Ayaneo just lately introduced the Ayaneo 2S, the refresh of its earlier PC gaming handhelds, throughout a livestream. And now the Chinese language firm has debuted its transportable machine by means of crowdfunding, trying to absolutely fund its manufacturing.

The Ayaneo 2S Indiegogo marketing campaign has already earned $320,460 out of its preliminary $6,640 objective, which places it practically 5,000% over its objective. In response to beforehand launched info, the hand-held makes use of an AMD Ryzen 7840U chip, the identical because the Asus ROG Ally’s personal Z1 Excessive CPU. 

However what’s new is one other mannequin that’s a part of the identical crowdfunding marketing campaign, the Ayaneo Geek 1S. This one has a 7-inch 1280 x 800 pixel IPS LCD show, both 16GB or 32GB of RAM, and 512GB or 2TB of storage. And the 2S model has a 1920 x 1200 pixel show, 16GB to 64GB of RAM, 512GB to 4TB of storage, higher controls, superior movement controls, and extra.

Each variations have particular crowdfunding unique value tags: the Ayaneo Geek 1S is presently $700 whereas the Ayaneo 2S is $949. As soon as each fashions hit retailers, relying on the configuration you choose (and there are many choices) the best MSRP for the 2S shall be $1,999 whereas the Geek 1S will attain as excessive as $1,299.

Ayaneo must rethink pricing

Whereas the Ayaneo 2S specs sound unimaginable and the truth that you may configure it in so some ways is sort of interesting, the pricing is an enormous concern. It was additionally a difficulty with the Asus ROG Ally earlier than official pricing was confirmed to be fortunately decrease than $800. 

However as I identified earlier than, avid gamers will merely not buy any gaming console they deem too costly and this has been proven repeatedly up to now to be true. Couple that with the price of residing disaster that’s negatively affecting laptop computer and PC gross sales, and you’ve got a recipe for catastrophe if a gaming handheld is just too expensive.

And that’s precisely the problem right here: most configurations are extraordinarily costly, extra so than many lower-cost gaming laptops and PCs. Even the crowdfunding unique costs are relatively excessive. If Ayaneo needs to be aggressive with the ROG Ally, Steam Deck, and Nintendo Swap, it must rethink its present pricing mannequin. 

As a result of it’s assured that may severely hurt gross sales, which might be a disgrace contemplating how well-designed this handheld seems to be.