SUPER NES CLASSIC announced (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

No. I'm sorry, that is completely wrong. You are correct about the demand issue though. It's nearly 8 months after launch, and people are still having a hard time finding a Switch...and it doesn't look to be getting any better
http://www.denofgeek.com/us/games/n...ns-of-potential-switch-shortages-this-holiday

I was thinking of an article I read about Switch vs. PS4 launch sales. It referenced Japan, not global, numbers. The Switch has sold more than 2:1 over the PS4 when you compare their first 6 months on shelves.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ollieb...first-6-months-than-the-ps4-did/#5f13085c1d02

Nintendo hasn't released sales totals in a while but had sold over 5 million units as of July (roughly 4 months on the market) and outsold PS4 and Xbox One during 4 of the last 6 months (and that's with the hardware shortages). PS4 had about 8 million units sold in it's first 6 months worldwide but that also included a holiday launch. It will probably be a more fair comparison to look at first-year sales of the two platforms so that we can see what impact a holiday will have on each. Some predictions were that Nintendo could sell up to 18 million units if they have the hardware available for Christmas, but that's probably a bit high. Realistically they'll hit at least 10 before New Year's and beat the Wii U's lifetime sales before spring.

EDIT: The Switch also has the 2 highest rated games of the year so far (Zelda: BotW and Mario Kart) and expectations are ridiculously high for Super Mario Odyssey. The Mario bundle will probably produce a surge in sales when it releases late next month.

 

[CraigF]

Amazon in the US took preorders. Canada didn't?

I have one there that's supposed to ship next week.

I couldn't find it there in Canada, not from a "legitimate" source, like amazon.ca directly in this case. I've tried on and off for the last couple weeks to find a proper link...maybe it's just me, sometimes I have real trouble finding stuff with the amazon.ca site, it's not the same as the U.S. one in many ways, more like the UK one. There are already plenty of 3rd party sellers with offers for them at 4.5X the local list price though...

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Honestly, there will probably be some in stores on release and some available to buy online legitimately. Nintendo claims to have made many more of these and I would believe them.

 

[CraigF]

^ Yeah, I kind of believe them too. Still virtually no Switches to be had though, except in a Splatoon bundle for CA$500 (I'd get a PS4 Pro bundle for the same/less money before that, any day), so I'm not 100% confident Nintendo has supply in order, least in Canada.

I'm sure some of you thought, but were too polite to say, "why doesn't he just pre-order it at BB, and he can always return it if he gets one from somewhere else in the meantime", etc.

Yes. I've done that before, just don't like returning stuff, or specifically in this case, having to go to BB, a place I rarely go to anymore except to pick up the (very) odd UHD (only place around here that has any selection worth mentioning). Nothing else in the town that has the BB that I really need to see... Too bad EB Games ("GameStop" in Canada) probably won't be having a good supply, they are all over the place, can even see the nearest one from here and there's another ~300yds away from that one, more common than Starbucks in this town.

 

[LeoA]

Surprised you didn't say Tim Hortons. When I'm around the Montreal area and the vicinity like Cornwall, I swear that there's one on every corner.

 

[CraigF]

^ Yes, I hear THs are very close together and extremely common where there are lots of people. I am a bad Canadian, I've been to TH maybe 4 times in my life, always having to do with some medical appointment where I had to "fast" for the blood test part and they told me afterwards to go get a coffee (maybe I looked weak?...). I am kind of picky about coffee, prefer to make my own if possible, I don't really pay attention to where THs are.

 

[LeoA]

Less than a week to go. Looks like Best Buy is getting ready to ship mine.

After hooking it up, I'll be going through route A of Star Fox first. Always been my favorite part of the game. So much so in fact that I've finished it about 30 times through the years and regularly revisit it every year or so since it's a fun 45 minutes from start to finish, but have never bothered to master the two alternate routes.

I've gotten close to the end of Route B and C once or twice, but never finished either alternate direction. So the save states here will let me rectify that with a minimum of fuss. Will be weird with a game that I'm so familiar with, actually seeing stuff that's brand new to me after over 20 years of playing this game.

Hopefully Star Fox 2 surprises me when I tackle that, but from everything I've seen (and briefly played), it's no more what I wanted from a Star Fox sequel than Star Fox 64 ultimately was (No orchestrated sounding Koji Kondo score and the awful voice work all but crippled that beloved N64 game for me). But I'll still enjoy seeing it all for myself.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Do a barrel roll!

 

[LeoA]

The tracker says Friday delivery, but my order just got scanned by the UPS facility that's almost in view from the windows on the backside of my house, on the opposite side of a big farm field.

So it should be soon.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Most big box retailers near me are getting between 5 and 15 units for launch day (two Walmart stores are actually getting about 25 each) with some stores already having people camping out on the sidewalk. Basically, there are going to be about 100-125 units total available in a city of 60,000 people with three universities. Bring on the fiasco.

 

[CraigF]

^ And what about all the people who are clearly planning to purchase a whole bunch? I mean, the people offering to sell them at 5X+ the release price must have some sort of plan...

I guess I'll wait until the dust settles, I'm so far behind watching UHDs etc. that I'll probably never even "seriously" get to the SNES Classic for a few months anyway. So if I miss out, it'll definitely be (mostly) my fault this time! I have to order an online-only item at BB anyway, so I'll throw a SNES in and see what happens. [Edit: nope, can't do that, pre-orders still "sold out" in Canada at BB; at WM too, the only options I know of here]

 

[TravisR]

Most big box retailers near me are getting between 5 and 15 units for launch day (two Walmart stores are actually getting about 25 each) with some stores already having people camping out on the sidewalk. Basically, there are going to be about 100-125 units total available in a city of 60,000 people with three universities. Bring on the fiasco.

