It has been a yr since Panic its charming handheld console. To mark the event, the corporate has revealed simply what number of items gamers have purchased to this point. Panic says it has bought 53,142 Playdates to date. That is greater than two and a half instances the variety of items the corporate initially anticipated to make.
When Panic opened pre-orders in mid-2021, it wasn’t sure whether or not it might promote the primary batch of 20,000 consoles at an affordable tempo. Keen clients snapped all of these inside 20 minutes.
Whereas there’s clearly a requirement for the console with a crank, getting the Playdate into gamers’ fingers has been a tricker downside. Panic got here throughout a “essential” battery situation whereas manufacturing the primary batch, main it to modify suppliers and from late 2021 into 2023.
Not solely have elements shortages slowed down deliveries, manufacturing prices pressured Panic to by $20 to $199 earlier this month. Panic has shipped greater than 27,000 Playdates and it expects to meet all preorders by the top of 2023. After that, it hopes to make Playdate accessible on an ad-hoc foundation and to lastly begin delivery the Playdate Stereo Dock.
Each Playdate person will get entry to a library of 24 video games, whereas there are greater than 400 titles accessible for the console on Itch.io. Panic says nearly 40 % of customers have sideloaded no less than one sport or app. In the meantime, the corporate just lately rolled out Catalog, . Up to now, customers have put in Catalog video games and apps greater than 19,500 instances.
