News

Coleco Chameleon to Relaunch on Kickstarter at Lower Price

The Coleco Chameleon originally launched as the Retro VGS and embarked on a very ambitious Indiegogo campaign. Its creators tried to produce a new console which uses cartridges and appeals to retro collectors. Furthermore, the Retro VGS didn’t incorporate any online functionality, or community features like achievements. Instead, it was designed to offer a retro gaming experience via unique old school gameplay and impressive artwork. However, the project’s target of $1.95 million was frankly absurd and revolved around a minimum entry price of $350. This was absolutely laughable given the device’s mediocre specification and unknown software support.

As you can imagine, this didn’t bode well and the project only amassed $63,546. Eventually, the console was re-branded after an internal re-design and acquisition of the Coleco license. On another note, Piko Interactive, famous for releasing new games on older systems has pledged their support for the console and will release a number of intriguing games. As a result, the Chameleon is already building a small library which encourages consumers to be early adopters. Clearly the biggest hurdle is the device’s price which deterred many people from investing.

Recently, the team announced a complete overhaul of their pricing structure and the console will cost $135 for the first 1500 backers. This is a discount of 10% compared to the later models which retail for $150. This is a major reduction in price and probably down to a better production line or cheaper source of components. Also, they might have underestimated how difficult it is to acquire funding for a console without any history, or powerful branding behind it. Despite the new price, some retro enthusiasts are not convinced and feel it’s a flawed idea. A friend of mine, who’s a huge retro gaming expert told me this about the product:

Another major error is they asked for a huge amount of money on Indiegogo. Kickstarter is usually the best place to pitch ideas with large targets because it’s a more well-known platform. This time the Chameleon is going to relaunch on Kickstarter on February 26th. Although, we don’t know what the team’s targets are.

Image courtesy of The Verge 

John Williamson

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

New Report Suggests Helldivers 2 Xbox Release Unlikely

As one of the most popular online games lately, it’s no surprise that Xbox fans…

6 hours ago

November Xbox Game Pass Games Revealed

We've finally reached the month of November, and that means one thing for Xbox users:…

7 hours ago

PS5 Pro Enhanced Games List Revealed

For those who haven't had it on their radar, this week we take a new…

7 hours ago

MSI Overclocker Pushes Kingston Fury Renegade RAM to Record-Breaking 12,196 MT/s

An overclocker from the MSI team has managed to push the Kingston Fury Renegade CUDIMM…

8 hours ago

NVIDIA Pushes SK Hynix to Accelerate HBM4 Production

It seems that NVIDIA wants to launch its next products ahead of time. We are…

8 hours ago

ASUS Unveils New TUF Gaming A2 SSD Enclosure with Enhanced Durability and Speed

The trend of upgrading storage from traditional hard drives to SSDs has become increasingly popular,…

9 hours ago