Let's be honest: it's been weeks without a single piece of official news about the Neo Geo AES+. Since SNK and Plaion's announcement, the trickle of information has dried up completely. No new dates, no catalogue expansion, not even a scrap of gameplay footage. For a community as used to waiting as ours that's nothing new, but the silence is starting to weigh on us.

The awkward silence

There's no reason to panic —retro hardware projects take time, and a custom ASIC chip isn't built overnight— but there is reason to admit that right now we know almost nothing new. Pre-orders are still open, the price is still what was announced, and not much else. Meanwhile, the conversation has moved somewhere far livelier: the second-hand market for the original AES.

The original AES keeps climbing

And this is where it gets interesting. So far this year, the one thing we see clearly is that original Neo Geo AES carts keep rising in price. The most sought-after titles —the cult shmups, Garou in good condition, anything boxed and complete— hit new highs every few weeks on auction platforms and at specialist shops.

It's the classic collecting dynamic: a fixed and shrinking supply (no more originals are being made) against a demand that the AES+ announcement itself has reawakened. Paradoxically, the revival has put more people checking original prices… and for now, that only pushes them upward.

What happens to prices when the AES+ lands?

That's the million-euro question, and the honest answer is that nobody knows yet. But we can sketch out three reasonable scenarios:

• Scenario A — the AES+ bursts the bubble. If the reissues cover the need to play the classics at a reasonable price, part of the demand currently squeezing originals gets diverted to the new console. Someone who just wanted to play Metal Slug no longer needs to pay a fortune for an original cart. Result: original AES prices could cool down, especially for the launch-lineup titles.
• Scenario B — the nostalgia effect lifts everything. The AES+ brings Neo Geo back into the mainstream conversation, attracts new fans and reactivates veterans. More eyes on the brand means more potential collectors fighting over the same finite original carts. Result: original prices go up, not down.
• Scenario C — two markets that split apart entirely. The most likely, in our view: the player who just wants to enjoy the games goes for the AES+, while the purist collector keeps chasing the original cart with its box, its serial number and its aura of a historical piece. They're two different audiences. The reissue doesn't "replace" the original any more than a reissued vinyl devalues an original 1980s pressing.

Our take

We're betting on a mix of Scenario C with a touch of B: the AES+ won't sink the value of originals, because vintage hardware collecting is driven by authenticity and rarity, not by the chance to play. What may happen is that the prices of the most common loose games from the launch lineup ease off a little, simply because there'll be a cheap new way to play them.

What we're sure of is that waiting for the AES+ on the assumption that "everything will get cheaper" is risky. If you've been hunting a specific original for a while, SNK's silence is no guarantee the price will soften; in fact, so far the opposite has happened.

What do you think? Will the AES+ cool the original market down or heat it up even more? Let us know in the comments.

This article is an opinion piece from the NeoGeo AES+ team, not official information from SNK or Plaion.

Published: 20 June 2026