Damn, this is sad news. Considering how great voice he still has, I thought his health was in a similar condition. Then again, he is 75. I never got to see The Voice of Rock live.

The GameBall Pro got out of prototyping:

GameBall Pro will be a right-handed trackball with a 44mm ball and the latest internal gaming grade components. It will be wired and wireless (2.4GHz) and run at 1000hz polling rate. In addition, it will have a Bluetooth connection option at 125Hz. You can find out more details about GameBall Pro from our videos on YouTube. We will be releasing more videos as we get closer to preorders.

Recently, we met our final major prototyping milestone. We have no outstanding issues and have moved into final testing and manufacturing preparations. This puts us about 2 months out for preorders unless we discover an issue during final testing, but so far so good. The goal would be to start pre-orders around early October and deliver to customers around a month later. The final price will be announced as we get closer, and be in line with similar products from Kensington and Elecom.

The GameBall Pro prelease will have a special Limited Edition (LE) version. This version will have a red ball, red base, and red logo. The final version Standard Edition (SE) will have a black ball and black base and grey logo. All the internals and functions will be the same. After we sell out of the pre-release units, we will release the SE version. I anticipate this will happen quickly.

Regarding the original GameBall which will be discontinued:

I have made the difficult decision to discontinue the original GameBall trackball, primarily due to rising production costs. Manufacturing the original model in the United Kingdom has become economically unsustainable; maintaining production would require a retail price well beyond market competitiveness.

I want to extend my sincere gratitude to our UK manufacturing partner for their exceptional work over the years. However, the commercial landscape for manufacturing a trackball in the UK has fundamentally shifted, and current labor, material, and service costs are no longer practical.

Final Inventory Release: We have secured one final production batch at our previous pricing. These units will be available for purchase on Thursday July 30th at 1:00 PM PST. Once sold out, the original GameBall will be permanently retired. Warranty & Pricing: These final units will retain the standard warranty and return policy, and will be priced at $188 USD (shipping charges are separate). We have set aside a portion of this inventory specifically to honor warranty claims moving forward. Shipping Limitations: Due to logistical constraints, this final batch can only be shipped within the United States. I apologize to our international customers. If you are located outside the US and wish to secure a unit, you will need to arrange independent freight forwarding.