Nintendo Classic Mini announced

[godslabrat]

 

This part of the argument I hate, because it just doesn't. pan. out. It assumes that everyone who wanted a Mini is a) buying a Switch, and b) using the Virtual Console. That's not where the market for this thing is. The market for this is parents long since 'grown out' of videogames who want a lil' nostalgia, and maybe to share some of their childhood with their kids. It's people who'd like some classic NES around but don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on it. It's people with very young kids who need a unit that can handle being thrown out a window and having a rock dropped on it, not something that takes damage from its own accessories.

 

My sister wants a Mini. If she'd just been able to find one in a store, they'd have got her money. But no, they have to protect their precious downloads. And now they will get nothing from her, because SHE'S NOT BUYING A DAMN SWITCH! Meanwhile, the diehard who does want a Switch- me- never wanted a mini to begin with. They are cutting themselves off from a massive causal market- the same people who made the Wii a huge success- for fear of losing a tiny bit of money from a small segment of crossover customers.

It's also a self-defeating argument, because it assumes that people who buy VC games are people who won't buy the same game twice, when in reality they're the exact group of people who love buying games several times over.

[Trinity]

So what is the snail mail of the CEO of Nintendo? I want to send a good old fashioned letter to him to tell him how much he sucks.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Trinity

[Keatah]

Might not be able to read or understand it. Senile..

[Trinity]

Might not be able to read or understand it. Senile..

Sad, I think your right.

[Flojomojo]

It could of been 2 million easy.

Maybe. But it costs (risk-averse) Nintendo money to make them, and it's always better for them to underdeliver. I suspect Nintendo has better insight into its own financials than we do.

 

Besides, you wrote "could of" in an English-speaking forum, so your argument is moot.

[Flojomojo]

It's also a self-defeating argument, because it assumes that people who buy VC games are people who won't buy the same game twice, when in reality they're the exact group of people who love buying games several times over.

Don't you think Nintendo, with its global sales figures, and online linked accounts, has a better idea of who is buying what than any of us? If I were them, I'd rather chase the big spender than the one-and-done customer such as HoshiChiri's sister. The gaming whale is the "golden goose" here, not the nostalgic Facebook mom.

 

AtGames has a recurring seasonal release of Atari and Sega plug and play toys of debatable quality. They clearly make "enough" money to keep doing it year after year, but I don't think they're playing in the same league as Nintendo in terms of margins and quantities. NES Classic Mini is more like those things. Sure, Nintendo could play both sides of the market, but why would they cannibalize their top end like that?

 

It's a deliberate choice, like how Apple doesn't make a shitty $50 tablet to serve the low end market. It would stink up their brand and they don't want to do that. No customer has to like it, and I look forward to reading the responses to the letter-writing campaign.

[godslabrat]

Don't you think Nintendo, with its global sales figures, and online linked accounts, has a better idea of who is buying what than any of us? If I were them, I'd rather chase the big spender than the one-and-done customer such as HoshiChiri's sister. The gaming whale is the "golden goose" here, not the nostalgic Facebook mom.

 

AtGames has a recurring seasonal release of Atari and Sega plug and play toys of debatable quality. They clearly make "enough" money to keep doing it year after year, but I don't think they're playing in the same league as Nintendo in terms of margins and quantities. NES Classic Mini is more like those things. Sure, Nintendo could play both sides of the market, but why would they cannibalize their top end like that?

 

It's a deliberate choice, like how Apple doesn't make a shitty $50 tablet to serve the low end market. It would stink up their brand and they don't want to do that. No customer has to like it, and I look forward to reading the responses to the letter-writing campaign.

I just don't see why it has to be an either/or proposition.

[Flojomojo]

I just don't see why it has to be an either/or proposition.

You're right of course, and maybe they'll come back to this kind of product.

 

I just think there's more to it than "Nintendo hates money" and similar consumer-level bitching I've been reading.

[Keatah]

Posts are being made in the NES CLASSIC MINI DISCONTINUED thread, then moments later another post in this thread.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Keatah

[Atariboy]

Only seems logical to discuss it in here.

