Even as the Plus/4 and C16 began shipping, "Compute!'s Gazette" cited rumors that they were being "'de-emphasized'" in favor of the forthcoming 128 which, the magazine reported, would be both hardware and software compatible with the C64. Their shortcomings were the inspiration for the Commodore 128 series as, urged on by the computer press, the designers calculated that if they created a computer that was compatible with the C64 that ultimately management and marketing could not damage the C64 software base (much) in spite of how they were to take the product to market.