In an email sent out to buyers, it was confirmed that the system would not be making its 2021 date. While many buyers were already in line for 2022, initial buyers who got in early were scheduled to get the Playdate in “late 2021.” Considering how little information had been out there since pre-orders went live, it’s not a huge surprise. According to Panic, the issue stemmed from a battery issue that saw a lot of units unable to power on and charge, thus making them decide to replace the battery in all the units. They also point to the global chip shortage, which is impacting other platform holders, as another issue.

The Playdate 2021 pre-orders sold out in just the span of a few minutes, but now they will have to wait to see how the little handheld fares in early 2022. Pre-orders that happened afterward are still slated for the second half of 2022 and groups after 50,000 units in 2023.

Panic did continue taking up pre-orders for the next batch of stocks, which will be delivered next year. The Firewatch publisher will be providing free software development kits for the Playdate, and a number of developers are already onboard for developing games for Playdate – including Return of the Obra Dinn’s Lucas Pope.

Playdate will be doling out these games as a part of its seasons, wherein fans will get a title for free every week for 12 weeks during the first season. Given that fans have flocked to the handheld in an unprecedented manner, it’s quite possible that many more developers start developing games for it.

Valve’s latest Steam Deck also sold out in a similar manner, and Valve has already extended pre-order periods for the handheld.

Panic announced that preorders for the system will go live next week according to an e-mail newsletter sent out by the company. The first batch will be a relatively small one, consisting of 20,000 units, but the developer assures that the preorder will not sell out in the manner as has been common with new systems over the last year, and will remain open. The first batch of preorders is planned to go out at the end of 2021, with others after that initial batch coming at the beginning of 2022.

The Playdate preorder will go live on July 29th and will retail for $179.99 USD. The system is set to have seasons of various titles, with the first season of 24 titles coming with the handheld itself, and you can read more details about that at the official site through here.

Last week came the incredibly unexpected news of a new handheld being announced. It didn’t come from any of the current platform holders, or any of the major third parties, instead coming from publisher/developer Panic, known for several iOS apps and the game Firewatch. Regardless of anything, it certainly is interesting, but one question lingered on many lips: who exactly wants this? Some even speculated that the whole thing was viral marketing, it was so bizarre. Well, it’s very real, and the developer has answered that question, and even though some may just see it as a head scratcher, they see an audience for it.

Panic co-founder Cabel Sasser sat down with EDGE magazine (Issue #333) and talked extensively about the little machine and was open about how off the wall the concept was, and that he, himself, is still kind of surprised at its existence. As far as who it’s for, well, he thinks it’s simply out there for players who are looking for new experiences.

“We’re building this for people who love video games,” he said. “People who will never forget burning the bush in Zelda and uncovering the stairs to a dungeon, or people who remember laughing uproariously as they roll the ball of stuff in Katamari, or even people who got chills when they were riding their horse in Red Dead Redemption towards Mexico and that song started playing.

“People who play Firewatch one week or Uncharted the next, they don’t care about the platform, and they don’t care about the genre or the number of ‘A’s, they just care about that indescribably electric feeling of experiencing something new that games give us. That’s been my whole life as I played videogames. So Playdate, in a way, is a shrine to that feeling.”

The Playdate is scheduled to come out some time next year. Time will tell if any success will come of the thing, but one thing is for sure- you can’t knock it for being the same ol’, same ol’.

Talk about unexpected. A lot of focus is on next generation hardware, from the PS5 and next Xbox, to potential Switch revisions. But seemingly out of nowhere, a new piece of hardware has been announced, something that I can honestly say I doubt anyone expected. It is a new dedicated handheld device called the Playdate, and it’s… interesting.

The new device comes by way of Panic, the publisher behind 2016’s Firewatch. You won’t be playing the newest Call of Duty on the Playdate, however. It’s aiming to do something entirely different from other systems on the market. It will come with 12 as of now undetailed games in a ‘season.’ You will automatically download one game per week after release. The company says they want it to simulate waking up to discover a new game every week, and will also open the possibly of more games down the line.

It’s not the only thing unique about the system. There’s no analog stick, only a d-pad, two buttons and… a crank. Apparently not all the games will use the crank, but some will in some way that isn’t made clear (since all the games are a secret as of now). You can find out more details on the website and look at the video below to see how small the system is, and what the crank is like in action.

The Playdate will release sometime in 2020 for a suggested retail price of $149. Panic also assures this isn’t part of a viral marketing campaign, it’s a legitimate device.

Oh yeah, the crank! No, it doesn't power the device. It's a flip-out rotational controller that puts a fresh spin on fun. Some games use it exclusively, some use it with the d-pad, and some not at all. pic.twitter.com/XYW97nLZKK

— Playdate (@playdate) May 22, 2019