 

The discontinuance was already being talked about for hours before that other thread, that I didn't even notice until your post, was started. And it's not something that really calls for a new thread to be created, in my opinion. All NES Classic discussion has fit pretty well in this thread where it's all in one place.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Atariboy

[godslabrat]

I'd be in favor of locking this thread and migrating discussion to the new one.

[Keatah]

I'd be in favor of locking both threads, and creating a third one. One that can discuss both the announcement and discontinuation.

[Flojomojo]

I'd be in favor of letting people do whatever they feel like.

[Tanooki]

I don't think so. NES Classic Mini is a low margin toy that only moved 250K units...sure it could have sold more but that wouldn't have made the same kind of cash that a programmable console does. It was a one-off product with no future expansion, a Pong machine in a post-VCS world. If anything, it undervalued their IP and cut the legs of the Virtual Console on the Switch and hurt their reputation with their most loyal fans. It was like the surprise hit Wii Fit Trainer Amiibo that was popular because it was hard to find. That doesn't make it good or inherently valuable.

Not entirely true. Nintendo has gone on record saying they sold globally 1.5M of the NES/FC Mini units. Originally planned to last only through the new year, the perpetual complaining and antics got them to do bursts of added units out to specific retailers which is why there were none for a time, then it was like every 7-10days amazon, best buy, walmart or target got a big old bundle in them at the net and online. The only limited 'NES' they ever sold that did 250K which they admitted were the figures was the NES Classic Edition Gameboy Advance SP. It surprises me that damn thing isn't scalper fodder either for like 2-3x the value of a normal one.

 

There was no way this would ever cut the legs off the Switch, they are entirely two different markets. One was a budget box for the ATGames types of cheapskates, lost gamers, and holiday time cool crap to buy because WOW type people. Someone sinking $60 isn't going to drop $300 +$5 a game on the VC to get the same experience on an HDMI handheld that TV docks.

 

 

Also keep in mind the exact wording of the notice from NOA. And I quote the first sentence: Throughout April, NOA territories will receive the last shipments of Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition systems for this year. They left the barn door open. That's part of what I included in that post I wrote yesterday that Kosmic there enjoyed so much. I get both sides of the argument having worked in that industry in the past, and I'm still kept up to date in bursts as well since my brother still is in the industry as a game producer and obviously we talk. On one hand I know that the VC is an important tool to Nintendo, but it's also just that, a marketing tool. It sucks people it to just spend extra money. It's not there to drive Switch, 3DS, WiiU or Wii sales, it never was. The NES Classic Edition is the same thing, a marketing tool to suck people in to spend extra money, and in this case, to do it without buying a system they have no intention of owning so it's just not gained revenue wishing they'd buy the Switch or 3DS to then buy NES games. It's not rocket science, but basic marketing. I'm not one to play crystal ball games or do lame I told you so garbage, but wait until November of this year, or perhaps sometime into, as late as November of 2018, and let's see if it pops back up. Remember NIntendo's "year" ends on 3/31 not 12/31, and those units were produced in their fiscal year 2016, and they're now into 2017 so anything is potentially in the cards.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Tanooki

[Flojomojo]

Worldwide sales of 1.5 million units, okay.

http://www.siliconera.com/2017/02/01/nes-classic-edition-surpasses-1-5-million-units-global-sales/

It would be interesting to know how many were sold in each territory, and how many are in the hands of scalpers. eBay probably knows something.

 

Agreed that they're two different markets. I still say plug-n-play is a trashy market compared to the Switch console buyers. Maybe they'll make another one, but internet haters are never going to be happy, because Nintendo will do it on their weirdo terms.

[Flojomojo]

Via Polygon's updated story

 

Update: The Famicom Classic Edition, the Japanese version of the mini-NES, has also ended production. Yet Nintendo phrased this announcement in an interesting way on its Japanese website:

 

This product has ended production for now. When production is being resumed, we will tell you on our website.

[Andromeda Stardust]

It's also a self-defeating argument, because it assumes that people who buy VC games are people who won't buy the same game twice, when in reality they're the exact group of people who love buying games several times over.

