The business of hardware nostalgia is hard to understand (and it’s a victim who’s writing these words). How can you get hooked on old-timers or remakes like the Atari, Amiga and others? And we won’t even mention those, numerous in the OCC community, who devote a cult following to a dead or sleeping brand (EVGA, for example…). But obviously, it’s also a business that works. The proof is in the form of this Commodore 64 Ultimate, whose story is a true Roman one.
It all began when YouTuber Peri Fractic, owner of the Retro Recipes YouTube channel , contacted Commodore to obtain an exclusive license. To gain access to this trademark, you have to contact the Dutch company Commodore Corporation BV, which generally grants limited licenses, asking for a 15% royalty and an annual “MG” (guaranteed minimum). But our youtuber friend had other ambitions: his knowledge of the retro computing/gaming world prompted him to ask for an exclusive license, enabling him to exploit his knowledge and control the quality of ALL products released under the Commodore brand. He then tried to explain all these ideas to Commodore Corporation BV…and the response he received was a huge surprise : Yes, we can grant you an exclusive license, but your team seems to know Commodore better than we do. We might be interested in selling you the whole company. (Commodore Corporation BV).
From signing a license to buying back the brand with the support of his community
It was therefore necessary to take over the company’s shares and arrange financing, the details of which we don’t know. However, Peri Fractic mobilized former Commodore executives to help in the form of loans, direct holdings and other forms of support. These included Bill Herd (Commodore Pioneer), Albert Charpentier (father of the Comodore 64), Michael Tomczyk (Vic Tzar of the Vic 20), James Harrison (head of technical support), David Pleasance (former vice-president turned wealth advisor) and many others. But it was above all by mobilizing his community that he was able to finalize the deal.
https://youtu.be/S2fGP59mJ5M?si=fhHHvQeqJrx2NvTMThe
Commodore 64 Ultimate Edition was launched to finance the buyout. It has been put up for pre-order in three versions, differentiated by their casing: in addition to the emblematic standard beige version at around €260, a version with transparent casing is just under €300, as is a Founders Edition with gold casing. The latter, which costs around €430, is the most popular of the three versions. And it’s thanks to the success of these pre-orders that the acquisition is on track. He has announced orders for more than $2 million.
For some, this story may seem derisory… For others, like us, it will be a pleasant moment of the day that we wanted to share. Hardware is obviously a business, but passion can sometimes balance things out.