The GCW Zero was funded by a successful crowdfunding campaign on kickstarter.com on 29 January 2013 with US$238,499 collected, originally aiming for $130,000.

Common fixes for this issue include the application of a small amount of dielectric grease in the affected friction area or official 3D printed replacement buttons from the GCW Zero store on Shapeways.

Steve Tilley, writing at the Toronto Sun, is troubled by the need for copyright-infringing ROMs, but thought highly of the device, describing it as like "holding a chunk of my childhood in the palm of my hand".

[9] Tilley repeated these thoughts while presenting a segment for Reviews on the Run where he scored the device 7.5/10; his co-host, Raju Mudhar agreed.

[10] David Heywood, writing at Micro Mart, praised the device's excellent build quality, and its use of an operating system which was already well established for handheld consoles.