Key information
Plaion's upcoming NeoGeo AES+ system has been delayed from its initial late 2026 release window to the rentrée 2027, with a specific launch date set for September 16, 2027. The project faced severe supply chain hurdles because the original NeoGeo architecture streams visuals and sounds directly from cartridges using parallel NOR flash memory, a legacy technology that semiconductor factories stopped producing in mass quantities years ago.
The manufacturing crisis was further aggravated by the artificial intelligence boom, as tech giants monopolize Asian foundry capacities for high-performance data center chips. Ben Jones, a project manager at Plaion with nearly 20 years of experience, encountered unprecedented order rejections and was met with a six-month waiting list during negotiations in Taiwan, while supplier Macronix reportedly demanded triple the price for deliveries delayed until 2028.
To bypass the parallel memory shortage without resorting to emulation or inflating consumer prices, Plaion's engineering team modified their custom ASIC chips to include a signal converter. This hardware workaround allows the system to utilize modern, standard serial NOR flash memory by translating the data instantly into a parallel signal. Despite the complex technical overhaul and a massive surge in reservations reaching 30 times initial estimates, the manufacturer has chosen to absorb the extra costs to preserve the original pricing policy and reward early supporters with a 'Funding Support Bonus'.
