It took more than two decades, but Nintendo has finally gotten fans to care about the Virtual Boy, as it has somehow managed to sell out in the US.
Although Nintendo has been on a big winning streak for the past two console generations, it's not like all it is a guaranteed success. The Wii U (which I loved because I have good taste) is perhaps the most famous Nintendo flop, but there's an even bigger flop further back in the company's history.
I'm talking, of course, about the Virtual Boy, Nintendo's weird red-and-black headset that almost immediately failed and ended up only having 22 games worldwide. The Virtual Boy has been one bit of an embarrassment to Nintendo over the years, but they recently decided to embrace their past by announcing a Virtual Boy accessory for the Switch 2 that joins the Nintendo Classics library.
After 21 years, The Virtual Boy is finally a success
Turns out $99 wasn't too much for most fans
The Virtual Boy went on sale on the Nintendo Store in December, and while many fans said $99 for a joke was simply too much, it seems many of them caved. As pointed out by Nintendodeal on Twitter, the Virtual Boy has actually managed to sell out at the Nintendo Store in the US.
A week later, The Virtual Boy was still the best part of the Nintendo Direct
The Virtual Boy was a disaster, but how beautiful it was
Although the Virtual Boy store page only says that the Virtual Boy pre-order window has ended, it is still available to pre-order on the UK Nintendo Store, suggesting that it has indeed sold out. It's likely that more stock for the Virtual Boy will arrive when the accessory launches later this month, but it's still a surprise to see as much interest in it as there is.
It's not just the actual Virtual Boy accessory that's sold out, either. The much cheaper cardboard model is also out of stock on the Nintendo Store. While the Virtual Boy games will be playable if you don't have any of the accessories, they'll look a little weird, so it's not surprising that fans have also eaten into themselves a much more cost-effective way to play a strange piece of Nintendo history.
- Stamp
-
Nintendo
- Original release date
-
June 5, 2025
- Original MSRP (USD)
-
$449.99
- Operating system
-
Proprietary
Highguard's failure shouldn't matter that much
Highguard has become a talking point for game artists, instead of just a generic shooter that isn't as good as Apex Legends.
