Speaking with Kotaku, Nintendo of America president, Reggie Fils-Aime, has slashed hopes for a Nintendo 64 Classic release, at lease anytime soon.
[jwplayer sKZZk6x3]
The interview explores everything Nintendo is up to at the moment, but a re-release of the classic console doesn’t seem to be on the agenda right now. In response to the question, “would you rule out an N64 Classic coming?” Reggie said, “I would not ever rule something out, but what I can tell you is certainly that’s not in our planning horizon.”
Bummer. Given Sony has a PlayStation Classic coming out very soon, I would have guessed Nintendo would follow suit, particularly when you consider the raging success of both the NES Classic and SNES Classic consoles. That’s not to say it won’t happen, it’s just definitely not happening for a while.
“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,” Fils-Aime said. “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.”
Could that mean N64 games will be made available on the Nintendo Switch at some point? Well, that’s hard to say, but it’s certainly possible. Backward compatibility is a big drawcard these days, and the success of the Xbox Game Pass system proves that it’s popular with gamers.
After having a play with the PlayStation Classic last week, the biggest thing I noticed was how badly the first wave of 3D games has aged compared to its 8-bit and 16-bit predecessors. It could be that Nintendo just doesn’t want this to be highlighted with the N64, or that its games simply require more care with remastering, which obviously means more time in development.
It’s a bit of a bummer, but if the N64 Classic does eventually come, it’ll be worth the wait, I’m sure.