SNES Mini Announcement

Eldrethor

@Danorak1981 That's the thing that bugs me: the cost-per-game argument comes up a lot whenever people compare the Pi to a NES mini, but people often forget that the cost of the Pi is only the hardware; the roms themselves are not free, and RetroPie is entirely community-driven, so no one is paying for the UI/UX, themes, emulators, etc.

Sure, the Pi is an absolutely way better deal if you're looking purely at the number of games you can get for your money, and the fuzz/feds (probably) won't go after you if you download roms, but those roms have always had costs that get ignored. And while some of us might not agree with Nintendo's business tactics, it's a legal route of getting the games you want. That and if you include the cost of software and the second controller, the SNES mini itself seems like a good value, considering that you're getting several amazing games, and a legit, official copy of Starfox 2.

Riverstorm

If social media is any indicator it's going to be an extremely popular item. Nintendo has made comment it will have a larger stock but will only ship until years end.

“We aren’t providing specific numbers, but we will produce significantly more units of Super NES Classic Edition than we did of NES Classic Edition,” Nintendo mentioned in an announcement despatched to Gamespot, amongst different shops.

“Super NES Classic Edition is currently planned to ship from September 29 until the end of calendar year 2017. At this time, we have nothing to announce regarding any possible shipments beyond this year,” Nintendo mentioned.

CodeDrawer

@Riverstorm MANANAMAMTRBMRRT HMMPTT!! WHY IS NINTENDO NOT MAKING THESE LONG LASTING LIKE THE SWITCH!???!?!?! THESE SELL IN LARGE AMOUNTS!!!! THESE MIGHT BE MORE SUCSESSFUL THEN THE MAJOR CONSOLES!!!!!

PetroRie

@CodeDrawer said in SNES Mini Announcement:

@Riverstorm MANANAMAMTRBMRRT HMMPTT!! WHY IS NINTENDO NOT MAKING THESE LONG LASTING LIKE THE SWITCH!???!?!?! THESE SELL IN LARGE AMOUNTS!!!! THESE MIGHT BE MORE SUCSESSFUL THEN THE MAJOR CONSOLES!!!!!

I was wondering exact the same, maybe they're trying to troll their fans lol. Nintendo has made a lot of weird decision in the past.

space cadet

Imo nintendo has lost a lot of fans these last couple years. I haven't been happy with them since the gamecube. Marketing for money!

Riverstorm

@space-cadet said in SNES Mini Announcement:

Marketing for money!

Such a fine line between maximizing profit as business and alienating your customer base. :) It would have been nice for them to take pre-orders to gauge demand and have sufficient supply to meet that demand. Instead they will be standing in some department store line with the local news interviewing while holding up the mini console talking about what brought out all these people out on this cold dark night.

For some reason they seem to value the idea of it being rare, expensive and hard to obtain. Like someone said earlier I would be curious the percentage that gets snatched up only to resell them at an exponential price point knowing it's a limited run of 3 months.

If sales are any indicator of declining popularity over the past 5 years then for sure they are loosing. I believe the NES was the best selling console and the Wii was close to being the worst.

backstander

@Riverstorm

I believe the NES was the best selling console and the Wii was close to being the worst.

The DS (not including the 3DS) is the most sold and the Wii U is the least sold. I think the Wii outsold the NES by about 20 million.

A Former User

I've lost track of how many times I've heard people writing Nintendo off. It's quite funny to watch since it has absolutely no relation to the real world, for example, regarding Wii sales : "As of March 31, 2015, the Wii has sold 101.52 million consoles worldwide". Make of it what you wish :)

Sure, they make some questionable moves - or moves that look questionable to Western people - and of course since PS/XBOX appeared on the scene there always was huge negative hype from fans of these consoles. The pre-Zelda/Switch hate is the best example - and yet it sells like hot cakes, normal people just don't really care about N4G/forum ragers.

For the record, I'm not a typical faNboy, never had NES/SNES, love Zelda but don't care much for Mario, etc. But facts are facts - they're doing just fine. The Mini-craze is just a skillfully played gambit and who can really blame them?

backstander

I always wonder how accurate these charts are but I thought this was interesting!

The Wii out sold both Xbox 360 and PS3!

Also I would have figured the Atari 2600 was 1st gen!

Riverstorm

@backstander said in SNES Mini Announcement:

The DS (not including the 3DS) is the most sold and the Wii U is the least sold. I think the Wii outsold the NES by about 20 million.

I was excluding handhelds but I stand corrected on the NES sales. Interesting info.

@arkive said in SNES Mini Announcement:

I've lost track of how many times I've heard people writing Nintendo off.

Not sure if that came across negative but I am neither that far left or right. Maybe slightly cynical ;) but I enjoy all points of view and don't loose sleep over it. I'm sure N's bottom line is operating in the black all other objectives being secondary.

mediamogul

@arkive

Sure, they make some questionable moves - or moves that look questionable to Western people

That's a key factor to be sure. They're certainly not afraid to keep things weird and more often than not, those strange gambits pay off big time. Despite what you tend to hear from the likes of Statler and Waldorf, Nintendo's doing very well for themselves. Two days ago their market value surpassed Sony's and Nintendo of Japan actually has enough operating capital to hypothetically keep the company afloat for close to ten years with no income.

mediamogul

@Riverstorm

I didn't recognize you with the new avatar. It's been a while. How's tricks?

Riverstorm

@backstander said in SNES Mini Announcement:

Also I would have figured the Atari 2600 was 1st gen!

Hmmm..1st gen consoles are those obscure devices that probably weren't massed produced and didn't make it as a household item?

mediamogul

The dedicated PONG consoles are good examples of first generation successes.

hooperre

@backstander said in SNES Mini Announcement:

I always wonder how accurate these charts are but I thought this was interesting!

The Wii out sold both Xbox 360 and PS3!

Also I would have figured the Atari 2600 was 1st gen!

This chart is awesome. Wonder how PS4 and XBox One sold. With the Wii owning so much of the 7th gen market, I wonder if there was even any uptick in sales after approx 40 years of video game console user growth.