NES Mini is in short supply; Nintendo responds to angry fans

It's an uncharacteristic move for the publisher, which means complaints must be REALLY bad.

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The NES Mini launched today, and it appears that demand is very high. So much so that fans have angrily been barraging Nintendo with requests for more. 

The new retro Classic console has been flying off the shelves and Nintendo is struggling to keep up with customer enthusiasm. The company doesn't often respond to commentary on Twitter, but it did so this time, acknowledging the problem: "The Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition system is a hot item, and we are working hard to keep up with consumer demand," it said. "There will be a steady flow of additional systems through the holiday shopping season and into the new year."

It followed that with a note to contact participating retailers for availability, while reminding potential customers which retailers to nag

Many retailers have had limited quantities of the new console, and some have reported being sold out online within minutes of launch. Nintendo isn't being too clear on just what "a steady flow of additional systems" means, but you can bet that demand will continue to be high, given that the console sells for only $59.99 and comes preloaded with 30 original games.

And as with any product launch, opportunistic eBayers have the console available with an average markup of about 200%. If you are desperate, you can drop $1000 on this one.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 11, 2016 9:51 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, NES Mini is in short supply; Nintendo responds to angry fans

    • reply
      November 11, 2016 10:01 AM

      What a shocker!

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      November 11, 2016 10:06 AM

      200% mark up? Are people really dumb enough to pay $120+ for this?

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        November 11, 2016 10:08 AM

        Not only that, there are currently 20+ completed items on ebay for $200+!

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          November 11, 2016 10:10 AM

          It's cheaper to get a NES and few of those games for less than $200! Not to mention it's more authentic.

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        November 11, 2016 10:14 AM

        lol - it's only $80CDN... I'm sure they will make more...

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        November 11, 2016 10:48 AM

        My friend feek said he almost paid $500 for one.

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        November 11, 2016 6:26 PM

        300% on amazon UK

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      November 11, 2016 10:18 AM

      Nintendo hasn't been able to satisfy demand at launch time since the Wii first came out.

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        November 11, 2016 10:20 AM

        The GCN was hard to get as well. I dunno about N64 because I didn't get one until later.

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        November 11, 2016 11:36 AM

        They failed with supply with the wii. They failed on amiibo. And now they are failing on this. Theres no telling how much money in lost sales there is simply because they couldnt put the product in people's hands.

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        November 11, 2016 12:07 PM

        This thing ha got to be drastically simpler to ramp up though, it's gotta be mostly off the shelf parts inside.

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      November 11, 2016 11:29 AM

      Jeez, build your own, have all the games and a wireless controller for half the price.Get a rasberry or an android tv box.

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        November 11, 2016 11:37 AM

        You underestimate people's ability to do this, whether because of laziness or lack of knowledge. Not to mention the lack of an easy & legal way to obtain games.

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        November 11, 2016 11:40 AM

        I love that people constantly parrot this but have no idea who the main customer of this is.

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          November 11, 2016 1:19 PM

          Hell, I'm tech savvy and would buy one if the games interested me.

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          November 11, 2016 2:24 PM

          Yeah...I mean I KNOW I'm an outlier. I run emulators I'm my desktop, own a Framemeister and just ordered an OSSC ( http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/ossc.html ), have considered buying an old 15KHz CRT, and have a Kazzo for ripping my NES games and a Retrode for ripping my SNES, Genesis, N64, and Gameboy, GBC, and GBA games (I've got adapters for the N64 and GB* games). I've build my own arcade joystick from the shell of an existing shittier joystick that met my needs and altered its button layout and purchased new buttons, a new stick, a PCB, and wired it all up. I own a shitload of adapters for a plethora of classic controllers (NES, Genesis, SNES, N64, Dreamcast, Playstation1&2, and all sorts of others I'm forgetting) that I use with emulators. If I wanted to run emulated games on my TV I wouldn't fuck with a Pi...the Pi lacks power to run the shaders I would want. I would fucking build an HTPC of some sort for that.

          Hell, I just got a new in box copy of NES Metroid (albeit the yellow box reprinted version), of the Genesis games Revenge of Shinobi, along with a used copy of Castlevania for the NES day before yesterday. And last week I think it was that I received my new in box copy of Super Castlevania IV that I found and ordered. I'm a fucking outlier of outliers.

          Given all that I still understand the desire for an NES Classic Edition. Not everyone is me (insane about this shit, and have an OCD desire to own every game I emulate if possible and I prefer to rip said roms myself if there's an easy way to do it)...and not everyone is even most sane people on here...for most people this would be a handy way to relive the games they loved as kids and share them with their kids. And the thing is so damned sexy that I almost want one and will probably buy one on impulse if I run into one in a store here in rural West Virginia...I'll almost certainly pick up some of the controllers to go along with the Wii Classic Super Famicom controllers I have (same plug, but its an SFC controller). I won't throw any shade at someone buying one of these at all.

