Bringing a popular classic gaming system back to market, Nintendo said that its NES Classic will be available for sale again this summer. The company said that consumers will be able to purchase the console in late June, TechCrunch reported.
“#NESClassic Edition will return to stores on June 29!” Nintendo wrote in a tweet. “This system and the #SNESClassic Edition system are expected to be available through the end of the year.”
Nintendo had announced in September that both consoles would return to market in 2018. Though the company had said that SNES would not be available after 2017, it was a surprise hit: The company said it sold more SNES systems on launch day than it did of NES systems throughout all of 2017.
In a statement last year, Nintendo said, “Fans have shown their unbridled enthusiasm for these Classic Edition systems, so Nintendo is working to put many more of them on store shelves.”
The news comes about two years after Nintendo’s first foray into the world of mobile gaming. When it hit app stores, Super Mario Run simultaneously topped download rankings in 68 countries. But the app was only released on iOS devices, leaving out a majority of smartphone users worldwide. The game also required an internet connection at all times to play.
However, what got everyone talking was the game’s major departure from the typical free-to-play, pay-for-anything-else model that most successful mobile games have followed in recent years. Instead, the first three levels of Nintendo’s new game are free. Afterward, users need to fork over $9.99 to gain access to the additional 21 levels.
Randy Nelson, head of mobile research at SensorTower, said at the time that players may “choose to see how much enjoyment they can wring out of those first three levels as possible before making the decision to drop $10.”
“There’s likely some lag introduced in revenue by the fact that users don’t feel the same impetus to monetize quite as quickly as with Pokémon Go,” Nelson said. “[But] I expect that it will soon hit top grossing in more countries.”
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