The Playdate Handheld Console Is Delayed Until 2022

It’s unhealthy information if your whole 2021 vacation present giving revolved round Panic’s upcoming Playdate console. Following Valve’s announcement yesterday that its Steam Deck console was being delayed two months into the brand new 12 months, Panic has additionally revealed that it received’t get the primary 10,000 preordered Playdate models out by the end of 2021 like it had hoped, and is now aiming for early 2022.

However, whereas Valve has cited the worldwide provide chain points and an incapability to get the elements its manufacturing amenities want to really construct the Steam Deck consoles as the rationale for that handheld being delayed into 2022, Panic skilled a completely totally different drawback, as detailed in a submit shared with those that have already preordered the Playdate and have been anticipating supply within the subsequent two months.

Thanks to the Playdate’s monochromatic reflective display that doesn’t want a backlight, the hand-held has been pitched as having superb battery life when in comparison with the opposite units we supply round all day with LCD and OLED shows. But the primary 5,000 Playdate models that arrived on the firm’s warehouse in California weren’t solely discovered to have disappointing battery life—a lot lower than what Panic promised—however many models had batteries put in that have been utterly drained and couldn’t be recharged in any respect.

The unlucky resolution was to ship all 5,000 of the primary run of Playdate models again to Malaysia to be upgraded with new batteries from a very totally different provider. It’s not solely an costly resolution to the issue for Panic, but it surely additionally signifies that the corporate will probably be lacking its anticipated late 2021 supply for the primary 10,000 Playdate preorders, with “early 2022″ being as accurate an estimation of when they will arrive now.

The global ship shortage is also having an effect on Panic’s ability to get Playdates built. The CPU the handheld currently uses is essentially back-ordered for roughly two years, so the company has had to revise the Playdate’s main board to use a similar and more readily available CPU, which, it promises, will not have any effect on gameplay or the handheld’s performance. It will, however, have an effect on those with a preorder past the 50,000 units mark. Those won’t be delivered until 2023 at the earliest, which is understandably frustrating for both the company and customers.

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As for the opposite extremely anticipated and much-delayed handheld that was lastly suppose to reach in late 2021? There’s no phrase on how manufacturing of the Analogue Pocket as been affected by the worldwide provide chain disaster, however let’s all hold our fingers crossed actual tight in hopes that it doesn’t undergo the identical destiny because the Playdate and Steam Deck.