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            November 11, 2016 2:32 PM

            The kids angle is the big one, IMO. I know a lot of adults want one for themselves because they DGAF about emulators, HTPCs, or DIY mini consoles. But for me, the fact that I can plop the box in my nephew's hand and just let him open it and go to town is the big draw. Well plus we can play all the things.

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        November 11, 2016 11:48 AM

        NES Classic is $60, the Raspberry Pi 3 board itself is $35, not including the case, SD card, controller. So I'm failing to see where it's half the price. But the raspberry pi is a very good solution if you have some computer knowledge.

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          November 11, 2016 11:51 AM

          I see android tv boxes online for 30$. Then just the price of a controller,still cheaper. Not hard at all.

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          November 11, 2016 12:02 PM

          Use a Pi Zero... $5

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            November 11, 2016 12:07 PM

            $5... not counting the SD card, case, bluetooth dongle if you want bluetooth, wifi dongle if you want wifi, controller

            Not saying it's not a better solution than NES classic but to quote $5 is misleading

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              November 11, 2016 12:10 PM

              I'm not saying it'd be $5 for everything. I'm saying, instead of spending $35 for a Pi 3, you can spend $5 and cut your cost considerably.

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          November 11, 2016 2:05 PM

          Price is not the issue, like I said in the other thread, $48 shipped gets you everything you need except a controller, which you already probably have. What drives this is nostalgia and simplicity.

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        November 11, 2016 11:55 AM

        Can not put a price on nostalgia

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          November 11, 2016 12:11 PM

          People do it every day!

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        November 11, 2016 12:14 PM

        [deleted]

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          November 11, 2016 12:14 PM

          I think most of the conversation is that we aren't talking about the general public, we're talking about people on this site

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        November 11, 2016 1:21 PM

        All the games = piracy. Hope that you acknowledge that at least.

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          November 11, 2016 1:52 PM

          Not if you own the games (and in my case, use a device to extract the games from said cartridge).

          http://i.imgur.com/CMYS0Ps.jpg
          http://i.imgur.com/zyKxaVJ.jpg

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            November 11, 2016 1:52 PM

            All the games?

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              November 11, 2016 2:02 PM

              True (a lot of those games I don't have an interest in tbh)...then again I only play games I own via emulation now and have been slowly picking things up that I loved to rent as a kid. I still have all my games for the NES and SNES that I owned as a kid too (along with every other game I ever owned...I never sell games or throw them away)...so I'm an outlier.

              I would add that I'm not one of the people saying this thing sucks...I'm actually tempted to get one. If they gave you the bare roms on the thumb drive in addition to the thing I would have been first in line (hell, I bought that NeoGeo bundle on th Humble Bundle because they came with the actual NeoGeo roms that I could then plug into Retroarch with my preferred shaders and play on my CRT). If nothing else I could take it up to my aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving and let the little ones play it if they like. It would also be a handy way to get some more Nintendo made NES controllers for far cheaper than I would normally pay for a new in box NES controller.

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                November 11, 2016 2:27 PM

                I'm also the nut who just got a new in box sealed copy of Metroid for the NES in the mail a couple days ago (going to post pics of the unboxing either today or tomorrow), along with Revenge of Shinobi (again new and sealed in box) and Castlevania for the NES (that one was used and just the cart...wasn't willing to pay insane money to get the original boxed and would feal bad opening it...Metroid was the yellow box reprint from '92 so I didn't feel bad about that and Shinobi was the reprint from '95...which is why I got both of them for not too much...though I won't admit to how much I paid for Metroid because it was still between 100 and 200 bucks).

                Hell, I paid 165 bucks for a new in box Super Castlevania IV recently.

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              November 11, 2016 4:25 PM

              Games on this I don't own (with the ones I really really want in red):

              Dr. Mario (but I own the SNES version with Tetris on the same cart)
              Excite Bike (in fact I think I'll hunt that down today...I love Excite Bike!)
              Kirby's Adventure (damn I regret not buying this at Walmart for 2 bucks or whatever off the discount bin back in '96)
              Simon's Quest
              Pac-Man
              Donkey Kong Jr.
              Ice Climber (I sort of want this, but I have it on the Wii VC)
              Super Contra
              Kid Icarus
              Balloon Fight
              Double Dragon II
              Tecmo Bowl
              Star Tropics
              Galaga
              Ghosts 'n Goblins (the arcade and Genesis versions are better tbh)
              Ninja Gaiden
              Gradius
              Donkey Kong (I prefer the arcade version...though if I found it cheap I might buy)
              Mario Bros. (tempting but I have this on other platforms)
              Punch Out (though if I was buying on the NES I'd probably want to get the Mike Tyson version)

              • reply
                November 11, 2016 4:26 PM

                If I didn't feel bad about breaking encryption on my Wii VC data, I'd probably just extract some of those roms out of that (since I have a ton of those on VC).

