Playdate: A new handheld console- with a crank?

[Intellivision Master]

I noticed my Playdate has a dark theme background with the clock displayed.  It never had a dark theme before.  It's interesting, maybe there was an update that made this change on it's own.  Anyway, it's nice to have it.  

[Intellivision Master]

The dark theme wasn't there later in the day.  But this morning it returned.  Not sure what to make of it.  Perhaps it's normal for it to do that. 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Intellivision Master

[Zap!]

Anyone that's in "Pre-order Group 4" get their Playdate yet? On their site, shipping is listed as "April-June." It's not that I'm impatient, I just can't wait to play haha. I pre-ordered 7-30-21, less than 24 hours after pre-orders went live. Being less than 24 hours late cost me a year of waiting.

[Reaperman]

Okay, that Metal Jesus 1yr Later, 400+ Games vid caught my attention.  I had no idea that Playdate was doing so well, or at all well. I assumed total failure. So now I'm trying maybe too hard to sell myself on this expensive/niche system.

 

What I found is P-Racing (link). It's not out yet, so maybe it never releases, or the performance turns out very different, but it really looks fun without being 'quirky fun.'

 

 

Edited April 19 by Reaperman

[Flojomojo]

https://www.engadget.com/panic-has-sold-more-than-50000-playdates-so-far-171010089.html

 

Panic has sold 53,142 PlayDates so far.

 

Also from the article, "Panic has shipped more than 27,000 Playdates and it expects to fulfill all preorders by the end of 2023. After that, it hopes to make Playdate available on an ad-hoc basis and to finally start shipping the Playdate Stereo Dock."

[Hwlngmad]

1 hour ago, Reaperman said:

Okay, that Metal Jesus 1yr Later, 400+ Games vid caught my attention.  I had no idea that Playdate was doing so well, or at all well. I assumed total failure. So now I'm trying maybe too hard to sell myself on this expensive/niche system.

 

What I found is P-Racing (link). It's not out yet, so maybe it never releases, or the performance turns out very different, but it really looks fun without being 'quirky fun.'

 

 

I know, I am with you as I have seriously thought about getting this as well even though I really don't need another gaming device.  Still, I am glad to see that this has been a success of sorts and hopefully this continues to have a thriving development community for a good amount of time to come.

[Hwlngmad]

45 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

https://www.engadget.com/panic-has-sold-more-than-50000-playdates-so-far-171010089.html

 

Panic has sold 53,142 PlayDates so far.

 

Also from the article, "Panic has shipped more than 27,000 Playdates and it expects to fulfill all preorders by the end of 2023. After that, it hopes to make Playdate available on an ad-hoc basis and to finally start shipping the Playdate Stereo Dock."

That's good for them.  I think the PlayDate is niche gaming done (pretty) right.

[Bill Loguidice]

It's genuinely great to see its success in terms of games developed and in excellent hardware sales for such a niche device. My mind is still not changed, however, in regards to this being a mostly "useless" gimmick device that somehow struck niche product gold. Even with all of that said, I just don't see how this will have a real future and I don't even know how they do a follow-up considering how this was marketed and sold. It's a true unicorn.

[jerseystyle]

1 hour ago, Bill Loguidice said:

It's genuinely great to see its success in terms of games developed and in excellent hardware sales for such a niche device. My mind is still not changed, however, in regards to this being a mostly "useless" gimmick device that somehow struck niche product gold. Even with all of that said, I just don't see how this will have a real future and I don't even know how they do a follow-up considering how this was marketed and sold. It's a true unicorn.

How do you feel about the awesome game development support? I don’t know anything about coding but my 7 year old and I are making a game together on their online tool. That makes the whole thing worth it to me, in addition to a few sweet titles (casual birder is REALLY good).

[Bill Loguidice]

4 hours ago, jerseystyle said:

How do you feel about the awesome game development support? I don’t know anything about coding but my 7 year old and I are making a game together on their online tool. That makes the whole thing worth it to me, in addition to a few sweet titles (casual birder is REALLY good).

That's always great to hear. There are lots of options for doing exactly that out there, but if this gets you to do it, that's all that really matters.

[Zap!]

On 4/19/2023 at 9:16 AM, Flojomojo said:

https://www.engadget.com/panic-has-sold-more-than-50000-playdates-so-far-171010089.html

 

Panic has sold 53,142 PlayDates so far.

 

Also from the article, "Panic has shipped more than 27,000 Playdates and it expects to fulfill all preorders by the end of 2023. After that, it hopes to make Playdate available on an ad-hoc basis and to finally start shipping the Playdate Stereo Dock."

This seems a bit off. I pre-ordered less than 24 hours after pre-ordering went up in July, 2021, and I'm in Group 4. Group's 1-3 have all been shipped, and 4's are just starting.

 

So, 27,000 were in Group's 1-3. Let's round it off and say that I was number 30,000. This was in July, 2021. So roughly 30,000 were sold in one day, and in almost two years only another 23,000 were sold? If they sold 30,000 in one day, the number now should be much higher than 53,142. Unless...

