Further Update: Super NES Classic pre-orders were up for a brief moment at Wal-Mart starting at 1 p.m. ET, but appear to have sold out in less than a minute. Targets pre-orders went up about 15 minutes later and sold out within a couple of minutes. Gamestop, meanwhile, announced it is taking pre-orders in its physical stores, so get down to your local location if convenient.

Update: Lightly sourced scuttlebutt online suggests retailers may make new supplies of the Super NES Classic available at 1 p.m. ET today. Here are landing page links for Gamestop, Target, and Wal-Mart to keep an eye on, plus pages for Amazon and Best Buy if they happen to open up additional pre-orders.

Original Story

When Nintendo warned in early August that preorders for the Super NES Classic Edition would start "later this month," we had no idea that two major retailers would sell out of their allotments in the middle of a random Monday night. That's just what happened late last night, though, with Amazon and Best Buy both selling out while most of the country slept.

Best Buy's preorders went live at about 1:30am ET this morning, while Amazon's started around 5:00am ET, according to reports. Both sites sold out of their initial supplies within minutes. The quick sellouts came despite Nintendo's promise that it will "produce significantly more units of Super NES Classic Edition than we did of NES Classic Edition" (which shipped 2.3 million units) and that "a significant amount of additional systems will be shipped to stores for launch day and throughout the balance of the calendar year."

With Nintendo unwilling to commit to a production schedule beyond the end of the year, though, early customers seem to be clamoring for what appears to be another limited supply. European preorders that went live in June started showing up for resale at 150 percent markups on sites like eBay

Last month, Walmart was forced to cancel preorders for the Super NES Classic Edition after mistakenly offering them on its website on a Friday evening. "We know this is incredibly disappointing to those customers and we apologize for the mistake," the retailer said in a statement.

Nintendo's official Super NES Classic website notes that GameStop, Target, Toys R Us, and Walmart will also be taking preorders for the system at some point. Kotaku reports that GameStop employees have been told to expect a "special announcement that will require immediate attention" later today, so keep your fingers ready over that refresh button.

We'll try to keep you updated when those preorders go live, but there's actually a decent chance that the supplies will already be gone by the time we're able to post an update. While you wait, though, you can check out an early preview of the unit from our UK correspondent.