Polymega
Image: Damien McFerran / Time Extension

If you're one of the many people who gleefully pre-ordered the Polymega two years ago, you're probably wondering where your system is – especially as the revised launch window of November is already slipping away fast.

While Playmaji – the company behind this retro wonder-console which can play NES, SNES, Mega Drive, PC Engine, PlayStation and Neo Geo CD games, and much more besides – has already shifted the release more than once, it gave assurances that November would be the month – but it has remaining worrying silent on social media of late, triggering a host of conspiracy theories regarding the status of the console.

Playmaji has now broken its silence with a new-look website for the Polymega, as well as (yet another) revised release date and some more exciting news about upcoming features.

First up, the unpleasant news. The Polymega launch has been pushed into early 2021, with the site listing February as the proposed launch month. According to Playmaji, "a major retail partner of ours who has sold many systems has had ongoing issues communicating the status of the project to us, and has also moved release dates without notifying us." Rumours swirling around online suggest the retailer in question in Walmart, which took the lion's share of North American orders. The retailer has apparently gone silent on Playmaji.

Playmaji has hinted that, because it still isn't known if Walmart will fulfil its orders, it cannot ship the units it has manufactured to other buyers. "We assume there will be a resolution to this problem in the next few weeks simply due to the nature, size, and reputation of the company," the statement continues. "But barring some immediate turnaround / change in behavior, there will be likely project wide impact which will delay release into early 2021." Playmaji has said it is happy for customers impacted by the delay to apply for a refund.

Furthermore, European buyers who placed orders with Worldwide Distribution GmBH via Amazon EU have discovered that their orders have been cancelled – in this case, Playmaji is asking impacted customers to contact Worldwide Distribution GmBH to reinstate their order.

It's hardly an ideal situation – especially as Polymega's release has been pushed back before – but Playmaji is keen to stress that it is doing everything in its power to make sure the console is in the hands of consumers as soon as possible. "Truth is we are still a small team, working on a very big project that is now done and is being manufactured in partnership right now with dozens of suppliers from around the world in an exceedingly difficult year to do so," the statement adds. "We've spent over $1M USD on procurement/manufacturing in the last month alone, and are comfortably in position to deliver the first batch of around 5,000 Polymega pre-orders very soon."

On to more positive news regarding the system, Playmaji has confirmed that development on the hardware and software for the Polymega Retro Gun Controller GC01 is progressing nicely and that pre-orders for the unit will open early next year.

It has also confirmed that MSU1 support is coming in a future firmware update, which will allow users to patch CD-quality audio onto their SNES and Super Famicom cartridges. The feature is expected to arrive in update 0.7.30 (the current update is 0.7.29).

We were lucky enough to get our hands on a beta Polymega unit earlier this year, and we came away very impressed indeed with the machine's capabilities, saying: "from what we've seen in the week we've spent with the machine, it looks set to become a highly desirable piece of hardware for retro fans."

This article was originally published by nintendolife.com on Fri 13th November, 2020.

[source polymega.com]