After dealing with a family emergency during the last few weeks, it has come to my attention that quite a few of you backers have been rather worried about the current status of the project.
I understand your anger and frustration, as this also weighs heavily upon me as the project creator and I want nothing more but to ensure everyone gets their console in their hands. I will start slowly with each question, as I think they were presented. Some of the topics I’m going to talk about might be understandable only for those of you who were following the project, however it is time to address them regardless.
Q. Why don't you talk more about the arcade located in Platte City?
A. I owned the arcade cabinets before the Kickstarter project and decided to move them there after my wife wanted to reclaim space in the garage. I had an empty spacious showroom for the GCW, where units are flashed and packaged, and agreed it was a great idea. I had always planned to do something like this eventually, so why not now as I had the space. All arcade cabinets were bought using personal funds I get from my daily job income.
Q. What is this about a fundable.com page for the GCW Zero?
A. The fundable.com page was intended to attract corporate funding to buy Atari when it was headed for bankruptcy. The campaign itself was canceled, but the page still remains.
Q. Where are the consoles? Are you doing this for the money?
A. It has been brought up that GCW LLC has been having money issues and that the consoles did not exist. The consoles do exist. I hope the included pictures put some of that anger to rest. From the pictures you can see some units are packed and ready to ship.
If this venture was just about money I would have started taking pre-orders right after the Kickstarter was funded for consoles next to the money we had already raised via Kickstarter (as seen with other Kickstarter projects). I decided to go the other route and try to ensure you guys got your pledges first.
That plan did not work as intended. Shipments to resellers were delayed, even though they had ordered units before the Kickstarter project started, and the ThinkGeek order which had to be filled once the contract date came of date. The ThinkGeek order was a separate production run paid for by them and not derived from Kickstarter funds.
Now, with these questions answered, the shipping of consoles will resume tonight and an effort will be made to communicate on a regular basis (this will include shipment information).
