The Playdate has been out since April 2022 — here’s how it’s going

From the Boox Palma to the Light Phone 2, it seems that everyone is looking for distraction-free reading, if only they had the right device. I don’t blame them: every time I pull out my phone to mindlessly scroll, I know my time could be put to better use. But as the owner of many fine gadgets, I also don’t really want another device in my life, so I was pretty excited to stumble upon a partial solution with a gadget I already have: the Playdate.

Yes, I’m talking about that little yellow Game Boy from Panic and Teenage Engineering, the one with a crank jutting out of its side. Since the launch of its on-device store, Catalog, the handheld has become home to quite a range of experiences. I’ve been playing tiny city builders and dungeon crawlers and egg touchers. Even still, I was surprised to discover Playbook, a full-fledged e-reading app. Perhaps even more surprising is that it actually works pretty well.

Last March, Panic launched a curated game shop called Catalog for its Playdate handheld. And one year later, the company says it has sold more than 150,000 games through the store. “We want to let everyone who enjoys games know that there is a vibrant game dev community making hundreds of inventive and thoughtful games for Playdate,” Arisa Sudangnoi, head of Playdate developer relations, said in a statement. The news comes exactly two years after the handheld first launched.

At the beginning of 2024, Panic revealed that it had sold 70,000 Playdate units, and it now says that more than half of those users — 38,000 — have purchased a game through Catalog. For context, the Playdate launched with a “season” of 24 games from notable developers that came as part of the purchase price. Panic says that “about 32,000 of those users who have not bought a game are still working through the games included in Playdate Season One.” Some more numbers: there are currently 181 titles in the store, and so far, sales have grossed just over $544,000 (“after taxes, processing fees, and Panic’s 25% revenue share for distribution on Catalog,” the company says).

Nearly two years after it first debuted, Panic has caught up on preorders for its adorable Playdate handheld. The company says that it has shipped more than 70,000 of the tiny yellow gadgets — up from 50,000 last April — and that there is now a “limited number” in stock to purchase right now on Panic’s site. (The news comes just a day after Analogue announced a similar milestone for its Pocket handheld.)

“Going forward, Panic will notify the public when Playdates are in-stock and ready to ship,” the company explains. “Customers will still be able to place an order for a Playdate when it is out of stock, but will be notified that their order won’t ship until Panic has a new batch of Playdates ready to ship.” Speaking to The Verge, Greg Maletic, head of special projects at Panic, said that the wait time for orders “should be significantly shorter now,” explaining that “it’s an order that will be fulfilled in the near term anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.”

Panic’s little yellow handheld has sold a lot more than anticipated. Today, the company confirmed that the Playdate has sold 53,000 units, more than double the initial production run of 20,000. However, a large number of those customers are still waiting to crank away: Panic says that it has shipped 27,000 of those orders, and “the team is hard at work on getting customers their Playdates, and fully expect to deliver all pre-orders by the end of this year.”

In a statement, Playdate’s project lead Greg Maletic said, “When we started, we had no idea how big the audience would be for a weird product like this, but we told the factory: build 20,000. To have now sold more than 53,000 (and counting) is heartening. And this, at a time when parts shortages forced our delivery lead-times out as much as a year. As those lead-times shorten and Playdate delivery becomes more immediate, we’re looking forward to an even better year two.”

Time is running out on preordering a Playdate with better pricing. Beginning tomorrow, Panic’s little yellow handheld will cost $199. The company announced last month that a price jump was coming on April 7th due to increased manufacturing costs, so now is your last chance to place a preorder for the current $179 price. This is actually the second price increase on the crank-equipped portable, as it initially went up from $149 to $179 before its initial launch.

A preordered Playdate must be paid in full, with an estimated shipping date currently listed as late 2023 — though, you can cancel any time before it ships and get a full refund should you change your mind. The Playdate includes a season of 24 games with the purchase, and more quirky games are available on its Catalog storefront ranging from free to $15.

Playdate is announcing a suite of new games and a pricing update. The $179 USD handheld is going up by $20, effective April 7th, bumping the price to $199.

According to Playdate’s website, the price increase is due to increased manufacturing costs. Makes sense since the price of just about everything (insulin, happily notwithstanding) is going up. Originally, the Playdate was announced at a $149 price point until parent company Panic increased the price to $179 while increasing the number of games players would get for free from 12 to 24, as well as the device’s storage capacity.

As part of a showcase event, Panic announced that Catalog, a game store for its Playdate handheld, would be launching today. The store is available both on the device and on the web and is described as a “boutique” storefront featuring “software curated by the team at Panic.” As part of the announcement, Panic also announced that the handheld is getting a $20 price bump and will cost $199 starting in April.

It was — and still is — possible to sideload games purchased on platforms like Itch.io, but Catalog theoretically makes it easier to find the good stuff. At launch, Catalog has 16 titles, 11 of which are brand-new. Two of those games — Real Steal and Recommendation Dog!! — are being released as a free “bonus” to the season one collection that came bundled with every Playdate. Meanwhile, one of the device’s early hits, the charming real-time narrative Bloom, is getting a big update that adds a post-game story and a new “chill” mode.

Panic, the company behind the adorable Playdate handheld, is holding an event next week to share some updates on new games and the device’s upcoming storefront. The update — called Playdate Update — will be 13 minutes long and take place on March 7th at 12PM ET. The company says that it “will be focusing on some new games coming very soon to the handheld,” along with Catalog, an upcoming storefront for new releases.

Playdate first started shipping handhelds last April (though not everywhere), and Panic says that more than 25,000 units have been shipped to date. At launch, the device came bundled with a season of games from notable developers like Zach Gage and Keita Takahashi, but Playdate owners could also sideload games released through platforms like Itch.io. Catalog is meant to be a way to make it easier to find and purchase new titles; it’s described as “Panic’s own curated, on-device and web browser storefront for Playdate software.” It’s not clear yet when it might be available.

When Panic first announced the Playdate in 2019, it became a curious object of speculation. What was this strange new device, and how would we get our hands on it?

First impressions revealed a quirky new toy with equally eccentric retro-flavored games designed for its D-pad controls and signature feature, a foldable hand crank. With its tiny black-and-white screen and “seasonal” games from indie stars like Keita Takahashi (working with Ryan Mohler under the name “uvula”), Bennett Foddy, Dave Hoffman (davemakes), and Serenity Forge, the Playdate felt like a no-brainer purchase for so many reasons: novelty, nostalgia, creative experimentation, and a return to intimate explorations of fun and the sort of general goofballery that you just don’t get on major consoles. (The Playdate also allows sideloaded games, so devs can make games with the Playdate creation tool, Pulp, and sell them on itch.io.) 

In yet another reminder of just how flexible Valve’s Steam Deck handheld gaming PC can be, an enterprising Redditor has gotten the Playdate Simulator running on their Steam Deck, as shared on Twitter by Valve designer Lawrence Yang.

The Playdate, if you’re not familiar, is Panic’s tiny yellow handheld with a crank, but similar to the long reservation queue for the Steam Deck, Playdate preorders are backed up for months. If you place a Playdate preorder right now, it isn’t expected to ship until 2023. If you already have a Steam Deck and want to mess around with the Playdate’s old-school vibes, though, it looks like it’s possible to do that by installing the free Playdate Simulator.