The Neo Geo CD was released in 1994, four years after its cartridge-based equivalent, in an effort to reduce manufacturing costs. The system was originally priced at US$300 new.[citation needed] The unit's 1X CD-ROM drive was slow, making loading times very long with the system loading up to 56 Mbit of data between loads.[citation needed] Neo Geo CD game prices were low at $50, in contrast to Neo-Geo AES game cartridges which cost as much as $300. The system could also play Audio CDs. All three versions of the system have no region-lock.

The Neo Geo CD was bundled with a control pad instead of a joystick like the AES version.