FPGA developer claims Plaion's NeoGeo AES+ is effectively a “bait and switch”

The Neo Geo AES+ is set to return on November 13, 2026, and is poised to be a modern 1:1 reproduction of the legendary 1990s home console that once cost a small fortune. Pre-orders for the Neo Geo AES+ opened a few days ago, with the standard black edition priced at $250 and the white anniversary edition priced slightly higher. While it appears identical on the outside, things are different under the hood, even as one FPGA dev claims Plaion will use FPGA MiSTer cores instead of ASIC chips.

First and foremost, Plaion has painstakingly clarified that the Neo Geo AES+ isn’t an emulation box or an FPGA-based approximation. According to the company, the reproduction features brand-new, re-engineered ASIC chips designed to accurately replicate the original console’s hardware and software.

While Plaion hadn’t originally confirmed their involvement, FPGA specialists Jotego and Furrtek, two big names in the retro scene, have been working on the project, providing support for the development of the custom ASIC chips.

For context, Furrtek is best known for the Neo CD SD Loader, which allowed people to ditch discs, and the Fusion Converter, which allowed MVS arcade boards to run on AES consoles.

Furrtek recently shared his take on the Neo Geo AES+ in a now-deleted social media post, saying, “The Neo Geo AES+ has every chance of being the best since SNK themselves stopped manufacturing hardware. Perfect, maybe not, but certainly with the ambition to do better than emulation, to honor the brand, and to respect the fans.”

Furrtek later clarified that by “better,” he meant that the brand-new hardware offers more than emulation alone could. However, not everyone is convinced that the Neo Geo AES+’s hardware approach is superior.

Another FPGA developer, Pramod Somashekar, believes that Plaion and SNK are essentially running a “bait and switch” with the Neo Geo AES+. He replied to an X thread:

“That means this is basically the MiSTer core, but instead of having the design on one FPGA, you break it up into multiple ASICs. It’s a bait and switch, especially after the marketing page says otherwise. An ASIC is a hard-wired configuration; an FPGA can be dynamically reconfigured. So, if the solution is based on this, it means you can’t update it. So if a mistake is made, that’s pretty much it.”

The Neo Geo AES+ plays both original and re-released cartridges. It also features HDMI output for modern TVs, along with support for retro CRT displays via RGB, composite video, stereo sound, and DIP switches for region selection.
 

Whether it holds up to an increasingly competitive retro gaming scene’s scrutiny and standards as well as its own hype, however, is another story, especially in light of these allegations. To their credit, Furrtek is no stranger to the retro gaming scene, as noted above, and Jotego's claim to fame is their prior contributions centered on the MiSTer FPGA.