A letter from the Managing Director

Dear Evercade Community,

Another “interesting” year has gone by with plenty to reflect on. We have had some amazing highs and some learning points for the future. Our year began with struggles to buy components like chips and screens along with shortages of materials, but we hit a real high with the announcement of the VS in April, swiftly followed by the opening of pre-orders in May.

It was great to bring more classic games to the Evercade alongside carts full of new retro games from talented developers. Some of my personal favourites like Sensible Soccer, EDF, and Chips Challenge arrived on the system, which was exciting to see, and we reached 300 games available with more on the way.

We also worked on improving our offerings via feedback from the community. We added more information to our manuals and tried to make them easier to read, we worked long and hard on fixing bugs. We poured our energy into trying to make the Evercade a better product.

As the year went on, the VS production began, and we were very pleased to have gotten all the parts needed to deliver in November. This was when best-laid plans unraveled with a global shipping crisis that has not abated. Despite these challenges, we managed to get many VS customers their console and the reaction has been excellent. I think the team takes great satisfaction in seeing their work in the hands of people that really enjoy it.

The other new hardware product we released was the Special Edition Purple Handheld console. As people were waiting for their VS with many paying upfront for the Founder Edition, we decided that it would be better to get it shipped and have it ready to send out rather than open another round of pre-orders. It was nice to be able to deliver this quickly with help from our friends from Funstock. Pre-orders are not always preferable but support our cash flow and build confidence in our retail partners. Thank you for appreciating this and continuing to trust us with your hard earnt cash.

One group of people that continue to wait are the North American customers and for this delay, we are extremely sorry. It is highly frustrating to know that VS stock is on US and Canadian soil right now, but transit times, port delays, and other factors are preventing it from reaching customers. This stock was ready first but delivered last. All we can do is apologise and try to do better next time.

All in all, we can look back and say we really did our best and the result was happy customers who continue to support us. I must personally thank the Blaze Team who have worked themselves to a standstill this year, pulling late nights and testing their family’s patience. It’s no exaggeration to say that this Christmas break is much needed, and we intend to come back stronger next year. Our extended team of developers and testers also did an amazing job, their skills and hard work are essential to our success.

I also need to thank – our customers who support us in all sorts of ways, YouTube channels, magazines, and websites that help us spread the word, our retail and distribution partners who sell the Evercade, Licensors that allow us to license their precious games and our suppliers that help us build the product.

Our philosophy has been to try to make something we would want to own and use, that was good value. We want to be proud of the products we put in your hands, and I believe we accomplished this in 2021. We look forward to more of the same in 2022 and we promise more exciting Evercade Adventures ahead!

In the meantime, we asked our community to send in some photos of their Evercade setups. Here are some of the many we received. You can share yours on social media as well and simply tag us in.

Kind regards and best wishes,

 

Andrew Byatt

Managing Director – Blaze Entertainment Ltd.