 

Me being in Group 4 was a mistake. I always felt that Group 4 seemed kinda high to be in since I ordered so soon.

[Hwlngmad]

On 4/19/2023 at 1:59 PM, Bill Loguidice said:

It's genuinely great to see its success in terms of games developed and in excellent hardware sales for such a niche device. My mind is still not changed, however, in regards to this being a mostly "useless" gimmick device that somehow struck niche product gold. Even with all of that said, I just don't see how this will have a real future and I don't even know how they do a follow-up considering how this was marketed and sold. It's a true unicorn.

Yeah, this is a gimmick device for sure.  That being said, the world needs some unicorns and glad to see that this niche product has (seemingly) struck paydirt.

[Flojomojo]

On 4/20/2023 at 12:51 PM, Zap! said:

This seems a bit off. I pre-ordered less than 24 hours after pre-ordering went up in July, 2021, and I'm in Group 4. Group's 1-3 have all been shipped, and 4's are just starting.

 

So, 27,000 were in Group's 1-3. Let's round it off and say that I was number 30,000. This was in July, 2021. So roughly 30,000 were sold in one day, and in almost two years only another 23,000 were sold? If they sold 30,000 in one day, the number now should be much higher than 53,142. Unless...

 

Me being in Group 4 was a mistake. I always felt that Group 4 seemed kinda high to be in since I ordered so soon.

“Within 24 hours” is probably pretty late in the scheme of these trendy pre-orders. I was on the site and done with my order within a few minutes of them opening the site, and I was in group 2. 

 

They had production problems with batteries, and needed to switch out an end-of-life part. Your personal experience with one “late” order shouldn’t invalidate what they said their shipping numbers were doing; they have no motive to lie or exaggerate. This isn’t “Intellivision Amico.” 
 

Hopefully you get yours soon, and you like it. One benefit of arriving late is you’ll have a more mature software ecosystem and people will have established opinions about the games. Have you been following the scene, or are you going to just allow yourself to be surprised?

[Zap!]

15 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

“Within 24 hours” is probably pretty late in the scheme of these trendy pre-orders. I was on the site and done with my order within a few minutes of them opening the site, and I was in group 2. 

 

They had production problems with batteries, and needed to switch out an end-of-life part. Your personal experience with one “late” order shouldn’t invalidate what they said their shipping numbers were doing; they have no motive to lie or exaggerate. This isn’t “Intellivision Amico.” 
 

Hopefully you get yours soon, and you like it. One benefit of arriving late is you’ll have a more mature software ecosystem and people will have established opinions about the games. Have you been following the scene, or are you going to just allow yourself to be surprised?

 

I completely believe that 30,000 sold in 24 hours. I'm sure I'll get it by June or so. I understand shipping takes a lot of time from a small company, and I'm perfectly fine with waiting. Now, what doesn't make sense to me is that they are only up to 53,142 since July 2021 (when pre-orders went live). So they sold 30,000 in a day and only sold some 23,000 or so in almost two years? I think they may have forgotten a zero or two.

 

As for following the scene, just a little. I've watched a lot of the videos, and the Metal Jesus ones have shown me what games to try when it arrives. Seems like a total blast!

[+jgkspsx]

On 4/19/2023 at 8:17 AM, Reaperman said:

What I found is P-Racing (link). It's not out yet, so maybe it never releases, or the performance turns out very different, but it really looks fun without being 'quirky fun.'

 

 

That looks like what I always wanted game.com Indy 500 to be.

[Zap!]

Did anyone who's in "Pre-order Group 4" get their Playdate yet, or a conformation email? Shipping is listed as "April-June." The only email I got said to "Confirm Your Address Before May 5th 2023."

[Zap!]

Small update for those of us in Group 4. Got this email Friday:

Quote

 

Hi, ***i!!

Thank you for being so patient as a part of Group 4. It has truly taken us a lot longer than we expected to get these out the door — and we're so sorry for the delay.

This round of production has been a constant series of unique challenges. (Our respect for anyone who ships hardware is higher than ever.) But don't worry: as usual, we've pushed through each challenge, step by step!

The good news is, Playdate OS 2.0, required for some of the systems in Group 4, is done and in final testing. The other good news is, there are now plenty of Group 4 units at our distributor ready to go out the door at any moment. So once we feel confident that OS 2.0 is rock solid, we'll get started!

In short, we're working overtime and Group 4 should start shipping in the next few weeks.

We'll send you another email once they're shipping.

Let us know if small updates like this are helpful, and once again, we really appreciate your patience. Please feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions!

Sincerely Yours,
🌼 The Playdate Team at Panic

 

I'm fine with waiting, just curious about this part: "Playdate OS 2.0, required for some of the systems in Group 4." Are the Group 4 PD's different hardware? If anyone has a PD, what OS number is it now?