Gamestop Store Managers' Rumor Claims Nintendo SNES Classic Remake Is Real And A Marketing Tactic
Nintendo disappointed a lot of nostalgic gamers when it decided to abruptly end production of its NES Classic Edition console, especially after it failed to produce enough units to meet the holiday demand despite Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime promising otherwise. Well, the bad news is that Nintendo is resuming production. But the good news? It seems Nintendo is producing an SNES Classic. Managers at several GameStop locations say the unreleased console is very real, and also a marketing ploy by Nintendo.
We have heard rumors about this before. Nothing is yet official, but Jonathan Holmes over at Destructoid did speak with several GameStop managers who spoke off-the-record about what they've heard from Nintendo regarding the SNES Classic. Each one claims it is in the works.
The first GameStop manager he spoke with said that he and other store managers met with Nintendo at a "behind closed doors event." It was there that Nintendo supposedly confirmed it was working on an SNES Classic plug-and-play console similar to the NES Classic. He said there was no release date provided, but surmised it would drop sometime this holiday season.
Holmes then spoke with a GameStop manager at a location that was more than an hour's drive away. Despite the distance and unlikelihood that the two managers would know each other, he mentioned the same event, adding that Nintendo "wanted to hype us up, but we all just sort of groaned."
It was a third manager located in an entirely different state who provided the most information.
"With these plug-and-play systems, they want headlines and foot traffic, dude. The Switch and the 3DS sell great, but if you want to get the normies out there to take a break from their regular Facebook and YouTube routines and do a Google search for 'New Nintendo system', or better yet, actually walk into the Nintendo section of a store like this, you have to pander to that lowest common denominator with cheap sh*t and nostalgia. Works every time, dude," the manager explained.
If this is all true, it will feed into the conspiracy theory that Nintendo is intentionally shorting supply of its Switch console. The numbers suggest otherwise and while we don't believe this to be the case, the court of public opinion is also a very real thing, and one that Nintendo has to answer to.
In the end it may not matter. Nintendo has an almost cult-like following similar to Apple. The NES Classic became an instant must-have console and one that Nintendo could not produce fast enough, and the same came be said about the Switch. Fast forward to the SNES Classic release this holiday season and we suspect it will be a similar situation.
We have heard rumors about this before. Nothing is yet official, but Jonathan Holmes over at Destructoid did speak with several GameStop managers who spoke off-the-record about what they've heard from Nintendo regarding the SNES Classic. Each one claims it is in the works.
The first GameStop manager he spoke with said that he and other store managers met with Nintendo at a "behind closed doors event." It was there that Nintendo supposedly confirmed it was working on an SNES Classic plug-and-play console similar to the NES Classic. He said there was no release date provided, but surmised it would drop sometime this holiday season.
Holmes then spoke with a GameStop manager at a location that was more than an hour's drive away. Despite the distance and unlikelihood that the two managers would know each other, he mentioned the same event, adding that Nintendo "wanted to hype us up, but we all just sort of groaned."
It was a third manager located in an entirely different state who provided the most information.
"With these plug-and-play systems, they want headlines and foot traffic, dude. The Switch and the 3DS sell great, but if you want to get the normies out there to take a break from their regular Facebook and YouTube routines and do a Google search for 'New Nintendo system', or better yet, actually walk into the Nintendo section of a store like this, you have to pander to that lowest common denominator with cheap sh*t and nostalgia. Works every time, dude," the manager explained.
If this is all true, it will feed into the conspiracy theory that Nintendo is intentionally shorting supply of its Switch console. The numbers suggest otherwise and while we don't believe this to be the case, the court of public opinion is also a very real thing, and one that Nintendo has to answer to.
In the end it may not matter. Nintendo has an almost cult-like following similar to Apple. The NES Classic became an instant must-have console and one that Nintendo could not produce fast enough, and the same came be said about the Switch. Fast forward to the SNES Classic release this holiday season and we suspect it will be a similar situation.
