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Nintendo Sells Nearly 200,000 Units Of Its Mini Retro Console (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the sales-up dept.

Strong sales for Nintendo's NES Classic Edition, a miniature version of its video game console from the 80s, could point to a new revenue stream for the Japanese games maker. From a report on CNBC: The NES Classic Edition sold 196,000 units in November in the U.S. since its launch on November 11, according to industry tracker NPD Group. Demand for the console far outstripped supply, with many retailers selling out of the product. The NES Classic Edition is a miniature version of the original console, which was released in North America in 1985 and has sold 61 million units worldwide. The Classic Edition is a "plug-and-play" device, meaning it just needs to be plugged into a television and comes bundled with 30 retro games. In Japan, a similar product called the Nintendo Classic Famicom sold 261,381 units in its first week of sales, according to data from Media Create.

15 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. 30? by invictusvoyd · · Score: 3, Informative

    it just needs to be plugged into a television and comes bundled with 30 retro games

    Couldnâ(TM)t they fit like 300 retro games in that?

    1. Re:30? by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The number of games was probably tied to marketing and statistics, not hardware limitations.

      How do you print 300 screenshots on the back of the box?
      Was there even 300 really popular games? Maybe they only put the 30 games that sold over X units over their lifetime.

    2. Re:30? by _xanthus_47 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Plus licensing, future plans(they would try to keep the IP that they want to keep alive in the long term fresh in the public's memory), avoiding having to test 300 games on this machine (even though it is an emulator) etc etc

    3. Re:30? by damn_registrars · · Score: 2
      You pretty much hit the nail on the head, there.

      licensing

      There are some popular games that Nintendo will never be allowed to license - Battletoads is a great example (as Microsoft now holds the license by having bought out Rare some time ago) - making it impossible to put every popular game on a console legally.

      future plans

      That is one big question a lot of people are asking. There does not seem to be any expansion plan for it, though I haven't seen a dissection yet.

      avoiding having to test 300 games on this machine

      That is somewhat important and leads to a tangential point. Remember the light gun games? Hogan's Alley, Duck Hunt, Bayou Billy, etc? They're out of the question for the vast majority of TV sets out there as they won't work with LCD, LED, or Plasma sets. No way around that.

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      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    4. Re:30? by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As the most common size of a nes game was 384kb they could have easily added every single licensed nes game released (713) onto a single 512mb flash chip.

      Just need one to keep most happy for quite awhile "Super Mario Brothers".

  2. Would have bought it but for th 15 inch long wired by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    controller. Maybe when I was 6 sitting 3 feet from the TV appealed to me but now I'm old and want to sit on the damn couch. The least they could have done was up the cord length to like 8 feet or something. I'm happy to forego wireless.

  3. could have easily sold 2x that by Osgeld · · Score: 2

    If they bothered to keep it in stock

    go nintendo! can't even give you money

  4. A: Because it breaks the flow of a message by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

    Q: Why is starting a comment in the Subject: line incredibly irritating?

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    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  5. Selling out? by meerling · · Score: 4, Informative

    "With many retailers selling out"
    When you consider how they massively shorted everyone this isn't a surprise.
    One of our local stores was supposed to get over 100 of them. They got 12, and haven't been able to get anymore. With their supplier telling them the might get some more next year, they said F-it and have dropped the product.

    Another store around here had 60 ordered. They got 3. Since then they've received 2 more.

    Nintendo is once again pulling a huge stupid out it's hat. Supply is so short many people are deciding it's not worth it, especially since they just wanted to give them as christmas gifts. No point in that if you can't get one until halfway through next year.

    1. Re:Selling out? by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is spot on. Nintendo has a *long* track record of doing these premeditated shortages. I was going to get one of the 3DS units that they were hyping for $99 as a Christmas gift. When they sold out in 3 min I switched to an Android tablet. No 3D but I can't really support Nintendo when their favorite holiday play is shafting their customers & potential customers. I'm done with Nintendo as my kids are old enough that this would have been the last hurrah.

    2. Re:Selling out? by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're missing the whole point! This is one big Retro-Nintendo Package! Not only are they giving you the games from 30 years ago in a package that looks similar to the device put out 30 years ago; but they're using the sales tactics from 30 years ago too! Make just enough to whet the appetite to create a super Christmas Hype Balloon where every kid screams "I want one of THESE for Christmas! Nothing else will ever get you my love and acceptance!" but not enough to actually supply that demand..and then grab some popcorn and watch the chaos of the Consumer Gladiator Games on the CCTV at Walmarts and hobby shops around the globe! Single units being scalped for $1000's! Fist fights! Dogs and cats living together! Mass Hysteria!

      Unfortunately for Nintendo, from what I'm witnessing the consumer climate is a whole lot cooler than it was 30 years ago with regards to these tactics. While it's true that I've seen and heard some instances of these units going for a couple hundred, I've also seen a lot of people just go "meh...not worth it." People that would normally be jumping all over this sort of thing. 200K units? Nothing to sneeze at...but nothing to write home about either. This thing is just likely to fizzle completely out by the time the Holiday Hype is done with a hugely missed opportunity for N to really rack up.

    3. Re:Selling out? by MattskEE · · Score: 4, Informative

      I agree, people don't have the patience for these tactics in today's world. It would have made an ideal Christmas gift at $60, but if you can only find it for $200 on eBay it's not worth nearly that much, especially when you consider that you still need to separately buy a 2nd controller, plus controller extension cables since what it comes with are way too short.

      These days it's also very easy to assembly a Raspberry Pi based emulation system with Retropie, it can play games from a much wider range of consoles, costs about the same amount as the NES classic, and can use modern wireless controllers. Lots of people are also playing these games with emulators on their phones, sometimes with separate bluetooth controllers.

      I think Nintendo missed their main market insertion opportunity because while people would have satisfied their retro urge for $60, the wait will send a lot of people to emulators with the pirated ROMs, and Nintendo will get nothing.

  6. Supply and Demand by Jezral · · Score: 2

    Nintendo seriously underestimated the demand for this thing. I was quite looking forward to getting one for my 5-year-old daughter, but here in Denmark they've been sold out since launch.

  7. thats it? by bobmajdakjr · · Score: 2

    i can name over 200,000 people on one hand who wanted one talk about artificial scarcity jeez

  8. Not waiting by ScottArthur · · Score: 2

    I'd like to have one,but I don't want to wait until next year when they finally get enough units out to be able to get one at retail price. Probably just make a retropie system with the raspberry pi I already have and haven't done anything with. Screw you,Nintendo with your low stock bull crap.