The most popular Japanese video game company Nintendo has had a rough decade thus far. Ten years ago, the company was experiencing some high success on the commercial and cultural success of the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS, its popular handheld.
Nintendo's down years
Nintendo's stature and its stock price climbed to some record highs by 2007. But declining Wii remotes around in the den proved to be a rather short-lived trend rather than a lasting lifestyle. The 2012 HD follow-up, Wii U, heavily disappointed critics and consumers, resulting in the company's value dropping by 80 percent that year.
Nintendo's slow rise
Despite having a really rough decade, Nintendo is slowly recovering and is finding some success by developing a nostalgic retro console that reminisces the success of the past: The NES Classic Edition Mini.
About the NES Classic
The NES Classic Edition is a tiny replica of the original 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System, which features 30 classic built-in games for that system for HDMI output to your TV. The concept is hardly new-all-in-one retro console emulators have been present and available ever since, from the Atari to the Sega Genesis.
The struggle of finding the NES Classic
But an amazing combination of Nintendo origin and clever design have made the NES Classic Edition a hot commodity. On top of that, supplies have been limited since its official release last November 2016, making the NES Classic Edition a very hard-to-find console for the 2016 holiday season.
To make things even worse, speculators and opportunists have pushed the $60 retail price to $200 or even more on online shopping sites like Amazon and Ebay.
Reasons for the limited stock
It is possible that Nintendo limited its stock to create a bottleneck, and thereby a definite holiday phenomenon. But most likely, the company just didn't anticipate the high demands for an official re-release of its 30-year-old old flagship.
With all things said, it is no doubt that the NES Classic Edition is a pure example that Nintendo's success is built largely on echoes of their prior successes in the past.
