ModRetro, the vintage gaming startup by Palmer Luckey, is in talks to lift funding at a $1 billion valuation, in line with the Financial Times.
The corporate launched its first product, a Game Boy-style handheld device called the Chromatic, in 2024. The Verge’s Sean Hollister said it “may be the very best version of the Game Boy ever made,” but found it hard to separate from Luckey’s repute as founding father of defense tech startup Anduril Industries.
“If Lockheed Martin made a Game Boy, would you purchase one?” Hollister asked.
Luckey said last yr that he’d been attempting to construct a Game Boy-inspired device “on and off as a hobby for nearly seventeen years now” and described the Chromatic as the results of “a whole lot of irrational decisions” that made it “an uncompromisingly authentic celebration of every part that made the console special.”
The FT reports that ModRetro is working on other devices, including one designed to copy the Nintendo 64.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration appears to have embraced Luckey’s vision for autonomous weapons, with Anduril reportedly in talks to lift a brand new funding round at a $60 billion valuation.