Retro Gaming Australia

Tommo is not taking the public announcement from SNK of the cancellation of their Neo Geo licensing agreement lightly. In fact, they’re not going to stop selling the system, games and peripherals, insisting that the licensing agreement is still valid and in effect until 2016.

In a statement issued today, Tommo CEO Jonathan Wan stated “We’re continuing to sell NEOGEO X products, including the NEOGEO X GOLD System, Arcade Stick, MEGA PACK Volume 1 and Classics Volumes 1-5. The license agreement which allows Tommo to sell and market these products remains in effect.”

You can read the full statement here.

In a rather surprising and brutal move, SNK has publicly announced the termination of its licensing agreement with Tommo. Tommo has been responsible for the manufacture and distribution of the Neo Geo X console, which was officially licensed by SNK and included many classic Neo Geo games, either built in or in retail bundles.

The statement issued by SNK reads:

To whom it may concern:

Please be informed that the License and Distribution Agreement between TOMMO Inc. and our company is terminated as of October 2nd, 2013.
The Licensed Products set forth in the agreement are as follows;

Terminated Licensed Products:
– NEOGEO X GOLD Limited Edition
– NEOGEO X MEGA PACK VOLUME 1
– NEOGEO X Classics Vol. 1
– NEOGEO X Classics Vol. 2
– NEOGEO X Classics Vol. 3
– NEOGEO X Classics Vol. 4
– NEOGEO X Classics Vol. 5

Upon termination of the License and Distribution Agreement, SNK has demanded that TOMMO Inc. immediately cease any and all manufacturing, distribution, marketing & promotion and selling of the Licensed Products.

In addition, SNK has demanded TOMMO immediately cease all sales of the “SNK NEOGEO X Arcade Stick” product being sold separately from the NEOGEO X GOLD Plug and Play Console, and remove the “SNK NEOGEO X Arcade Stick” product from store shelves and online retailers. In order to protect our intellectual property rights such as “NEOGEO” and “SNK”, decisive measures will be taken against all unapproved NEOGEO X products not subject to the License Agreement.

Regarding customer support for any/all of the Licensed Products, please contact the retail store / online retailer from which the product(s) were purchased.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation,

SNK PLAYMORE USA CORPORATION

That sounds like a cancellation with prejudice, no? Maybe someone from SNK actually tried using one.

It’s been a while since the NeoGeo X Gold was released, and Tommo has been pretty quiet about their plans for physical releases for the system. Today they finally announced the first physical release since the bundled Ninja Master’s cart – and it’s a 15 in 1 multi-cart.

Entitled NeoGeo X Classics Volume 1, the cart includes the following: Art of Fighting 3, Blazing Star, Breakers Revenge, Fate Fury: Mark of the Wolves, Kizuna Encounter, The King of Fighters ’96, The Last Blade 2, Metal Slug 2, Samurai Showdown 3, Savage Reign, Sengoku, Shock Troopers, Super Sidekicks 3 – The Next Glory, Top Hunter, and World Heroes Jet.

In other words, there’s actually a bit of wheat to go along with the chaff this time around.

There are five of these volumes currently planned. Volume 1 will be released in April, but no price has been announced.

The Neo Geo X Gold Limited Edition is actually limited as it turns out, and if you want one, you’ll need to get in before the end of April, when the manufacturer expects the stock to be exhausted. The standard Neo Geo X Gold system will continue to be sold beyond this point.

Speaking with Eurogamer, representatives from Tommo stated “The NeoGeo X Gold System Limited Edition Collection Series that includes Ninja Masters, was always planned to be a limited edition product. We are currently manufacturing our final run of this Limited Edition Collection Series and our distributors worldwide expect to have the final stock in April. Given the popularity of the NeoGeo X format, we don’t expect this stock to last long.”

Apparently there are meant to be some announcements concerning more games and software updates for the console soon.

Some time ago you may recall we discussed a SNK sanctioned Neo Geo branded handheld being produced by Blaze for release later this year. It seems that those plans have gone a bit further with the introduction of the Neo Geo X Gold, which includes not only the aforementioned handheld, but a docking station that allows you to hook the system up to a television. It also comes with a joystick modelled after the original Neo Geo controller.

Twenty games are built-into the system – 3 Count Bout, League Bowling, Art of Fighting 2, Magician Lord, Alpha Mission 2, Metal Slug, Baseball Stars 2, Mutation Nation, Cyber Lip, NAM 1975, Fatal Fury, Puzzled, Fatal Fury Special, Real Bout: Fatal Fury Special, The King of Fighters ’95, Samurai Showdown 2, King of the Monsters, Super Sidekicks, Last Resort and World Heroes Perfect

Of course, this doesn’t come cheap – $US199, to be exact.

Given Blaze’s track record with shonky system-on-a-chip clones, we’re not going to get our hopes up. We’ll find out for sure when the Neo Geo X Gold launches on December 6.