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Nintendo Classic Mini Is A Surprising Contender For Bestselling Console In 2016, Say Amazon U.K. Pre-Order Charts

By Patrick Frye
Published on: 03:22 PST, Jul 19, 2016

The Nintendo Classic Mini is already showing potential to be the bestselling console in 2016 in the U.K.. When Nintendo announced last week that they were re-releasing the classic NES in a scaled-down body with 30 built-in games, it unleashed a boom in the gaming industry.

This could be mirroring the release of the original Nintendo Entertainment System console in the 80s, the console which brought gaming back from an early demise. E.T. for the Atari 2600 nearly ended gaming as a hobby when it became the single most notorious movie tie-in video game ever made, unsold copies eventually making their way to a landfill in New Mexico.

Nintendo brought gaming back with a bang, just like it appears the Nintendo Classic Mini is doing. With rivals Xbox One S and PlayStation Neo on the horizon, Microsoft and Sony seemed poised to rule the 2016 console market. The current generation consoles are capable of supporting 4K video playback, and the next Xbox One upgrade will be allegedly able to support the Oculus Rift. The PlayStation Neo is also said to be able to improve performance on older PS4 titles and raise the frame rate.

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Then the brainchild of Shigeru Miyamoto hit the internet almost as hard as Pokemon GO, and now Europe is pre-ordering the Nintendo Classic Mini so much that it could actually rival the current-gen consoles. This is according to Amazon’s U.K. Site, since the miniature NES hasn’t even been added to the U.S. version of the site yet.

It’s unknown why Nintendo announced the release date of their miniature re-release debut console and haven’t added it to Amazon’s U.S. market. It could be that they’re testing the proverbial waters and seeing how well it does. According to pre-order sales, it’s outpacing everything gaming-wise, and it looks good. This actually mirrors the initial launch of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 back in 2013.

At $60 for a console with 30 proven classics and a controller included, it’s easy to see why. Older gamers will be able to re-live the glory days with titles including Super Mario Bros. 3, Punch-Out, and The Legend of Zelda while they wait for games like No Man’s Sky, Titanfall 2, and Batman: Return to Arkham. Unless you buy a lot more games than average, it’s doubtful you even own 30 games on the current consoles.

The console war in 2016, if measured in units instead of dollars, could easily make Nintendo the victor once more, bringing them back from the underwhelming sales of the Wii U. The Nintendo Classic Mini console might outsell both PlayStation Neo and Xbox One S. It would be even more impressive if the Nintendo Classic Mini actually makes more money than the consoles priced at several times as much.

Amazon’s sales figures in the U.K. are showing that you will probably be playing Donkey Kong, Mega Man 2, or Metroid on your HDTV this Christmas instead of Grand Theft Auto V. For the parents out there, this is great news, as a lot of the games the Nintendo Classic Mini comes with are kid-friendly.

[Image via Tinxi/Shutterstock.com]

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