Last week, we reported that Nintendo was discontinuing its NES Classic Edition console less than six months after its initial release. It’s been less than a full week since the controversial move and yet, sources told Eurogamer earlier today that Nintendo might very well be planning to release a SNES mini later this year. Said sources have stated that the company has already begun developing the console.
Along with the announcement that Nintendo would be discontinuing the NES Classic Edition, a Nintendo representative told IGN that the “NES Classic Edition wasn’t intended to be an ongoing, long-term product.” According to Eurogamer, the development of the SNES mini was a major contributing factor to the discontinuation of the NES Classic Edition. It was theorized that the NES Classic Edition was simply intended to be a buffer between the Christmas holiday and the Nintendo Switch’s March 3rd release date, and that that is why only so many were produced. Now that the Switch has been released, one has to wonder whether Nintendo intends for the SNES mini to serve a similar role during what could potentially be a major gap in their release lineup.
Perhaps the most prominent concern when discussing the potential of another microconsole based on a classic Nintendo console is that of availability. The NES Classic Edition was consistently sold out at every retailer, which has driven resellers to sell the console for upwards of $300, five times the original cost.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any details about what games the console would potentially include. The NES Classic Edition featured 30 games, including The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Super Mario Bros. 3, among others. It was also notoriously easy to jailbreak, allowing owners to install any NES ROMs that they could get a hold of. It remains to be seen if the rumored SNES mini will feature similarly easy-to-jailbreak system software.
RSS