The NES Classic Edition, AKA the tiny lil' NES with a bunch of games and zero inventory, is coming back. Nintendo announced on Tuesday morning that it plans to send out multiple new shipments of the NES Classic starting in summer 2018. The company previously said it only ever intended for the 30-games-in-one console to be released in limited shipments throughout late 2016 and early 2017, making this a pretty big (and very welcome) reversal.
I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to the prices plummeting on these eBay auctions once word spreads that NES Classic is coming back. Have fun with that, scalpers!
The same press release also confirmed that Nintendo has dramatically increased production of SNES Classic over its predecessor. More SNES Classics will be available on launch day alone than all of the NES Classic systems Nintendo shipped throughout 2016. It will also continue to ship out more SNES Classic systems throughout 2018 - somehow, Nintendo had originally planned on not doing further shipments beyond 2017. No, I don't understand it either, but the important part is that Nintendo changed its mind.
In short: your situation is far from hopeless if you haven't managed to pre-order an SNES Classic yet.
Personally, I'd long since abandoned any hope of securing either Classic system based on what a hellfire shitshow the original NES Classic supply situation was. Far from despair, I'd reached a sort of zen-like acceptance about things that cannot be, or in this case things that aren't nearly worth the stress and anxiety required to get them. But if stocks really are abundant enough that I could just wander into my local game store a few days after launch and grab one… well, I'm going to have to meditate on this.
