Introduced for the first time under a crowdfunding project in 2019, the first units of the Playdate, this curious hand-crank-controlled console to move forward or backward through games, were scheduled to arrive later this year. However, to the bad forecasts of PS5 and Switch, and the delays of Steam Deck, this mini-console is now added, which will move the delivery of its first units until 2022.
However, there is a silver lining to this, and one that at least on this occasion This is not a problem related to chip shortage. The company announced the delay on Thursday, attributing it to a “critical” battery problem it discovered at the end of the manufacturing process for the first 20,000 production units of the console. “We made the difficult and expensive decision to replace all our existing batteries with new ones from a totally different battery supplier”Cabel Sasser shared in the company’s official statement.
Hi! If you’ve pre-ordered a Playdate, check your email for a copy of the “Playdate Owner’s Update # 1”.
There’s bad news (a battery tragedy means Late 2021 units are now Early 2022, see email for your timing) but also good news (Pulp + SDK release dates !!)
Thanks for reading it. pic.twitter.com/03BUolZetY
– Playdate (@playdate) November 11, 2021
However, although the initial shipments have suffered this slight delay, it seems that finally the Playdate will not only not have defective batteries, but will even arrive with a small performance improvement compared to what was initially expected, ensuring that the new batteries are «exactly what we expect, if not even better than before«, And that they will deliver on the long battery life that was originally promised to buyers.
Thus, Panic estimates that the first units of the Playdate will begin to reach customers sometime in early 2022. If you reserved a game date before today’s announcement, your place in the pre-order line will not change as long as your order remains active.
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