Nintendo is discontinuing the NES Classic

The NES Classic, Nintendo's throwback revival to its first home gaming console, is being discontinued by Nintendo.

Nintendo announced today that its NES Classic mini console, which features a handful of built-in classic Nintendo games, will have its final shipments to retailers this month.

Nintendo of America [NOA] gave us this statement today:

Throughout April, NOA territories will receive the last shipments of Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition systems for this year. We encourage anyone interested in obtaining this system to check with retail outlets regarding availability. We understand that it has been difficult for many consumers to find a system, and for that we apologize. We have paid close attention to consumer feedback, and we greatly appreciate the incredible level of consumer interest and support for this product.

This statement only refers to NES Classics in the Nintendo of America territories.

UPDATE: April 14, 2017, 9:47 a.m. EDT Nintendo of Japan announced that it is temporarily discontinuing the Japanese version of the console, the Famicom Classic. It did not say when the console would go back into production.

UPDATE: April 18, 2017, 10:25 a.m. EDT Eurogamer confirmed that the NES Classic is also discontinued in Europe.

The NES Classic has been very difficult to find in stores and online since its launch in November last year. Retailers did not receive enough NES Classics to keep up with the demand and the console has been sold out almost everywhere since day one. This, obviously, has made some people pretty angry.

Nintendo of America acknowledged the understocking issue in its statement but that apology probably won't make up for the frustrations of the would-be customers who still haven't gotten their hands on one.

With the news of the console's discontinuation, resale prices for the NES Classic on sites like eBay will likely skyrocket.