R.I.P to the Master System
Folks, we might be kicking off 2023 with some potentially bad news - The Master System Evolution has finally disappeared from TecToy’s website.
I hope the console is only temporarily out of stock following the Christmas period, but I have a feeling we won’t ever see the console be restocked again.
If I’m right, 2023 could mark the end of an era and (possibly?) the first year since 1985 that a brand new Master System / Mark III cannot be purchased anywhere in the world.
Could this be the potential fallout caused by SEGA severing its ties with AtGames back in 2018? TecToy clearly still has a relationship with the company (you can see a recent Atari Flashback and their Legends Core console for sale on their website), but since the company lost the rights to manufacture SMS/GG/MD clone consoles for the rest of the world, this presumably either extended to the Brazilian market as well, or made producing such clones commercially unprofitable. It’s also equally possible the console is no longer selling very well for TecToy.
AtGames have made some woeful Mega Drive clones over the years, but for what it’s worth I think their SMS/GG products were usually half way decent. I don’t see a reason why SEGA couldn’t have allowed AtGames to continue producing their SMS/GG related consoles. We know there’s never going to be a Master System mini and it’s not like they’re doing anything else significant with the Master System back catalogue.
In any case, I don’t see any other way TecToy could continue to produce the console without the help of AtGames or a similar supplier. Truth be told, with so many cheap Raspberry Pi like consoles running emulators available on the grey market, the days of the dedicated hardware clone have been coming to an end for a long time. This day was probably going to come sooner rather than later.
So I guess that’s it. I’m calling it. After a remarkable 37 years, the Master System is now a dead console.