This. I have a PowerPak and AVS. I have the original carts and system. I've got a Raspberry Pi Arcade cabinet. I've got a Wii. I've got a 3DS. I've got a Wii-U. I've got a Switch.

 

And every time Nintendo releases my favorite games on a new platform, I download them without question, just to show my support.

 

I stood in line to buy a Classic NES Mini and a spare controller so I could gift it to my uncle for Christmas, as he hasn't played Zelda in nearly 30 years. I figured I'll just pick one up for myself whenever I can walk into a store and grab one. That never happened apparently, and I'm still without a Mini. In fact the unit I bought for my uncle was the only one I've ever seen in person.

 

NES Mini was firstly for grown casuals who haven't touched an NES in 30 years, next younger kids who've never been exposed to NES, and lastly the collectors and the diehard fanboys who already have everything. I (and most people reading this) am in this final category, but collectors should have been the last people in mind when they released this.

 

Unfortunately, very few of the intended audience actually received one, and that makes me very sad. The very people who would have casually walked into a toy store and seen it on a shelf and thought, "remember when video games were great..." who would have brought smiles to their faces playing feeling the NES controller in their hands and playing old forgotten classics they haven't given thought to in years, will be forever denied that privilege, and the truly sad part is they don't even know they're missing it.

 

Many of those same customers may have given Nintendo a second thought, when they walked into a store and seen the Switch, and realized Nintendo was/is still relevant in the world. NES Classic Mini would have made Nintendo relevant again, would have ultimately led to increased Switch sales, not competed directly against it.

 

In short, Nintendo dropped the ball hard on this one. I love them, but if Nintendo of Japan can't get a clue to what consumers in western markets, or even their own Japanese market, ultimately want, then they will fade into obscurity just like Atari and Sega before them. And that would make be a very sad panda.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Besides, you wrote "could of" in an English-speaking forum, so your argument is moot.

Grammar NAZI. One of them in every bunch.

 

Sorry, it was brought to my attention the above short reply had errors in it and thus has been struck out. Let me rephrase that for you. Read it if you dare:

 

 

Flojomojo is a Grammar Nazi. Grammar Nazis exist in every thread of every forum. These individuals typically lie in wait until an unscrupulous user posts something they disagree with. However rather than fabricate a proper and well thought out rebuttal, whether in the form of a single sentence, multiple paragraphs, or a monumental wall of text, Grammar Nazis prefer to take the low road by pointing out trivial errors in the user's post, such as a misspelled word, improper sentence structure, the use of improper pluralization or tense, dangling modifiers, starting a phrase with a preposition, incomplete sentences, run-ons, improper use of or omission of punctuation marks, capitalization of an improper noun, failure to capitalize a proper noun, usage of an adverb instead of an adjective or visa-versa, or any other numerous infractions, for which my high school English teacher, Mrs Jones, would have been delighted to strike a red pen through, or even possibly returned my paper due to extraneous usage of vocabulary words and excess verbiage with which to pad the paper length to the required quota, much like I have done with this excessively long compound sentence conveying far more than a single coherent thought. Yes, I have allowed my ADD to get the best of me, leading my sentences to flow onwards as stream of consciousness. Why am I writing this? Because someone chose to point out a minor flaw in a fairly concise and to the point post. So I leave the replyee with this long diatribe as bait, because I am sure any Grammar Nazi will find much to critique in this excessively long post. It is truly a catch-22. Will the Grammar Nazi respond, thus proving me correct in my assumption, or will the individual this reply was directed to take the high road and look away? Game on. I anxiously await your humble reply...

 

Edited April 16, 2017 by Kosmic Stardust

[Flojomojo]

Kosmic, is it loyalty that makes us buy the same thing over and over, or just idiocy? Perhaps a little from column A, and a little from column B.

