Plaion and SNK's Neo Geo AES+ — a modern remake of SNK's 1990 Neo Geo AES platform responsible for franchises such as Metal Slug, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown and King of Fighters — saw pre-order demand far exceed expectations earlier this year.
The project, originally targeting a holiday launch window, was pushed back by almost a year after component procurement problems emerged.
Plaion's hardware and software director Ben Jones discussed the delay and the steps taken to rescue the hardware in an interview with VGC at Tokyo Game Show.
According to Jones, Plaion's production partners in East Asia informed the company that the Parallel NOR flash memory chips required for the AES+ were unavailable.
Jones said this was the first time in nearly two decades of working with Plaion that suppliers had refused to accept an order for chips, and that suppliers indicated AI-driven demand and supply pressures were a contributing factor.
The specific components at issue were Parallel NOR flash devices, which the Neo Geo architecture expects to access directly.
Jones travelled to Taiwan to meet potential suppliers and explore options, but he was told there could be a six-month wait just to be considered for supply.
During that procurement scramble, Plaion identified a workaround.
The company had already produced ASICs for the cartridges that interface with memory chips, and it held thousands of those ASICs in inventory.
Using those ASICs as part of a hardware conversion, Plaion adapted the system to use Serial NOR flash — a functionally similar, more readily available memory type — by converting Serial NOR access to the parallel interface expected by the AES+.
That engineering pivot is the primary reason for the near-year delay announced by Plaion and SNK.
Jones emphasized that without finding a viable flash memory solution the project faced real risk of cancellation, but that the team exhausted options and remained committed to delivering the product.
The Neo Geo AES+ remains a niche collector-focused console that taps into the enduring popularity of SNK's arcade-era catalog.
Many Neo Geo classics have also been re-released on contemporary platforms, including digital storefronts such as the Nintendo Switch eShop, but the AES+ is a standalone hardware initiative aimed at preserving the original cartridge-based experience.
For the full discussion with Ben Jones from Tokyo Game Show, VGC published a detailed interview covering the technical and logistical challenges Plaion navigated.
The project, originally targeting a holiday launch window, was pushed back by almost a year after component procurement problems emerged.
Plaion's hardware and software director Ben Jones discussed the delay and the steps taken to rescue the hardware in an interview with VGC at Tokyo Game Show.
According to Jones, Plaion's production partners in East Asia informed the company that the Parallel NOR flash memory chips required for the AES+ were unavailable.
Jones said this was the first time in nearly two decades of working with Plaion that suppliers had refused to accept an order for chips, and that suppliers indicated AI-driven demand and supply pressures were a contributing factor.
The specific components at issue were Parallel NOR flash devices, which the Neo Geo architecture expects to access directly.
Jones travelled to Taiwan to meet potential suppliers and explore options, but he was told there could be a six-month wait just to be considered for supply.
During that procurement scramble, Plaion identified a workaround.
The company had already produced ASICs for the cartridges that interface with memory chips, and it held thousands of those ASICs in inventory.
Using those ASICs as part of a hardware conversion, Plaion adapted the system to use Serial NOR flash — a functionally similar, more readily available memory type — by converting Serial NOR access to the parallel interface expected by the AES+.
That engineering pivot is the primary reason for the near-year delay announced by Plaion and SNK.
Jones emphasized that without finding a viable flash memory solution the project faced real risk of cancellation, but that the team exhausted options and remained committed to delivering the product.
The Neo Geo AES+ remains a niche collector-focused console that taps into the enduring popularity of SNK's arcade-era catalog.
Many Neo Geo classics have also been re-released on contemporary platforms, including digital storefronts such as the Nintendo Switch eShop, but the AES+ is a standalone hardware initiative aimed at preserving the original cartridge-based experience.
For the full discussion with Ben Jones from Tokyo Game Show, VGC published a detailed interview covering the technical and logistical challenges Plaion navigated.
