Neo Geo AES+ Delayed One Year Till September 2027

Plaion has just announced that they’re delaying the Neo Geo AES+ project for an entire year, to September 16th 2027. This was supposedly announced back in July, but then they said it was for a different console and “confirmed” it would be shipping this year – Odd. They’re keeping pre-orders open, but you can attempt to contact them for a refund if needed; Amazon orders should be as easy as cancelling the same way you normally would. I posted what they said online below for reference and I have some thoughts as well…

Main Site: https://plaionreplai.us/
US Pre-Order: https://amzn.to/4vEONrA

First, this is disappointing, but not surprising. When this was announced back in April, there was no review and no working demo, yet they expected to ship to customers before the end of the year. That’s an extremely tight timetable and even the most established companies would have a hard time going from prototype to brand new ASIC production unit in just a few months. That was one of the many red flags I originally called out after it’s initial announcement. My guess is they’re completely telling the truth about “global supply constraints” being a major factor, but the fact that there’s still no reviews of a working unit hint at other issues as well.

BUT, as I keep saying, I WANT this to be awesome. It was designed by Jotego and Furrtek and based off the MiSTer core! This has the potential to be everything the retro gaming community has been rallying around: All the hard work poured into a core, combined with a company willing to take a risk on spinning off an ASIC version…all to provide an affordable, accurate (both looks and gameplay), modern Neo Geo experience. Fingers crossed they make this happen and it doesn’t suck. One big hint will be if we see a working unit soon or not…

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