 

[atarilovesyou]

The only thing stupider about this discontinuation notice is that if (read:when) Nintendo decide to do another one this holiday season (welll...that's stretching it, they want to focus everything on the Switch this year, so...)...NEXT holiday season, the scalpers will be so ready...SO ready, that we won't even get to stand in line for them. Nay, the Scalperz will go directly to the source: CHINESE FACTORY ROAD TRIP, FELLAZZZZZ WOOOOT WOOOOOT!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, I so desire a second joypad, the feeling just won't go away. At the rate they're going on ebay, you'd think the joypad is worth half the asking price of the system itself. GAH. The Collectarding courses through deez veins.

[Tanooki]

I actually saw one of those boxed NES controllers for the first time today sealed up along with 2 systems, 1 still sealed while the other was full blown hacked for all sorts of fun. A pawn/consignment shop owner about a mile from here I'm on a friendly basis with had them which surprised me. I've never seen the controller box before outside of pictures. Better late than never I guess. He tends to keep certain things he gets his hands on to collect and/or use and since that place with what's in there is very secure he keeps the stuff there behind the counter.

 

I hope I, we, are all wrong on this and if these do show up Nintendo does something better about it because the scalpers will up their game to make sure they can rip us all off even more so knowing it'll be some atgames like limited holiday run to destroy by their own making(greed.)

[Schizophretard]

I don't think so. NES Classic Mini is a low margin toy that only moved 250K units...sure it could have sold more but that wouldn't have made the same kind of cash that a programmable console does. It was a one-off product with no future expansion, a Pong machine in a post-VCS world. If anything, it undervalued their IP and cut the legs of the Virtual Console on the Switch and hurt their reputation with their most loyal fans. It was like the surprise hit Wii Fit Trainer Amiibo that was popular because it was hard to find. That doesn't make it good or inherently valuable.

 

I agree. Months ago I was trying to explain that if they completely exhausted the demand as in everyone that just buys one to relive their childhoods, owns a Wii. owns a Wii U, owns a 3DS, owns a Switch, etc. gets one then the people that own a Switch that they want to use the Virtual Console along with whatever they plan on doing with making the games online multiplayer for their online subscription service would already have a method of playing these games in HD. Therefore, it would undervalue the games by Switch owners just paying for the subscription service just for the online multiplayer aspect instead of also the games themselves.

 

Another thing I said is that I suspected that they were experimenting to see the demand for these games in general or sold as bundles as well as increase the demand for them through hype so that people can think,"It was so hard being able to get to play these games on the NES Classic Edition but now on the Switch they are offering deals, bundles, and a subscription service that are just as good of deals as the NES Classic Edition but only a download away instead of standing in long lines in the cold."

[HoshiChiri]

 

Another thing I said is that I suspected that they were experimenting to see the demand for these games in general or sold as bundles as well as increase the demand for them through hype so that people can think,"It was so hard being able to get to play these games on the NES Classic Edition but now on the Switch they are offering deals, bundles, and a subscription service that are just as good of deals as the NES Classic Edition but only a download away instead of standing in long lines in the cold."

 

Except it can't be as good a deal because you still have to spend $300 on a Switch!

 

I dunno, it just seems odd to me, when there is still so much demand for an item, to just quit making it. It wasn't announced as a limited item, so it's bizarre to get told 'yeah, this was so popular you never had the chance to see it on a store shelf, but we're done now. Want to spend 5 times the money for our other system? We might re-release these games on it so you can spend even more money to have them!'

 

It's just not gonna happen. People will buy a Switch for NEW games. People who want old ones will pay scalper rates, or hunt down original gear, or find other ways. If Nintendo's worried about the Mini devaluing their brand, wait until gamers start teaching their mini-less casual friends what RetroPi is!

[Flojomojo]

Another thing I said is that I suspected that they were experimenting to see the demand for these games in general or sold as bundles as well as increase the demand for them through hype so that people can think,"It was so hard being able to get to play these games on the NES Classic Edition but now on the Switch they are offering deals, bundles, and a subscription service that are just as good of deals as the NES Classic Edition but only a download away instead of standing in long lines in the cold."

That would be nice. I would like it if in many months, you can say," I told you so."

[NE146]

hey why not

http://pi-tendo.com