Nintendo has unfortunately discontinued the NES Classic Edition in all markets. This means that if you were waiting for the supply to pick up after Summer 2017, you might want to get your big bills on your credit or debit card and head to Amazon or eBay. The scalpers have won.

When the miniature console was first announced last Summer, Nintendo never expected the demand to rise so dramatically. In the age of the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One S, they didn't think that nostalgia would be such a big seller. They eventually revealed that they had no intention of making the miniature console a widespread success, and were aiming for a niche market.

It seemed like such a great deal, a console that could fit in your hand, with 30 games pre-installed and a classic NES-style controller, all set up to work on your HDTV in crisp detail.

Scalpers ruined everything

Practically the moment online retailers started putting the little box that could on the market, scalpers used bots to buy them all, leaving a very small minority of gamers actually able to own one. The little Nintendo box could be found for upwards of thousands of dollars as those scalpers raked in the money on something originally intended to sell for only $60 apiece.

Persistent gamers willing to camp outside their favorite brick and mortar stores in the cold months turned out the most likely to actually pay the normal retail price.

Others like YouTube partners got theirs for free just to help advertise, which ended up just being crueler in the end. We got to see "Black Nerd Comedy" and "Screen Team" open their brand new NES mini console while most of us just wanted to buy one for less than $100.

Now the SNES Classic Edition is coming, but should we be excited?

After what happened with the last miniature console, it's likely that Nintendo is going to make a limited supply and maybe some promises of a few more in the coming months. A possibly more consumer-friendly alternative would be if they had learned from the last one and planned to make plenty more.

After all, many classic gamers often found the SNES library much richer and more worthy of their time.

Of course, scalpers could ruin everything again. It might be a waste of our time to hang around with our browsers on Amazon or GameStop's online merchant sites with purchase buttons poised. It's too early to tell, but be prepared to be disappointed if the supply all ends up on eBay for thousands of dollars again.
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