Gamestick delayed from April to June by high-volume demand

Citing unanticipated demand, the makers of Android-powered microconsole Gamestick have pushed the hardware's expected launch date back to June.

In an update to the project's Kickstarter page, Gamestick explained that it expected to produce around 1,000 units in its initial production run, but consumer demand is much, much higher than expected at tens of thousands of units.

"This has meant that we have had to change production methods and move to high volume tooling. Initially, we planned on demand for around 1,000 units so we were going to use silicon molds, which is what we have used for the GameStick DEV units. These don’t take much time to make, but they also cannot cope with the high volume production that we now need," the company said.

"As a result we have had to move to much higher end tooling which is being made in both China and Germany. To create these tools takes around three months and is a huge investment for us – one we can only afford to make once. Whilst this work has been underway for a while we have had to slow things down a bit to ensure we can get the final controller amendments prototyped and tested before the final tools can be finished."

Due to the high volume of units, Gamestick has had to downgrade from air freight to sea freight, further delaying the micro-console's arrival. As a result, Gamestick now anticipates that units will reach backers, those who pre-ordered and retail in the last week of June.

Gamestick's Kickstarter closed with 648% funding, after which it opened a standard pre-order portal to apparent great success. Steph took a good look at it at GDC 2013 and liked what she saw.

Thanks, GamesIndustry.