What a rollercoaster ride the Polymega has been. When it was first announced the excitement was palpable; here was an all-in-one solution for retro fans which would allow them to harness their existing collection of games and play them with modern creature comforts, such as save states, patches and HD output. Such an epic venture was always going to be prone to some delays, but Polymega has been pushed back more than once, with its latest (tentative) release window being February (yes, the month just gone).
The machine has missed this revised release window, with reports from Japan suggesting that production has been delayed by the ongoing civil unrest in Myanmar. NK Trading Co., Ltd., the Japanese distributor of the system, has stated that “satisfactory supply cannot be provided”; it is also citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a contributing factor. NK Trading is aiming for a shipment within the year (it’s not known if this refers to the calendar year or the financial year, the latter of which ends at the start of April) but notes that it is, at present, “difficult to predict an accurate schedule.” It was reported that this production delay is also believed to impact North American and European orders.
We contacted Playmaji for comment and the company confirmed the Japanese report:
Polymega is still shipping but its coming out slower than expected from our Myanmar factory due to the protests that are happening. The modules and controllers are made in China, while the console is assembled in Myanmar. The timing is changing daily which is why we haven’t announced anything concrete yet. We are still on track to ship everything here over the next few weeks.
Drama over? Not quite. Today, it came to light that Playmaji has had its business licence suspended in the state of California, where it is based.
Right, going to attempt to get a refund on this @polymegaHQ pre-order from @GmbhWorldwide. The company’s business licence has now been suspended in California so I have no confidence this thing will ever reach me. pic.twitter.com/fuCHyuYbEc— Chris Scullion (@scully1888) March 8, 2021
So, is the sky falling in the world of Polymega? Not quite. Playmaji told us the following:
There was some kind of issue with our last tax payment in 2020 related to an old credit card we had on file. We’re paying a penalty for it, and our accountant is resolving it now. Also, it’s worth noting that Playmaji, LLC is just one of our corporations – we have multiple, so the tax suspension is just for California.
We were invited to join the system’s beta test last year and were granted access to a pre-production variant of the system. Polymega absolutely delivers on its promise to be an “all-in-one” retro solution, so it’s a shame that its launch has been impacted in this fashion.
Earlier this year, it was announced that the thousands of people who had pre-ordered via North American retailer Walmart would need to place fresh orders direct with Playmaji, as Walmart had apparently “gone silent” on the company.
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