Lenovo Kills the G02, Its ROM-Preloaded Emulation Handheld

Lenovo has pulled the plug on the G02, the emulation handheld that shipped with unlicensed Nintendo and Sega games. After months of controversy, the device is no longer available on AliExpress or Alibaba. Retro Dodo, which first reported the G02’s existence, confirmed that Lenovo’s PR had previously claimed the device wasn’t aimed outside China and that a brand licensing agreement shielded the company. That defense crumbled once international outlets got ahold of units pre-loaded with copyrighted ROMs within a week’s shipping. Seeing a $80-billion tech giant whitelabel a $60 copyright trap was always bizarre. Lenovo killed it only after enough people yelled about it, which says plenty about the company’s priorities. The G02 is dead, but the market for shady pre-loaded handhelds isn’t. Next time the nostalgia cash-grab might not come from a company this big.