Ever since Nintendo introduced us to the NES Classic Edition in November of 2016, fans of The Big N had wanted for Nintendo to release a Super NES Classic, and the company eventually released one in September 0f 2017.
Since it seemed like Nintendo was starting a trend—that clearly influenced Sony and SNK to release their own classic versions of their consoles—fans were quick to wonder whether the Japanese company would ever begin releasing the rest of the consoles.
It turns out that a Nintendo 64 Classic could be a possibility down the road, but it may not be out for a long while as Nintendo of America Chief of Operations Reggie Fils-Aimé revealed in a recent interview with Kotaku.
According to Fils-Aimé, the NES Classic Edition was more of a marketing strategy as the company transitioned from the Wii U to the Nintendo Switch, which definitely helped the company given that the Wii U was a commercial flop and the NES Classic was that extra oomph they needed.
"
We were clear when we did the first two Classic series that, for us, these were limited time opportunities that were a way for us as a business to bridge from the conclusion of Wii U as a hardware system to the launch of Nintendo Switch. That was the very strategic reason we launched the NES Classic system".
Fils-Aimé considers the NES and SNES Classic Editions as limited time opportunities to offer consumers their classic content, but thinks that one way to go from now on is to share these classic titles on the recently released Nintendo Switch Online service.
"
So while consumers may have been anticipating something, we view these as limited time opportunities. We’ve also now been very clear that as the consumer looks forward to engaging with our classic content that is going to happen more and more with the subscription service".
When asked about the possibility of a Nintendo 64 Classic Edition, Fils-Aimé plays coy without giving away too much, but without actually confirming anything as he says that he "would not ever rule something out, but what I can tell you is certainly that’s not in our planning horizon".
A Nintendo 64 Classic Edition is almost a no-brainer at this point. While the chances of said system being released at one point in the future is almost a certainty, it may not be for a while that fans of The Big N get their wish granted and are finally given the highly anticipated Nintendo 64 Classic Edition they've been clamouring for a while now; we'll just have keep our fingers crossed and wait.