classic became as popular as it did took Nintendo completely by surprise. Fils-Aime also states that the SNES Classic’s pre-order debacles were the cause of issues “outside our control” and that the limited number of pre-orders that were available does not reflect the actual production of the mini-console.
Fils-Aime goes on to state that Nintendo has “dramatically increased” production for the SNES Classic so fans don’t have to resort to buying the mini-console on auction sites for greatly increased prices. Nintendo has stated several times before that the SNES Classic won’t face the shortages in production that the NES Classic did, so who knows? Maybe you’ll actually be able to walk into a store and buy it later this month.