A guy at Target told me that he wasn't allowed to tell me the number they were getting but he said that if I got there an hour or half an hour before opening, I'd probably have a good chance at getting one. Some dope at Best Buy just tried to act like no one in the store knew how many they were getting and that is was impossible to find out until tomorrow. I used to work there years ago but even if I didn't, I'd have known that was a crock of shit.

^ And what about all the people who are clearly planning to purchase a whole bunch? I mean, the people offering to sell them at 5X+ the release price must have some sort of plan...

I think most brick and mortar stores have a one to a customer policy on popular items so the ignorant and greedy won't be able to profiteer like that.

 

[CraigF]

^ If I knew for sure the nearest (but not that near...) Best Buy would have stock, I actually might go there before opening and wait. No big deal for me really, I just didn't think I'd be around here (or near any BB) on release day. But there's no advance info here at all, especially for quantities, just like for the initial release of the NES Classic, even on twitter.

I would assume people who want to buy a bunch of these for resale would do so online, by pre-ordering. Can't see anybody cracking down much on that, even if they could.

I'm actually not at all "worried" that I can get one, later rather than sooner though. I'm not really at all familiar with the SNES, it's the NES I'm familiar with and wanted more. I'm mostly going on you guys and many other people saying they'd rather have a SNES Classic than a NES Classic when the NES was announced, so the SNES games will be totally new to me (not a bad thing at all).

 

[Morgan Jolley]

It turns out that the innards of the thing are identical to the NES Classic, so much so that hackers who have already gotten theirs have used the exact same hacking tools to do stuff with it. This means the pipeline for making more of these as well as more NES Classics is really simple.

I expect that there will be plenty for people to buy going forward in the next couple months. Maybe not on day one but shortly.

 

[LeoA]

I went out to get a second system for a gift just now. My local Wal-Mart got 30 in and was limiting it to 1 per person. Looked like there was going to be at least a half dozen unsold units after the line went through.

I think anyone that wants one and is willing to at least try a little bit, will be able to find one with a minimum of fuss over the coming weeks. Hopefully it will even be able to be continuously in-stock at some point at major online retailers.

I think Nintendo hit a home run with this. I don't have any complaints so far with mine, although more games always would've been nice (And while a non-issue for me, the 5' controller cord will be sure to bother some people in today's big screen wireless age). I haven't tried my Hori arcade stick for the Wii yet though, so that might end up my first issue since it didn't work with the NES Classic Edition last year.

But unlike last year, I'd only be wanting to use it with Contra III and Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts anyways. So it's not a major problem if it's incompatible like I'm expecting, given the hardware commonality with last year's NES Classic (And I have other ways to play those with an arcade stick anyways).

Bring on the Nintendo 64 Classic Edition next year.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I don’t think we’ll see the N64 Classic until 2019.

I actually managed to get one this morning on my way to work. I used the brickseek stock tracker when I got up at midnight to see which of the three Walmart stores closest to me still had stock. I checked again before I left home at 1:30AM to head to work. One of them showed a stock level of 26 at midnight and 0 at 1:30. The second store showed 24 at midnight and 2 at 1:30. They’re almost a half hour drive from my house so I figured my odds weren’t great at showing up before the last two sold. My third option was a tiny supercenter about 5 miles from my house who showed 15 in stock at midnight and 14 in stock at 1:30, so that’s where I went. When I showed up, I couldn’t find them in the display case so I found a manager to check the security cage in the back. She came out with one and said they only received 3 and not 15 and I was the second person to buy one, leaving only 1 in stock. Two lessons learned: Stock trackers may not be reporting accurately and if you don’t see one, ask if they have any in the security cage.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Drove past Best Buy on my way into work. At least 20 people waiting in a line.

Something of interest to anyone with the NES/SNES Classic: there are wireless controllers that have "home" buttons that allow you to access the home menu and do things like rewind your save or change save states without touching the reset button. Yeah, you need to buy a new thing, but IIRC one company made a bluetooth dongle for $17 or so that worked with the Wii U Pro controller and the Switch JoyCons.

 

[TravisR]

I got one this morning at the local Target with little trouble. I go there around 7 AM, got a ticket for it and then waited for about an hour until they opened. They had 30 of them and I think everyone there before opening got one.

The word in the line was that the local Wal Marts had only gotten half a dozen each at midnight, the line at Game Stop started yesterday afternoon and the line at Best Buy was already massive more than two hours before they open.

 

[Bryan^H]

I got one this morning at the local Target with little trouble. I go there around 7 AM, got a ticket for it and then waited for about an hour until they opened. They had 30 of them and I think everyone there before opening got one.

The word in the line was that the local Wal Marts had only gotten half a dozen each at midnight, the line at Game Stop started yesterday afternoon and the line at Best Buy was already massive more than two hours before they open.

Wow, they must be hot.

Way to go Travis. I love most every game on the SNES Classic. My favorites are Donkey Kong Country, and Castlevania 4.

 

[TravisR]

Wow, they must be hot.

Way to go Travis. I love most every game on the SNES Classic. My favorites are Donkey Kong Country, and Castlevania 4.

I mostly picked it up for the Mario games but I'm looking forward to getting around to Donkey Kong and the Star Foxes. Even as an adult, Zelda is still probably too complex for me.