Bleem, the company that helped make emulation legal, is being resurrected and teases "the largest retro gaming project"
Over two decades ago, a small company by the name of Bleem! appeared and offered a unique product in the gaming market, the ability to play PlayStation games outside of the original hardware, in what would be popularly known as "emulation" worldwide, be it in Windows PCs at the time (Windows 95 or 98), or also to emulate PlayStation games in a Sega Dreamcast, through their Bleemcast! emulator.
This commercial emulator was a key target for Sony, who took the Bleem company to court over alleged copyright violations to their PlayStation hardware, and while the courts initially failed in favour of Sony, Bleem appealed several times, and after a heated legal battle going back and forth, the courts sided in favour of Bleem!, with the decision being that the work of Bleem! constituted fair use. However, Bleem! as a company was drained out of money due to the legal fees, which ended in Bleem! shutting down at the end of 2001, marking an end to the company, but a sacrifice that paved the way for safe emulation up to this day (much to Nintendo's dismay).
Fast forward to 2021, and the Bleem! brand was acquired by Piko Interactive. Piko Interactive's acquisition of the brand came with a renewed interest in retro gaming as a whole, and their intent was to revive the brand as a digital marketplace for retro gaming as a whole, initially known as "Bleem Powered" and having a website under construction at the time. Despite the news, 2021 went by without any updates on the situation or the revival project, with the "Bleem Powered" site going down in 2022.
Two years later, on February 6th, 2024, Piko Interactive released a blog post with news about the situation, with the project being renamed from "Bleem Powered" to "Bleem.net", which they mentioned would be "a celebration of all things 80s, 90s and early 2000s", like a "destination store" or a "digital mall". And today, November 19th, 2024, the company has announced an update on the project, with Bleem.net officially getting a Kickstarter webpage for crowdfounding and making the preparations for the official launch.
The Kickstarter page is quite minimal at the moment, with only a very brief summary being available the time of writing. Not much information is shared about what the actual project will be in detail, only that they have been "collecting the rights of video game IP", claiming it will be "the largest retro gaming project".
Bleem.net said:
Users interested in the development of Bleem.net can register on Kickstarter, join the pre-launch date and be notified about official launch of the project goes live.
Bleem.net Kickstarter page
