Nintendo has announced that it will cease production of the 30-game NES Classic Edition plug-and-play system by the end of the month, even though retailers have been unable to keep the system on store shelves for pretty much the entirety of its six-month run on the market so far.

In a statement provided to IGN, a Nintendo representative said:

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.

The representative added that the NES Classic "wasn’t intended to be an ongoing, long-term product. However, due to high demand, we did add extra shipments to our original plans." The NES Classic controller will also be discontinued, according to the spokesperson.

Almost immediately after the NES Classic's release on November 11, the $60 miniature system was nearly impossible to find on store shelves. It was being sold for an average of a 200 percent markup in second-hand sales on eBay . Those after-market prices have come down a bit since then, but the console still routinely sells for over $100 on the auction site.

Amid those post-launch shortages, Nintendo said "the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition system is a hot item, and we are working hard to keep up with consumer demand. There will be a steady flow of additional systems through the holiday shopping season and into the new year."

Nintendo sold 1.5 million NES Classic systems worldwide in the 2016 calendar year, according to a Nintendo earnings report from January. In that report, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima apologized for "the inconvenience caused by product shortages," noting that "some parts require time to procure, but we are working to increase production. We also see the nostalgic interest in these products as an opportunity to draw consumers' attention to our latest game system, Nintendo Switch."

(For what it's worth, a teardown of the NES Classic's innards didn't show any particularly rare proprietary chips that would cause obvious production problems.)

It's not clear how many more NES Classic systems have shipped to retailers in 2017, but the system has remained nearly impossible to find without obsessive attention to tracking sites or lucky timing in stores. A supply of systems that went up on Best Buy's website on March 29 sold out within minutes.

In a March interview with Gamespot, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime admitted to a "marketplace disconnect" between the demand for the system and the supply Nintendo was initially prepared to provide to the market. "When we looked at that proposition, what we believed was the adults, 30-40 years old, who grew up playing NES as a kid, 10 years old or so, but had stepped away from the gaming category—that was going to be the buyer [of the NES Classic]," he said. "As we thought about that, that led us to a certain level of supply."

Instead, as Fils-Aime put it, "more active gamers" also flocked to the system. The fact that the miniature unit could be hacked to run any number of NES ROMs (or even to run Linux ) may have had something to do with that surge of interest, even though a cheap Raspberry Pi 3 can do the same and more.

The NES Classic news comes as the Nintendo Switch also continues to sell out quickly at most retailers, a situation that Gamestop expects could last through the end of the year. Nintendo is reportedly doubling its rate of Switch production from 8 million to 16 million units for the calendar year in light of that demand.