While American fans of the SNES Classic Mini hoped to be able to pre-order their console when they woke up this morning, they had the unpleasant surprise to discover that the product was out of stock. For good reason, pre-orders were opened in the middle of the night. Bad press for the little Super NES.
It took only 30 minutes for Amazon and Best Buy's SNES Classic Mini stocks to run out. Both sites opened pre-orders at 1 a.m. last night, and the stock outage was announced at 1:30 a.m.
When they woke up in the morning, many fans were confronted by a page telling them that the console was no longer available. What to start the day well …
This poor organization is reminiscent of the almost immediate stock outage of the NES Classic a few months ago. However, Nintendo had promised that larger stocks of SNES Mini would be made available to avoid the same problem. The firm does not seem to have kept its promises.
However, a few hours later, Nintendo announced that the console would be available for pre-order on other sites from 1 p.m.: Walmart, Target, Toys R Us and Gamestop. Alas, again, all stocks were depleted in a minute.
SNES Classic Mini: Nintendo failed to anticipate the success of this reissue
Worse, Gamestop took the opportunity to sell the SNES Mini in bundle with other products such as a Zelda chessboard or other goodies for a salty price of 100 to 200 dollars. Practices deemed disrespectful by many fans.
However, beyond the attitude and organization of the resellers, fans directly accuse Nintendo of allowing Amazon and Best Buy to open pre-orders in the middle of the night. Indeed, a late schedule favors the intervention of robots programmed to pre-order the console as soon as it appears.
Thus, the SNES Classic Mini is already available on eBay at prices up to three times the original price. You don't have to be a guess to know that some smart kids will take advantage of the craze around this console to get rich effortlessly.
It is unfortunate that Nintendo has not taken the lead, not only by preparing larger stocks, but also by opening pre-orders at normal times. Let us hope that France will not face the same problem. As a reminder, the Super NES Mini Classic will be available in Europe on September 29, 2017. Consider pre-ordering your SNES Classic as soon as possible.