GameGadget: The empty promises and, finally, a response

[wraggster]

GameGadget has been a bit of a PR disaster. It was billed all wrong by maker Blaze; don't market a device on promises of publisher support that six months after launch still haven't materialised, and don't string customers along and then leave them in the dark. Twice.They're harsh truths, but apparently they've now been swallowed. I've been assured by a GameGadget spokesperson that GameGadget has a future: it hasn't been left to die while Blaze concentrates on the new NeoGeo X Gold Limited Edition (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-13-snk-neogeo-x-gold-handheld-arrives-worldwide-in-december-for-USD199) instead. There's even new GameGadget hardware on the way. But there we go with another promise, and GameGadget has a bad history with those.GameGadget's story began in January (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-01-26-meet-the-100-gamegadget-handheld-that-has-own-retro-download-store) this year. Back then I spoke to Mark Garrett, one of two men in charge of GameGadget. He introduced me to a handheld device with its own download store that wanted to be the iPod of retro gaming - a stellar ambition. More accurately it wanted to carve a small niche. But at £100 it was a tough sell, and no games were confirmed. All Mark Garret could promise due to NDA contracts was, "We're in communication with all the major publishers."Eurogamer readers were unconvinced. But Mark Garrett wasn't deterred: he registered a Eurogamer account and got his hands dirty in the comments thread. So too did Blaze marketing manager Andy Pearson, who said the GameGadget business had "a lot of success" contacting some of yesteryear's biggest publishers. "We're doing everything we can to try and bring back games that people may have forgotten about (or never even heard of)," he pledged.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-30-gamegadget-the-empty-promises-and-finally-a-response