In the wee hours of the morning of August 22, 2017, both Best Buy and Amazon posted their pre orders for Nintendo’s SNES Classic and sold out in mere minutes. Unless you just so happen to be awake at like 3am during the five minutes the link was posted, you are out of luck. #Frustrating.
At the time of this posting, the rumor is that Gamestop might be posting their pre orders today with Target and Walmart soon to follow.
A few weeks ago Walmart posted their SNES Classic pre order link around 11pm on a Friday night. During that time, I was one of the lucky ones to be awake and aware when the link was posted. Unfortunately, a few days later, Walmart canceled all those pre orders, saying it was posted in error. #EvenMoreFrustrating.
I think retailers understand the super high demand for this plug-and-play console especially given the popularity of the NES Classic last year. For retailers to accurately track pre orders, they have to post their links at times when most of America is sleeping. Either way, the SNES Classic is already a super collectable item that will fetch a high price on eBay.
You’ll never be able to play Star Fox 2 on the SNES Classic so stop having hope now.
Nintendo has stated they plan on making more SNES Classics than NES Classics but that is a vague statement. Granted, Nintendo is releasing this system in September instead of November to allow more time for the holiday rush. At the same time, Nintendo also stated this will be a finite item – once they are gone, they are gone and will not be making more, just like the NES Classic.
Like you, I hate this. I hate hunting. I hate constantly F5’ing. I hate constantly updating my Twitter account to seek updates. I hate this stress. I hate the inflated eBay sellers. I just want to walk into a store and casually buy one off the shelf, when I want, on my own time. Why is this a such difficult concept in 2017? But over the last couple years, it has become common place for Nintendo to leave money on the table. People want to buy their stuff so why don’t they make more? Just look at the Switch and the amiibo craze. Consumers understand there is only so much to go around so they take extreme actions like waiting in line for hours or paying double or triple the price on eBay. Instead of scalpers making money off Nintendo’s products, Nintendo could be making money off Nintendo’s products by just increasing the supply.
Instead, consumers are now competing against other consumers for an entertainment-based product. The consumer with the fastest fingers (or best Bot) will win this stupid pre order game. And keep in mind, this is just for the SNES Classic, a discretionary “want” product. Can you imagine if there was ever a zombie apocalypse? People are nearly killing each other over this Nintendo product so just think what would happen if everyone had to fight over that last case of bottled water or spam.
Of course I am just blindly complaining like everyone else. I really want to believe I will be able to add a SNES Classic to my collection but as of right now, the future isn’t looking good and keeping my expectations very low. I would happy give Nintendo my money but since they most likely will not be able to make enough and force me to deal with the stress of finding one, I guess Nintendo is forcing me to stick with emulators.
Best of luck to you. If you have an extreme story on how you obtain a NES or SNES Classic, please share in the comments below.