Recently, the creative handheld "Playdate" finally began to ship, and many small partners who ordered the product said that they had received the goods. Playdate maker Panic said the first devices have already started shipping to customers, but it may take a while to complete the order, and Playdate is currently in small batch production. Favorite friends can still place orders, and it is estimated that they will not receive them until 2023.
Playdate was first released in 2019 and started pre-sales last summer, but then for some reason, the manufacturer delayed shipments and only recently began supplying.
The size of the handheld is 74 * 76 * 9 mm, the screen size is only 2.7 inches, or the classic black and white screen, the front is equipped with a cross arrow key and "B", "A" two buttons, the side of the fuselage also provides a joystick that can be hand-cranked, according to the official introduction, the hand-crank is not a hand-crank charging, but a rotatable controller, which can bring players a novel game experience, and some games will use this joystick. I have to say that the hand-crank is indeed rare in the game handheld, and Xiao Lei can't think of what kind of control it can achieve.
The game handheld is just a platform, and what really attracts players is the game inside the handheld. Publisher Panic said that Playdate has 24 exclusive games built-in, and users unlock one every week after opening the handheld for the first time, which means that it will take about half a year to unlock all the games. As for whether there are plans for a new game in the future, the official did not give specific information.
So it seems that Playdate is more like a modern version of the GBA black and white pocket handheld, for the user group is relatively niche, is those who like the classic pixel game of the emotional players, in the era of Switch popularity, Xiao Lei believes that Playdate is doomed not to become a blockbuster handheld. However, recently Nintendo officially has plans to introduce Game Boy simulators, indicating that there is still a certain market for retro games.
However, the price of 1160 yuan is still too expensive for such a "non-mainstream" pocket handheld, and the people who buy it are more or pay for the feelings, from the perspective of slow delivery speed, the official may not have a large-scale mass production and increase production capacity plan. In Xiao Lei's view, Playdate is like the official saying, simply to provide players with a different game experience, like retro pixel games of the small partner, or can buy to play it.