Sources: Nintendo to launch a mini version of its SNES console in time for Christmas 2017, after the success of its mini NES console
Major factor for NES mini discontinuation. — Nintendo will follow up its smash hit NES microconsole with a mini version of the SNES, sources close to the company have confirmed to Eurogamer.
Context & Ripple Effects
Nintendo's Classic Mini NES — a $59.99 box with 30 pre-loaded games that launched in November 2016 — turned out to be one of the company's surprise hits, selling out through the holidays. Per Eurogamer's sources, the follow-up is a mini SNES timed for Christmas 2017, and the report flags the new unit's production as a major factor in discontinuing the original NES mini.
The significance is that Nintendo is treating shrunken retro hardware as a repeatable product line rather than a one-off novelty — a template rivals would soon copy with miniature consoles of their own.
First-order effects
- Nintendo redirects manufacturing toward the mini SNES for the 2017 holiday season, ending NES Classic production while demand for it persists — leaving late buyers chasing scarce stock of the discontinued unit.
Second-order effects
- Competitors validate the category by following Nintendo's playbook: Sony ships a miniature PlayStation Classic at $99.99 with 20 games for December 2018 (announced here), and Sega counters with a $79.99 Genesis Mini carrying 42 built-in titles (details here) — both priced above Nintendo's $59.99 anchor.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, plug-and-play retro microconsoles become a permanent holiday SKU for every platform holder with a back catalog, turning 1980s-90s IP into a low-cost hardware revenue stream that sits alongside each company's current-generation console business.
The trend: Retro plug-and-play microconsoles are hardening into a recurring holiday product category, with Nintendo's mini NES-to-SNES cadence setting the template that Sony and Sega then replicate.