The Trouble With The SNES Classic
Unless you’ve recently relocated yourself under a rock, you’ve got a pretty good idea that Nintendo has announced the Super Nintendo Classic, due for launch in September. Like any good nerd, I’m excited to line up for it on launch day, happy to pay for games I’ve played and paid for several times before. Unlike the NES classic, however, the SNES Classic will offer us a brand new experience, the never before released Star Fox 2, and I think it’s a terrible idea. Don’t get me wrong - I’m glad to finally play Star Fox 2 in an official release (the game has been available online as a ROM for years) - but releasing it on the SNES Classic makes me feel like Nintendo hasn’t learned its lesson.

Let’s flashback to 2016, where the NES classic was the hot item everyone wanted. The moment the NES Classics would hit the shelf, they would be gone. Occasionally a consumer would be lucky and score one. It seemed, however, that the majority of the consoles went to scalpers. At the time local game boutiques did not limit the number of consoles an individual could buy, meaning scalpers could potentially buy entire shipments. These scumbags (If you did this, you are a scumbag) would then post the systems on sale on sites like eBay for as much as five times the asking price. Let’s couple that with the limited number of systems that Nintendo produced, and we got a product that was nigh-impossible to get at market price, or at all.
I never managed to get my hands on an NES Classic, so perhaps you could argue that my view is jaded by disappointment, but it seems to me the SNES is headed in the same direction. Consider for a moment, that the SNES was one of the most popular consoles of all-time, selling somewhere in the region 49 million consoles during its market run. Consider also, that the SNES was home to some of the most sought-after games for Retro collectors, games such as Earthbound (the box alone for which sells for $600 on eBay), Final Fantasy 3 and Super Mario RPG. If we take a look at the lineup of games available on the SNES Classic, it’s a total killer of a lineup, consisting of all the titles I just listed and more. It’s a veritable treasure trove of SNES goodness. Though Nintendo has claimed that they are making ‘significantly more’ SNES Classics than NES Classics, Nintendo has failed to address the key issue of scalpers. Scalpers are already selling pre-sales of the SNES Classic that have been marked up in some cases to more than 200% of the MSRP. By adding Star Fox 2 to the lineup, Nintendo has guaranteed the SNES Classic’s place as a must-have collector’s item. While this makes sense from a business standpoint, as it more or less guarantees that all systems made will sell, I feel that Nintendo has failed its consumers once again. The trend of scalpers buying low and selling (very) high will continue, and the ability of the general consumer to procure a system will be miniscule.
While I know that Nintendo wants to sell out their product, I feel that to help combat scalpers, Star Fox 2 could be made available as a downloadable title on all their other supported consoles. This would mitigate the collectibility of the Classic without significantly hurting sales AND increase Virtual Console sales. Alternatively, brick and mortar stores could perhaps institute a ‘one console per person’ policy, which would at least hamper a scalper’s ability to procure product en masse.
Look, I know that we can’t prevent these sorts of things from happening completely. Between the collectibility and limited nature of the SNES Classic, it’s going to be difficult for everyone that wants one to get it. By making a few changes to how they are sold and the availability of Star Fox 2, Nintendo could still have a very successful run with the product without leaving their consumers wanting something they can’t have. That, or camp out in front of EB Games starting tomorrow. The SNES Classic Launches September 29, 2017.
