Palmer Luckey’s retro game startup ModRetro is reportedly seeking $1B in funding

ModRetro, the founder of Palmer Luckey’s classic game, is in the news for a $1 billion funding round, according to the Financial Times.

The company launched its first product, a handheld Game Boy device called the Chromaticin 2024. The Verge’s Sean Hollister said “it might be the best Game Boy version ever made,” but I had a hard time letting go of Luckey’s reputation as the founder of the defense startup Anduril Industries.

“If Lockheed Martin made a Game Boy, would you buy it?” Hollister asked.

Luckey said last year that he’s been trying to create a Game Boy-inspired device “for almost seventeen years now” and he described Chromatic for the “hundreds of subtle choices” that resulted in “a definitive celebration of everything that made the console special.”

The FT reports that ModRetro is working on other devices, including one designed to emulate the Nintendo 64.

For now, the Trump administration seems to have it he embraced Luckey’s vision of autonomous weaponsand Anduril says they are negotiating to raise new funds at a cost of $60 billion.