Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime recently participated in an interview with Hollywood Reporter where he was quizzed about all things Nintendo. One thing that Reggie commented on was the immensely successful NES and SNES Classic systems. He said that in the Americas once they are are gone, they are gone, and that it is the Nintendo Switch Online which will be the home for retro games going forward.
Do you have plans for doing another classic console in the future? Do you expect to release any more games on the classic consoles that have already been released?
There’s no ability for add-on content with our classic consoles, so when you purchase the console it’s coming with that set roster of content. We worked very hard, both for the NES Classic and the SNES Classic, to really have the best games that defined that generation. We’ve said that the current systems are the extent of our classic program. We’ve also been clear that, at least from an Americas perspective, these products are going to be available through the holiday season and once they sell out, they’re gone. And that’s it. The way that consumers will be able to continue participating with our classic content is going to be through Nintendo Switch Online, and we just released three new games (Ninja Gaiden, Wario’s Woods and Adventures of Lolo) from the NES generation onto that platform. We look at that as the main way that consumers will be able to experience that legacy content.
This is just me, but I don’t even enjoy NES games. They were fun when they were cool, but now that there’s better things, what’s really the point? Just pixel games I already knew front and back. Let’s get some NEW games, eh, Nintendo?
It’s great for younger kids who never got to experience those NES games,if you already played them you don’t have to buy them again
Well they came with NSO free…
As a 90s kid who never heard of the NES until some time in 2004, I could never get into the NES. It has not aged well.
Very true kurtsfisaix! There are millennials who would dig NES games. Plus, it’s always a good thing to visit the past with NES games and other retro games. We have to remember that if it were not for the past, we wouldn’t have the present and the future.
We saw there was definitely a market for these though. There’s plenty of folk that grew up with NES games that aren’t tech savvy or big into gaming anymore, so they haven’t played them in decades. For me personally, there are quite a few I can always go back to. I’d like to see Switch get some games we still haven’t seen yet, like Magic of Scheherazade and Little Samson.
nostalgia for us losers born in 1979
Everytime I play an NES game it takes me back to when I was a kid and all the glory that game contained. I only play for 20 minutes or so but it’s amazing every time!
The question is if you are born where the NES wasn’t anymore on the market then I can understand because you’ll probably never seen a person playing NES game. In my case I played NES games and still now I enjoy playing it because I played it as a kid.
But I mean, when marketing to children, there’s no reason for them to play it. People play NES because of nostalgia, not quality.
I think NES games can be very Rough. We have some of the best ones already there now, like SMB3 which feels surprisingly modern and looks great. But most just are too wonky to enjoy without torturing yourself. I love that Nintendo has been releasing alternate versions of some of those harder games with boosts which might help a bit for games like Zelda and Metroid. But SNES games are different. There are some amazing SNES games that I just can’t wait for. SOme SNES games may be 2D and sprite based, but they are artistic and vibrant and the stories are a little more fleshed out. Stick with it, you’ll find games to enjoy in their classic library.
Gotta love that artificial scarcity. They can sue two people for 12 million dollars for having an archive of old games, but can’t give us a way to play all those games afterwards.
Oh grow up… I’ve seen plenty of both around. If you can’t find them you’re lazy as all hell.
Wow you’re totally right! I absolutely can find Mother 3, and plenty of other Game Boy Advance games on my Switch! And since I already own them on my Wii U, I don’t have to pay for them again, since that would just be silly!
/s
You defended the shitty stock of amiibo years back, too, didn’t you?
Don’t mind Mike T. He’s one of those shills you hear about that kisses a company’s ass & defends every shady thing the company does.
Unless I am misunderstanding something here, but the real headline here is NO N64 CLASSIC or any other console classics in the future?!
Excuse me Mister Miyamoto but I prefer to see an N64 app on the Switch
This could be your final chance to buy the NES and Super NES Classics. It’s all good since I’m now an NSO subscriber.
nintendo is so arrogant they keep refusing to put up their entire retro collection on their online service
it would be unreasonable to put every game they have ever published under a $20/year price. that would be stupid.
No, its a smart move it will give people more of an incentive to get the online membership and refusing to have snes, n64, gc, etc on their service is just stupid. Having only 20 new games at launch and 3 new games added each month is pathetic.
