Posted in: Games, Indie Games, Video Games | Tagged: Panic Inc., PlayDate

Playdate Releases An Update On Their Portable Console

Published Fri, 30 Oct 2020 21:45:14 -0500

Panic Inc. released some new details today about their upcoming portable console Playdate as they get closer to a release. The devs over at Panic Inc. released a new blog today for an October 2020 update, in which they went over several items for the portable console. While it does explore a number of subjects, which we have snippets of it for you below, it does not reveal the entire set of games coming in Season One of their subscription service, nor does it give a release date. Only eluding to the fact that pre-orders will happen sometime in 2021. We also get a look at the packaging, which is nice and simplistic, just like the console itself. So they got that going for them when it comes out.

A look at the packaging for Playdate, courtesy of Panic Inc.

Playdate Season One Locked

And folks, it's an amazing lineup. There's bonus great news too: we used our extra time to commission even more Season One games from more developers. Soon, in a special video update, we'll reveal the names of each of the Season One games! Please look forward to it. As a reminder, Season One is included with your Playdate. There's no extra charge.

Hardware Locked

We've fine-tuned the crank. We've tweaked the boards. We've addressed some potential quirks found in early Developer Preview units. Playdate is locked and ready for production. (Unless we change it again.) Also, after three months of paperwork, many days of tenuous travel, and a two week mandatory quarantine, our USA-based manufacturing specialist Steven has just made it to Malaysia. Next week he'll be at our factory to supervise mass production and make sure everything is perfect.

Hardware Certifications

With both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Playdate had to be thoroughly tested to make sure it operates within radio limits. We're relieved to note that as of July, Playdate is fully FCC certified (ID 2AR29-PDU01 for the curious) and is MIC certified for Japan and CE certified for Europe.

SDK Improvements

For developers, we've been working non-stop on our SDK. This includes adding better collision detection, a web-based font making tool, faster Lua performance with Lua 5.4, and greater parity between our Lua and C APIs. But, the wildest SDK news? We've made Panic's first Windows app! In addition to the Mac, our Playdate Simulator is now up and running on both Windows and Linux.

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