Hello, it's been a while since I've posted.
I was waiting for a few things to happen before I posted this. Mainly because I think I will light a firecracker in some other companies' and people's behinds with our revelation... maybe, maybe not.
In 2018 I traced the owner of the Bleem! logo/brand. I found him and ended up buying the brand/logo from him. At the time I was convinced I wanted that brand to develop and launch a series of retro video game hardware like clone consoles, emulation boxes, SD cartridges and whatnot.
As years went by, it became a bit difficult to get into that project. Things that would bring money faster/sooner would take priority. Until around 2020 when I thought of the idea of Bleem as a retro video game marketplace.
When I announced that, it made the rounds a bit in the gaming circles, even decent size youtubers covered the news (with lots of skepticism and critic). However, I still thought that was the right move. As time progressed, we slowly got into more diverse projects, cartoons, TV show production, Video on demand, FAST channels, comic books, toy manufacturing, etc. Slowly our company was morphing into a micro media/entertainment company. And then it hit me...
Now before I introduce our project/plan. I want to mention that this could be the best idea/project we've ever done, or it could be the dumbest idea and biggest flop I've ever done. There is nothing in between.
I'd like to introduce you to what I've been working on in the last 3-4 years: Drumroll......... Bleem.net
What is Bleem.net? Well, it is hard to explain. I haven't been able to put a name on it really. I'm not sure what really is or will be. I can give you some explanation of what I want it to be, or what I think it is. So here it goes: Bleem.net is a celebration of all things retro, mainly the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. It is a safe space where you will find a bit of everything from the era. It is like a destination store, or like some sort of digital mall? It's hard to explain. You know how when you were a kid you would go to the mall, go to KB Toys to buy some toys and video games, may be go buy a cool shirt in Spencer's/hot topic based on some cartoon or video game character you like, then head out to Aladdin's Castle to play some arcades. Then you would go may be to Waldenbooks and check out some comic books, and some artbooks based on your favorite superheroes. Later go grab some food at the food court and after all that, head out to the movie theater and watch some cool movie?
Remember that feeling? It is hard to find that now days. The only thing that makes me feel like that is going to Disney Amusement parks, but that's SUPER expensive.
Then, do you remember the 90s early 2000s Internet? Where there was innovation and interesting websites popping up left and right? I loved 90s and early 2000s internet. Today the internet is monopolized by a few major companies which make money off audience created content. I miss the old internet.
That is what my vision for Bleem.net is. Capture all those fuzzy feelings of having things you love and you love to do in one place; having that online website you love to check out every so often to see if there is anything new.
Again, super hard to explain... Now, how do we plan to do this? Well, we don't know yet for sure, but I've built an "arsenal" of things that could help us do that.
In the last 10 years we have acquired close to 230 different video games from the 80s 90s and early 2000s. We have also acquired several comic book properties, and toy properties; as well as cartoon intellectual property.
In Bleem.net you will be able to find all that. You will be able to buy merch based on all these video game, comic book, toy line, and cartoon characters. You will be able to buy digital games to be used on your flash carts, emulation boxes, MISTER, Raspberry pi, or with your PC. You will be able to buy retro physical games just like we offer on Pikointeractive.com and modern physical games just like with our upcoming Physicalmania.com label. But not only that, you will be able to watch all the cartoons we currently own, as well as the TV shows we are producing for LATAM (currently we have produced different 5 shows). You will be able to buy and read comic books based on all these characters we mentioned (yes, comic books based on video game characters too). You will be able to play on demand most of the retro video game IPs we own, on your web browser on your PC, your XBOX web browser and Mobile devices. And last but not least, you will be able to explore and learn the history behind a lot of these IPs, like design documents, source code, prototype versions, etc. We plan to develop new games based on all these IPs we control; and we plan to open up a lot of this IPs for licensing for new games, new products, new merch, etc. This is my vision for Bleem.net, and I hope we capture enough people's attention to support it.
Why Bleem! you may ask? Well for me it only makes sense. Bleem IS the representation of legal emulation. Bleem set precedent in the US Court system by showing how reverse engineering a console was 100% legal. Bleem! as a company died so we all could enjoy old games legally for virtually ever.
So I Invite you all to please sign up to our newsletter on bleem.net so when we launch this project, you'll be the first one to hear how, when, and where it launches.
Thanks for reading me.
Eli