The real problem now is that we have to wait to get the SNES app
2019 is not that far away, Ensign.
You know Nintendo how works. We got the NES app after more than 1 year
I don’t think they could drop the entire library at once due to licensing. And I don’t doubt they will probably do the other systems as well at a later time.
they should at least drop their first and second party games that they own the rights to if they want to compete with ps plus and xbox live
I need some n64 and GameCube games. That’s all I really care about, I’ve played nes and SNES games to death already.
So can we directly infer from this that SNES games are coming to NSO? Or has that been already stated somewhere?
When version 5.0 was out some dataminers found a SNES controller icon. With this article now it is more possible to get the SNES app.
With Nintendo and retro games, it’s always one step forward, two steps back. Wii had a great virtual console, it just took some time for its games to be made available. Then Wii U started from scratch for some reason; it ended up with most of the same games, and plenty of new ones, but some never made it from Wii to Wii U. Then came the Classic consoles, which were harder to find than they should have been, especially at the beginning, and were limited in what games were available. Now even those are being discontinued, and our replacement is the Switch online, which is a subscription service and only has NES games right now. Awesome. Shouldn’t things be getting steadily better? Why does Nintendo have to reinvent the wheel every five years?
“There’s no ability for add-on content with our classic consoles, so when you purchase the console it’s coming with that set roster of content.” Lol. Tell that to anyone who’s hacked them (which is incredibly easy to do, btw)
This is becoming a very annoying trend. When the next system after Switch comes, expect the collection of retro games to be restarted from scratch AGAIN.
Honestly, instead of restarting the damn retro game collection on each consecutive system from scratch every damn time, how about you guys make a Netflix like service instead? Make the current set up a separate thing from their paid online & have that shit available as an app on multiple devices. And if someone has Nintendo’s paid online for Switch, then you get this service for free.
On one hand I’m personally happy that I wouldn’t have to buy two (or three if you include the SNES for some reason) separate consoles to have the best versions of classic NES games for the same quality content… but at the same time, there’s still the issue that it’s yet to bring SNES games into the service.
So on that regard we’d be having the Nintendo Switch to play NES games, but not for SNES games therefore making people think they HAVE to get the SNES classic edition to play them.
When the NES classic first came out, it made more sense because the Virtual Console (while a great emulator service) did NOT have the best quality for NES games. So there would be no shame in having both a Wii U and an NES at once at the time.
But now Nintendo Switch Online has the same features that the NES Classic offers as well as an option to play more games, so if people bought an NES classic while having a Nintendo Switch, it would be a waste of money.
So it makes sense to discontinue the NES classic (this time, for good) so people can play NES games (with the same content) as well as Switch games. But if you’re going to discontinue the SNES classic too, then I’d recommend adding SNES games to the Nintendo Switch Online Service, maybe even N64 and Gamecube games too while you’re at it.
I’ve only recently started seeing the SNES Classic in stock (at Best Buy). Where were they all year? Fortunately I now have 3 SNES Classics, 2 NES Classics and one Famicom Classic. Didn’t really care much about getting a European SNES Classic or Super Famicom Classic.
This stupid Switch Online better not mean that there’s NEVER going to be a Nintendo 64 Classic. I NEED THAT!
I love drip fed content that comes at a snail’s pace of old games that don’t hold up at all. Nothing makes me more happy than playing Ice Hockey on the NES on my Switch. I can’t wait for the bi-annual SNES release when they release such classics like Mario is Missing.
Why is Nintendo so ass backwards sometimes
I’m personally okay with this. However, they had better get around to adding SNES, GBA, N64 and some compatible GameCube games.
Also they need to get Capcom and Square Enix to re-release their games.
Doesn’t even address the question of whether there will be more classic consoles.
And the Famicom Mini did get more games in the form of a special Shonen Jump edition of the console.
I don’t really mind, but sell those NES controllers for Switch to retailers, or start shipping globally.
Yeah, Im never buying switch online lmao.
Great marketing for the snes and NES classic, bought both today!
I kept saying they where limiting the NES and holding off SNES games to sell the classics and for some reason nobody believed me and said even said the Snes controllers in the switch UI where just icons for 3rd party controllers XD what 3rd party controller gets a unique icon
There’s no point to even buy either or, just emulate or put virtual console games on switch.