Neo Geo X

[Morden]

Not too long ago there was a lot of speculation about a new Neo Geo handheld. Some labeled it as a successor to the Neo Geo Pocket. It was believed to be fake at first, but at this point it has been confirmed that Neo Geo X is very real, even though it's not exactly a new console.

- > Neo Geo X Press Release

As it turns out, Blaze is the company behind it. For those unfamiliar with the brand, Blaze made a couple of Plug & Play mini-consoles and handhelds, much like those by Radica and others. Essentially, MegaDrive / Genesis on a chip, with some games thrown in.

So what are we looking at with the Neo Geo X? It's a handheld with a 3.5" screen which comes with 20 games and offers such exclusive features as an SD card slot, AV output, headphone socket and stereo speakers. All that for only $800. Wait ... what?!

That's right. Supposedly, the thing is going to cost $800, which is absolutely INSANE [granted it's true]. It's a Blaze device, which most certainly uses software emulation to run the games, and doesn't seem to offer anything remotely exclusive as far as I can tell. What do they mean by AV output, anyway? I hope it's not the usual Blaze component output. For $800 you should be getting component, RGB and / or HDMI.

So what's the deal? Is it so overpriced because Neo Geo collectors are willing to spend more than others? If I wanted to play Neo Geo games on a handheld, I could just as well emulate them on a PSP or even DS, and if I wanted to spend money on a separate handheld to do that, I could always get the Caanoo for ~$150. It seems to handle Neo Geo games just fine, and from what I've seen on YouTube, it has enough processing power to emulate PlayStation [although I'm sure the emulation isn't perfect, the games look very much playable].

If the price is set that high to make Neo Geo fans pay through the nose, I'm wondering if this handheld will be anything more than what those Sega licensed Plug & Play devices are to a hardcore Sega fan. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I never believed Neo Geo X to be real, but more and more portals are reporting it to be legit, so either someone has managed to pull off a good prank or people at Blaze had lost their mind. $800? Really?

[Flavor]

Well, my pessimistic take on it is that it's just an emulation device that's going to carry the licensed "Neo Geo" brand name. They probably can't sell enough quantity to make it worthwhile to produce at a low price tag (and compete against Dingoo, Wiz, Caanoo, PSP-CFW, etc.), so they are going after a different market (of high-end collector types).

I kinda hope I'm wrong, but that's my guess.

[Nerdstick]

That price is wrong, as Blaze corrected at some point.

[Morden]

That price is wrong, as Blaze corrected at some point.

All I could find is that they denied it's going to be this expensive, but I haven't found any information on what the retail price will be. My guess is Blaze is trying to recover from the overwhelmingly negative response to the $800 price tag, but they haven't yet figured out how low are they willing to go.

[Flavor]

They are Neo Geo fanboys. They'll get over sticker shock pretty quick.

[jrronimo]

This device makes me think of the X-Files "I want to believe..." poster. But not for $800, for sure. I could see myself forking out no more than $250 for it, and even *that* is largely for nostalgia. To compare, a Vita is $250 and a 3DS *was* $250 when it launched. If Blaze can really line up support for this, though, it could make for an interesting little device.

[-SD-]

I honestly beleive this will end up priced around £120, the slight premium due to it looking shiny and having the Neo Geo logo. The normal retail price of Blaze's Game Gadget is £99, although they're currently doing it for £59.99. Considering they're almost the same device, there's no way Blaze can really expect people to pay that much more for a Neo Geo branded one.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to it.

[mic_]

"League Bowling"? Three words: Lacks Magical Drop.

[Morden]

I've noticed that the Neo Geo X webpage underwent a facelift and has a couple of new pictures. They've added a Neo Geo X Gold, which seems to be a new release of the AES Gold (?). As usual, there's little to no information on the webpage itself, but they're showing pictures of a "Gold" console and the arcade stick, with the Neo Geo X logo on them. Has anyone heard anything about this?

[Flavor]

It seems that it's slated for a $200 price tag. I think (not sure) that gets you the handheld, the docking station (which looks like an AES) with HDMI out, and an AES-like controller.

Based on some reading-between-the-lines, I think they'll release/sell more games in the future. Maybe they'll hire me to do NGPC games for it.