    • reply
      November 11, 2016 1:01 PM

      Really? They are angry over this? I don't think my life was ever this simple that the shortage of a new release would make me angry.

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        November 11, 2016 1:03 PM

        GUTTED

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        November 11, 2016 1:12 PM

        There were three really pissed looking soccer moms at Target looking for them this morning. The poor guy at the counter looked like he was already tired of telling people they were sold out lol

    • reply
      November 11, 2016 1:20 PM

      Currently unavailable
      We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

      • reply
        November 11, 2016 1:28 PM

        Read a few lines down on that amazon listing

        Available at 2:00pm PST on 11/11/16:

        • reply
          November 11, 2016 1:31 PM

          ...then you must go to it then, Affliated. Go to it and buy it.

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            November 11, 2016 1:33 PM

            I'd only buy it to flip for $200+ lol

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      November 11, 2016 1:52 PM

      I still can't believe this thing's super short controller cables

    • reply
      November 11, 2016 1:53 PM

      [deleted]

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        November 11, 2016 2:01 PM

        it's time, but nothing on the page yet!

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          November 11, 2016 2:03 PM

          still nothing. Though I would love to see their EC2 usage for this.

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            November 11, 2016 2:08 PM

            it's kind of exciting to see something actually able to break amazon.com

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      November 11, 2016 2:04 PM

      on Amazon.ca I had to click the show me all buying options to see the cheap one. Good luck!!

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        November 11, 2016 2:06 PM

        I can see it, but I can't add it to my cart. :(

    • reply
      November 11, 2016 2:08 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        November 11, 2016 2:10 PM

        Same... Grrr....

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        November 11, 2016 2:11 PM

        Yep same problem i'm having here.

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        November 11, 2016 2:12 PM

        Same!

        I got excited for a second then realized it glitched and I bought something off my saved list :(

      • reply
        November 11, 2016 2:12 PM

        different browsers? amateur.

        I tried browser, mobile app, and alexa :(

        • reply
          November 11, 2016 2:17 PM

          I was doing www and smile.amazon just in case there was anything different there

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        November 11, 2016 2:21 PM

        Same :(

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        November 11, 2016 6:37 PM

        I didn't even get the cart adrenaline rush :(

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      November 11, 2016 2:10 PM

      Not surprised, but then again the way they handled the Amiibo releases has worn away any confidence I had in Nintendo knowing how to properly release any sort of physical goods or media.

    • reply
      November 11, 2016 2:11 PM

      Now the NES Classic page won't refresh on Amazon...

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      November 11, 2016 2:13 PM

      Amazon completely failed to make it available properly. Showed in stock briefly but constantly "failed to add to shopping cart" while it was in stock. I don't understand why they even bother trying to sell shit in such limited quantities.

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      November 11, 2016 2:16 PM

      Fuck Nintendo. It can't be hard to make these and Nintendo has always sucked at supply.

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      November 11, 2016 2:16 PM

      [deleted]

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      November 11, 2016 2:18 PM

      I didnt even think to use my amazon phone app but the page does load in the phone app showing none available. did anyone successfully order one?

    • reply
      November 11, 2016 2:26 PM

      Looks like some people on twitter were able to snag some, all sold out now
      https://twitter.com/amazongames/status/797200591260971009

      • reply
        November 11, 2016 2:29 PM

        [deleted]

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          November 11, 2016 2:30 PM

          seriously, even apple has supply problems with new phones but at least they put you on a list and ship the product whenever they get it. I'd love a "wont ship until december 15th" because it means I dont have to have a fucking heart attack anytime some retailer maybe has some in stock for 5 seconds

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            November 11, 2016 2:34 PM

            Apple's end goal is to get their product in people's hands ASAP and to give their customers a good experience in the process. Maybe Nintendo just wants hype because they have a new platform launching after the new year.

            Or maybe they just aren't good at this thing.

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              November 11, 2016 2:41 PM

              NCL isn't good at this thing. They don't want inventory in channel for any length of time but they're terrible at getting an accurate idea of demand via pre-orders when they go into physical production. They're always super conservative, which is great for sitting on a Fort Knox pile of money but really bad for situations where they have a blockbuster product.

              It helps in situations like Wii U where they made a certain number of units and then scaled back production because demand was low. Its terrible in situations like the Wii or Amiibo where demand is beyond their projections.

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            November 11, 2016 6:53 PM

            Ok but this is a silly $60 box with a few dozen games made for casual Nintendo fans, not a $700 phone that you will be connected to every waking moment.

            Nintendo's just trying to build a little hype for it now, so they can knock it out of the park for christmas. Additionally, it builds their brand awareness back up just in time for the Switch.

    • reply
      November 11, 2016 6:51 PM

      [deleted]

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        November 15, 2016 5:39 PM

        Lol more at the idiots buying them

    • reply
      November 21, 2016 8:43 AM

      I'm tempted to start selling my own knockoffs with a Raspberry Pi and a NES shaped case.

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