Nintendo Just Confirmed the NES Classic Is Coming Back
Nintendo says it will extend shipments of its upcoming Super NES Classic Edition into 2018 in order to meet "incredible" demand for the $79 retro console capable of playing 21 classic SNES games (including Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Super Metroid) and due out in the U.S. on September 29. That mirrors the sales trajectory of last year's NES Classic Edition, which went on sale in November 2016 and was sold through April, when Nintendo said it would discontinue the system despite persistent sky-high demand.
Speaking of, the original NES Classic Edition is getting a second life: Nintendo says it's bringing back its crazy-popular original Nintendo Entertainment System homage in summer 2018. The system, priced $59 when Nintendo sold it the last time round, comes with 30 classic NES games, including Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda.
In April the company told TIME that it had "no plans to produce more NES Classic Edition systems for NOA [Nintendo of America] regions," worrying many that the system would be consigned to exorbitant aftermarket scalper sales (where systems still routinely go for hundreds of dollars). Nintendo says it'll have more to say about the NES Classic Edition's 2018 release timeframe down the road.
Nintendo says it had originally planned to wind up shipments of the Super NES Classic Edition by the end of this year, so the extension—though similar to the NES Classic Edition's—should help. The company also says it plans to ship more Super NES Classics at launch in the U.S. than it did NES Classics, and that shipments will arrive regularly thereafter.
"Fans have shown their unbridled enthusiasm for these Classic Edition systems, so Nintendo is working to put many more of them on store shelves," the company added in a statement. Nintendo had already said in August that it planned to ship "a significant amount of additional systems ... for launch day, and throughout the balance of the calendar year."
http://time.com/4937072/nes-classic-edition-release-date/