NES Classic will no longer be produced

Well, it was fun while it lasted. The NES Classic Edition (it went by several names, but you know what I mean) was the must-have item of the holidays and pretty much ever since, owing to short supply of the compact retro gaming console. And Nintendo just confirmed that it was indeed ending production of the device in Europe, the last region they were still officially available.

A Nintendo representative told Eurogamer that the company is “no longer manufacturing the Nintendo Classic Mini.” This was previously confirmed for the U.S. and Japan, but there was a glimmer of hope that it might, for some strange reason, live on in Europe. It was not to be.

The NES Classic was arguably always meant to be nothing more than a snack. Nintendo couldn’t push the launch of the Switch to before the holidays (even March was a stretch given the lack of games and features), but the idea of having the walking-dead Wii U as its only offering for this major buying season was unthinkable.

So to bridge the gap — and keep people excited about Mario, Link and everyone else — Nintendo put out the Classic. It would tide people over until the Switch launch, and whet their appetite for the NES titles that would be offered later on the inevitable Virtual Console.


They seem to not have predicted two things: the popularity of the device and the speed at which it would be hacked. The latter, it must be said, largely depended on the former.