What you need to know
- AYANEO has announced it is pausing the Kickstarter campaign for its first smartphone the Pocket Play.
- This comes as part of the company’s new “Service Improvement Plan,” which aims to remedy many complaints within the community.
- Recently, AYANEO has been called out for its inability to fulfill orders from previously fulfilled campaigns, despite devices being made available through third-party channels.
AYANEO is in a bit of hot water for a multitude of reasons, and it’s reached a boiling point. After continuously being called out by the community, the company announced its “2026 Service Improvement Plan,” which starts with the AYANEO Pocket Play Kickstarter campaign being temporarily paused.
As outlined on the r/ayaneo subreddit and in a corresponding blog post, AYANEO’s Service Improvement Plan is comprised of five different categories. These include the likes of “Shipping & Crowdfunding,” along with the “After-Sales Experience.” Within the plan, there are various targets and tasks, such as the new “help@ayaneo.com” email address, a “repair guarantee,” and even plans to launch an “overseas warehouse.”
For years, AYANEO and other Chinese-based gaming handheld manufacturers have relied on the likes of Kickstarter and Indiegogo to fund its various products. The way it works is that essentially a product is announced, the campaign is opened, money is received, and the devices are shipped after the campaign reaches its goal and production begins. However, AYANEO has been treating Indiegogo more like a traditional storefront, with the campaigns reaching its goals almost instantly, mostly due to low goals being set.
Waiting months and months to receive a device from AYANEO directly, while others are able to head over to AliExpress or even Best Buy and get one much sooner. One such example is the KONKR Pocket FIT, which was announced in July 2025. Despite a successful campaign, AYANEO has still yet to fulfill all of the orders from backers, while some (including myself) have been able to order one via Best Buy and have it delivered in less than a week. On the flip side, I backed the AYANEO Pocket DS: Retro Power Edition in August 2025, but only just this week received a tracking number.
Just today (January 13), an update was posted to the IGG campaign, stating that “only 128 units of Pocket FIT G3 remain unshipped” while “a few hundred pre-orders” from the website remain unfulfilled. Not only that, but the Pocket FIT was expected to arrive around the same time as the Odin 3, making it one of just two handhelds powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Unfortunately, that model has been removed entirely, with current shipments now expected to commence “within March.”
Zu Reviews from Retro Handhelds was one of the first, with Russ from Retro Game Corps following suit in both his Pocket Vert review and a YouTube Community post. Others, such as Kei’s Retro Gaming have also voiced their issues and concerns on the matter, effectively “putting the pressure” on AYANEO to make drastic and meaningful changes.
Although there are some who will claim they’ve always called out AYANEO for its practices, it’s really amounted to nothing until more creators and community members united together. Regardless of why, what’s clear now is that the company is finally ready to make changes. Now, we just have to hope AYANEO follows through on the plan it outlined, and that this doesn’t just end up as being a bunch of smoke and mirrors.
