FunnyPlaying's Next FPGB Mini Drop Is This Week, But There's Bad News

FunnyPlaying's latest handheld dropped a few weeks ago, introducing the FPGA market with a brand new miniature GAME BOY that could play your GAME BOY and GAME BOY Colour cartridges on a bright 2.98" display with pixel-perfect resolution, all in a form factor that can fit in your pocket, called the FPGB Mini.

It was extremely popular, and released in a somewhat enclosed way, with only a handful of influencers and publications (including us) getting their hands on it before release. To make things worse, FunnyPlaying only made 40 units in their first batch, stating that they've only made limited numbers so that they can iron out all of the issues before a larger public release.

And it seems like that's still their goal after contacting them today, asking about more information regarding a restock. Because I know a lot of you have been messaging us regarding this device, because again, FunnyPlaying's marketing and PR around the FPGB Mini has been a little limited; if anything, I'm doing most of it for them!

But that aside, we were contacted by FunnyPlaying, and they have informed us that "Currently, the remaining stock is only 20 pieces and it is expected to be sold out by this Friday. We are making improvements to the new version based on customer feedback, but the specific release date of the new version is still uncertain".

You read that right: only 20 units will be available in the next batch, which is "expected" to go on sale this week. They said to us "sold out", but I believe that was a typo because nothing has been on sale since the last batch sold out many weeks ago. The fact that only 20 are being stocked is concerning, as many people want to get hold of this, even after our quality concerns in our full review.

To name a few, the menu button literally broke off, making it impossible for me to save games or jump into the settings when playing my cartridges; the cartridge slot is too small for rumble cartridges, and there was a handful of games that would glitch and bug out on here, showing proof that this does need a lot of work before its major release, and that's exactly what they are doing.

So, if you ask me, I think the best thing to do on FunnyPlaying's side is to stop stocking them after the initial 20 have sold out, iron out all the bugs and launch this thing on Kickstarter to really gather some attention because it has so much potential and many retro games want something like this, especially if they keep it at the $69 price tag, which underprices the likes of ModRetro's new transparent Chromatic and others on the scene. But only time will tell, and I have a funny feeling it's going to be a long time before we see those bugs ironed out. FunnyPlaying likes to work slowly, likely because they're still a small team.