The big news in the world of Commodore is that 'Commodore Corporation BV' and all 47 original Commodore trademarks have been snapped up by Commodore International Corporation, a new entity run by retro gaming YouTuber Christian Simpson.
The first commercial product to be produced as part of this new venture is the C64 Ultimate Edition, an AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA-powered recreation of the famous 8-bit home computer, based on the existing Ultimate 64 Elite-II board created by Gideon Zweijtzer.
While the C64 is a beloved home system, many people have asked if this revived version of Commodore will also produce products based on the Amiga, the 16-bit successor that was home to some of the greatest video games of its generation.
In a recent update to backers, Simpson answers that particular question:
If you thought the story of the Commodore brand post-bankruptcy was messy, the Amiga lineage is even more convoluted – in short, the Commodore and Amiga brands have long been separate entities. The Amiga name was sold to Gateway 2000 in 1997, which planned to release new Amiga models without success. In 2000, Gateway sold the Amiga brand to Amiga, Inc., which, in 2019, sold the IP to Amiga Corporation.
None of this has happened smoothly, to say the least, and the complexities surrounding the Amiga name meant that Retro Games Ltd.'s 2022 Amiga micro console had to be named the A500 Mini to avoid any legal issues.
Still, Simpson has proven he has the tenacity to make things happen, so who knows? Perhaps the Amiga will get another shot at fame under the auspices of Commodore International Corporation.