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The owner of the Coleco brand has said that it is no longer associated with the makers of a supposed retro console that was to carry its name.
Retro VGS has decided that the work that they have created is not sufficient to demonstrate at this time,” the Coleco Facebook page stated. Consequently, we can no longer proceed with the project and the Chameleon project will be terminated. This separation is amicable.
We wish them luck in the future. We thank the gaming community for their continued support, input, vigilance and trust.”
The Facebook page for the Retro VGS machine itself, meanwhile, has disappeared completely.
Speaking further about the failed project, Mark Thomann, the CEO of Coleco owner River West Brands, told Polygon: "It just wasn’t what we had thought it would be. We thought it would be an originally developed console, and the indications were that it just wasn’t.
"Our intention is genuine to come out with something unique under the Coleco brand. If that’s not happening with this group, we’ll be doing it with someone else. Sometimes when you have something like this happen, maybe there’s a group out there that can do it, and help us introduce a better product.”
Earlier in the week the managing editor of RetroVGS-owned Retro Magazine David Giltinan quit his role, saying that he was no longer willing to continue defending the project.
Uncertainties about the legitimacy of the Coleco Chameleon project were first asked last week following allegations that a demo unit presented at the New York Toy Fair was actually just an old SNES hidden inside the shell of an Atari Jaguar. Pictures later posted in an attempt to dismiss these concerns were also found to be fake.
