Well, here’s some news you might not have been expecting. The Kickstarter for the ‘Panda’ GameCube controller, which instantly smashed the required goals earlier this month has been cancelled.
Although it set records in terms of the funds raised, the creator feels it would be irresponsible to continue on with the Kickstarter when it can no longer guarantee a December 2022 release anymore. As a result, it’s refunding all pledges and will pursue “outside investment” to continue this project.
Thank you so, so much to everyone for your support! We have been truly blown away by the positivity we’ve received for the Panda Controller. This project has been a labor of love for almost 3 years now and this response was something we never could have anticipated. Setting records and showing people how strong our community is when unified has been truly incredible to be a part of.
We have some unfortunate news to share today. Since opening the Kickstarter, we’ve been made aware of a few factors outside of our control that, when added up, have affected our production timeline. Among other new roadblocks, our main manufacturing partner in China is being affected by ongoing rolling blackouts, slowing their production which was already affected by COVID-related shortages. We know how excited you all are to get the Panda Controller as soon as possible, but it looks like we can’t guarantee the December 2022 date anymore and we don’t know what the new date will be yet.
So, with the Panda Controller timeline not having a clear end date, we had to figure out what the best next steps are. After a lot of deliberation, we felt it wasn’t right of us to hold onto your funds for an unknown amount of time without being able to guarantee when delivery will be. We had to make an incredibly difficult decision that we hope is the right one for everyone.
As of today, we’ll be canceling our Kickstarter early with all pledges fully refunded while we pursue outside investment to continue the project internally.We know how disappointing this is for many of you. We can’t thank you enough for the support you’ve given us to help make our dreams a reality.
To date, the controller had raised close to $2 million USD in funds and had more than 14,000 backers. As highlighted in the video above, the Panda Controller was intended to be the “next evolution” of the GameCube controller – with the highest quality parts for competitive play and “powerful” customisation features – including add-ons and more.
How are you feeling about this Kickstarter cancellation? Were you a backer? Comment down below.
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