Crowdfunding platforms causing gaming handheld shipment delays

If you want to be one of the first people to get your hands on the latest gaming handhelds, you almost always have to take a slight risk by pre-ordering them from crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo. The risk of losing your money is very low with established brands like AYN and AYANEO, but a new issue has recently popped up that’s causing headaches for eager gamers.

The AYANEO Pocket AIR Mini, a highly anticipated budget device that saw more than 15,000 devices pre-ordered, is now facing delays and missing its late November shipping date (or, as a campaign update puts it, November 31th). However, the delays are not due to manufacturing, but rather because of new platform policy requirements.

Indiegogo launched a major platform overhaul in October, which caused absolute chaos for many campaign owners. Pre-campaign email signups were lost, campaigns deleted, order numbers jumbled, reward prices recalculated, and short links created by the platform redirected to 404 pages.

Most of those issues have now been smoothed out, but a separate policy change prevents companies from shipping pre-orders before a campaign has finished. This likely prompted AYANEO to move pre-orders off the platform once the campaign was finished on November 18.

However, a new update has revealed the full extent of the delays. The company announced that it isn’t able to move to the next stage of the process until December 2. At that point, it takes the platform three days to review and approve the request. Once approved, the campaign can collect addresses and shipping fees from pre-order customers.

AYANEO expects shipments to begin on December 10, with all Indiegogo pre-orders shipping within 10 days. At that point, pre-orders made via the website will ship. Depending on your place in the queue, that could mean you’ll be waiting until after the holidays to get your device.

In the past, AYANEO has begun shipments well before its campaigns have finished. Unlike AYN and other handheld device makers, the company typically has a working prototype before a device is shown to the public, significantly speeding up the process. However, that is no longer a possibility on Indiegogo.

Despite these issues, AYANEO appears committed to sticking with Indiegogo for future releases. A pre-launch page for the Pocket VERT was published last week, with other handhelds, such as the Next 2, also expected to be sold through the platform.