Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé just recently revealed the reason for the discontinuation of the NES Classic Edition.
In an interview with Time, he indicated that the issue of resources, combined with Nintendo's plans in the future, led to the discontinuation of the gaming console. He said, "From our perspective, it's important to recognize where our future is and the key areas that we need to drive. We've got a lot going on right now and we don't have unlimited resources."
It seems that this future he was referring to was the Nintendo Switch. In another interview with IGN, he said that the demand for the NES Classic Edition came at the same time that the company was preparing to launch the new console. Ultimately, the company chose the latter.
Fils-Aimé also explained that the NES Classic Edition was not intended to be sold for an extended duration, and was only supposed to be sold during the holiday season. He said, "We had originally planned for this to be a product for last holiday. We just didn't anticipate how incredible the response would be."
He continued, "Once we saw that response, we added shipments and extended the product for as long as we could to meet more of that consumer demand." Fils-Aimé also said Nintendo had shipped 2.3 million units worldwide before the console was discontinued.
The announcement of the discontinuation of the NES Classic Edition was made at the height of consumers demanding more units to be produced by the company. Online and offline retailers experienced stock shortage, with the product bought within minutes of being put on sale. This was despite Nintendo's prior commitment to release enough units to meet the demand of consumers.
Nintendo Wire reported that the NES Classic Edition stocks delivered to retail giant Best Buy stocks were bought immediately, with buyers lining up, and even setting up camp outside stores before these opened for a chance of getting the gaming console.
