Playdate Is Back In Stock For A Limited Time

Playdate creators Panic have confirmed their highly sought-after handheld console is back in stock. Priced at $199, you can buy the Playdate through the link in the box below. If you've been considering picking one up and you've been waiting for this moment, I wouldn't advise putting it off for long. Playdates are made in very limited amounts, and now news that they are back in stock is starting to spread, they likely won't stay that way for long.

If you're unfamiliar with the Playdate, it's a small handheld console loaded up with games you can't play anywhere else. Truly exclusive to Playdate, its games have been developed by studios the world over. It's unlikely any of the Playdate's games will ever be ported to over platforms either due to the unique nature of the console's screen and controls.

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Despite having a black-and-white screen, Panic claims the Playdate's visuals are better than you might think. It's super reflective which means it can be played in very low light despite not being backlit. The Playdate's most talked about feature, however, is its crank. It's not for charging its battery - you do that the old-fashioned way with a USB-C cable - it's for controlling things in-game. Turning the crank while playing Crankin's Time Travel Adventure, for example, moves the in-game clock, and its main character, forward and backward.

Playdate

The Playdate is an extremely unique handheld gaming device thanks to its crank. It has games that are exclusively meant for the console. 

The Playdate was released in 2022 and early adopters were given two new games every week during the console's first season. The games weren't revealed until they dropped on your Playdate, and now all 24 of those games are available. Following that, Panic added a game store called Catalog which now boasts more than 130 games. Catalog will get two new titles next week - Pullfrog and Oom.

Selling more than 70,000 Playdates so far, the reason for orders being paused until now was so Panic could play catch up. Another reason why you may want to order now rather than later as once a certain number of orders have been placed, Panic may well close them again until it catches up. It's estimated shipping will take a week from when you place your order, or anywhere between two and four weeks if you're outside the US. Panic also published a list of 22 more countries the Playdate now ships to.

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