Evercade Retires Intellivision & IREM Carts in 2026
Blaze Entertainment confirms three more cartridges will cease production next March as licences expire.
Blaze Entertainment has confirmed that three more Evercade cartridges are heading for the exit. In a Legacy Cartridge Update posted on its official site, the company announced that Intellivision Collection 1, Intellivision Collection 2, and IREM Arcade 1 will be retired in March 2026.
Production on these carts will stop permanently due to expiring licences, not because they aren't selling. Once the current stock is gone, that's it. You won't be able to buy them new anymore. This move places them into Evercade's 'Legacy' programme, joining a growing list of discontinued titles.
We've got an update on the next cartridges that will enter Legacy status, which means they will no longer be in production.
— Evercade (@evercaderetro) December 10, 2025
From March 2026, Intellivision Collection 1 and 2 plus Irem Arcade 1 will enter Legacy status.
More info here: https://t.co/v4ccCATzJ4 pic.twitter.com/4LcSbm0JoP
📅 Legacy Timeline- March 2026: Final production run ends- Affected: Intellivision 1 & 2, IREM Arcade 1- Reason: Licence agreements expiring
It's a familiar story for Evercade collectors. The platform's entire business model is built on securing licences for classic games, and when those deals run out, the carts have to go. These three new retirees will join at least eight other carts that have already been discontinued, including popular collections from Namco and Atari.
For fans of the obscure and the arcade-perfect, this is a significant blow. The Intellivision carts are the primary way to legally play a huge swathe of that console's library on modern hardware. IREM Arcade 1, meanwhile, is a brilliant compilation featuring stone-cold classics like R-Type Leo, Image Fight, and Ninja Baseball Bat Man. Losing official access to these is a shame.
This news comes even as Blaze continues to announce new carts, like the recent Taito Arcade 3 and Turrican Collection. It highlights the constant balancing act the company faces: securing new content while managing the finite lifespan of existing licences. For a deeper look at those newer releases, we covered the Taito and Turrican announcements here.
The message for collectors is clear. If you've had your eye on these Intellivision or IREM collections, you've got just under a year to pick them up before they potentially become second-hand market rarities. Blaze has given a long lead time, which is decent of them, but the clock is definitely ticking.
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