Highly anticipated: The Playdate portable gaming console from Panic has been launched. The eccentric toy machine maker pledged to build 20,000 models by 2021, but appears to have underestimated demand as they were all spoken in less than 20 minutes.
Panic said it would do more in 2022, and promised to adjust production according to demand. Judging from what we’ve seen so far, they’ll be pretty busy next year.
An initial batch of 20,000 Playdates went up for pre-order yesterday afternoon and according to TechCrunch (via a Panic representative), the whole lot sold out in less than 20 minutes.
⚠️ There was a slight issue with inventory tracking and Playdate may temporarily show as ‘Sold Out’ – We’ve fixed this now! Anyone should be able to place an order, but you may need to return Playdate to your cart.
I’m sweating here
– date read 29 July 2021
Unfortunately, the drop in pre-orders wasn’t without problems. Panic encountered technical problems with the international order processing system. The company said there was also a slight issue with its inventory tracking system that incorrectly showed the device was out of stock to some potential buyers.
Panic is still accepting pre-orders for Playdate, but it won’t ship until 2022. The great mobile is $179, including 24 games. It’s a bit simple, with a small monochrome screen and no microSD card slot. Playdate includes a unique hand-crank input device that is cleverly used in some games.
Early reviews were overwhelmingly favorable, with one publication describing it as a Game Boy of a different dimension.
