In the UK and Europe.
As of today; July 10th, Blaze Entertainment CEO Andrew Byatt put out an announcement that both Evercade cartridges as well as Super Pockets will see an increase in price. For users in the UK, cartridges will rise from £19.99 to £24.99, and Super Pockets will increase from £49.99 to £59.99. For Europe the prices will increase from €24.99 to €29.99 and €59.99 to €69.99 respectively. While a modest price bump to many, the increases on these ones specifically are quite sizable considering the Evercade cartridge, and Super Pockets fairly low starting price points. For those of us in the United States, we’re fortunate enough to not see any prices increase at this time thanks to tariff reductions as stated in the announcement from today.
As expected, the price bumps are because of the same thing affecting everyone in just about every market; NAND, and DRAM price increases. Just like the AYN and Retroid price bumps, prices are increasing due to the increased demand for ram and storage in AI datacenters, and additional tools that need that precious memory the general consumer shouldn’t be allowed to have. Because of that, we’ll be seeing price increases on some items, but Andrew Byatt has already confirmed that for now, it won’t have an impact on their upcoming Nexus handheld or their EXP-R, VS-R, or Alpha devices.
Blaze Entertainment’s work on the Evercade over the last five years has been an incredible amount of work to see. Managing way too many licenses to count in order to provide a physical game outlet for those who want to experience those older games in a different format. While it may not be the thing for everyone, especially in the emulation scene, it’s great to have options. Hopefully the price rises can slow down so that impacts on prices like this can affect less people in the long run.
