The Playdate has been out since April 2022 — here’s how it’s going

Portable gaming has always been a little, let’s say, different. While there have been some attempts at shrinking console gaming down into something that will fit in your hands, many of the best handheld experiences have been downright weird. Think of the Nintendo DS with its dual screens that helped inspire memorable games about walking dogs, doing surgery, and, well, whatever is going on in Electroplankton. There’s something about the smaller scale of these games that often invites creativity from developers.

The Playdate, from first-time hardware maker Panic — best known for its Mac software and publishing games like Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game — takes this idea to the extreme. It’s a tiny yellow square, not much bigger than a credit card, with a black-and-white screen and a crank that juts out of its side. It looks like a Game Boy from a parallel world. And, much like with the DS and its contemporaries, those limitations and distinct features have inspired a library of games unlike anything I’ve ever played: everything from a strategy game about cryptid photography and a turn-based samurai adventure to a role-playing game where all you do is manage inventory.

The Playdate is easy to forget about. It’s colorful and weird, but it’s also tiny. Like the Game Boy Micro before it, sometimes I toss it in a bag and then can’t remember where I put it. But over the past few weeks, the yellow handheld has been in constant rotation in my house, despite being up against big distractions like Mario Kart World and Death Stranding 2, thanks to the Playdate’s now-complete second season of games.

The seasonal structure is one of the unique aspects of the Playdate. When the handheld first launched in 2022, owners got access to a curated selection of 24 games that were released over time. It was a great introduction to the device and its unique features — the crank, the little display, the black-and-white graphics — but it wasn’t until earlier this year that a second season kicked off. (I should note that this doesn’t mean there weren’t any new games for the Playdate, as a digital shop launched in 2023, and there are plenty of titles to sideload from marketplaces like Itch.io.)

A lot of games have been released for the Playdate since it launched in 2022, as a quick browse of itch.io or the Catalog shop will attest. But still, there’s something unique about the handheld’s seasonal format, which just kicked off its second iteration. When it first launched, the Playdate came with 24 games from notable indie developers that were steadily released on a weekly cadence, making a perfect introduction to the little yellow device and its crank. Now, a few years later, we finally have season 2, and it’s off to a solid start — and it even includes a bizarre mystery.

The new season runs for the next six weeks and totals a dozen games, two of which will drop each week. The entire collection will run you $39. To start, we have a pair of very different games. Fulcrum Defender, from FTL: Faster Than Light developer Subset Games, is sort of like a modern take on Asteroids. You control a little ship in the middle and fire guns at little squares flying toward you. The twist is that you use the crank to rotate the ship around and aim your shots. There’s also something of a roguelike element, where you steadily unlock random upgrades like new weapons or a larger spread for your bullets. The goal is to last for 10 straight minutes.

Playdate is about to get a big batch of new games. Today, Panic confirmed the first details of the handheld’s upcoming season 2, which will include 12 new games and run from May 29th to July 3rd, with two titles releasing each week. The full season will cost $39.

When the Playdate first launched back in 2022, it similarly came with a number of games from notable developers that released over time. The idea was that every Playdate owner would receive these mystery games at the same time as they launched weekly throughout the season, but ensuing shipping delays put a wrench in that plan. Panic says that with this second season it “hopes to deliver on that original idea,” while adding that the season will also include “a must see surprise for all those who want something… a little different.”

The Playdate, Panic’s cranky little console that could, is going to get $30 more expensive next week. Panic announced the increase in an email to customers, bringing the bright yellow handheld’s price from $199 to $229.

Though the Trump administration’s intermittent tariff applications are affecting many items, this price increase doesn’t seem related. The Playdate is still manufactured in Malaysia, a country which, so far, has not been targeted for tariffs.

When the Playdate first launched, one of the hooks was that the little yellow handheld came with a “season” of 24 games from notable developers like Keita Takahashi and Zach Gage. And now Panic has confirmed that a second season is coming at some point in 2025.

As for what will be included, we don’t have a lot to go on right now. Panic says that “details on price, the exact number of games, and the developers behind the games of season 2 will come in 2025.” But during a livestream today, the company said it would probably feature “about a dozen games” and will also include a “really cool surprise.”

Well, we finally know what’s up with Panic’s Playdate Stereo Dock. It’s not coming — at least, not for a while. In an update to the Stereo Dock’s page, the company describes the challenges it faced in getting a good prototype, but says that, in the end, the device didn’t meet its standards.

The Stereo Dock was going to be a small desktop Bluetooth speaker and pen holder that you could attach a Playdate to. Panic first announced the Stereo Dock in 2021, when it was still working toward releasing the Playdate.

From the Boox Palma to the Light Phone 2, it seems that everyone is looking for distraction-free reading, if only they had the right device. I don’t blame them: every time I pull out my phone to mindlessly scroll, I know my time could be put to better use. But as the owner of many fine gadgets, I also don’t really want another device in my life, so I was pretty excited to stumble upon a partial solution with a gadget I already have: the Playdate.

Yes, I’m talking about that little yellow Game Boy from Panic and Teenage Engineering, the one with a crank jutting out of its side. Since the launch of its on-device store, Catalog, the handheld has become home to quite a range of experiences. I’ve been playing tiny city builders and dungeon crawlers and egg touchers. Even still, I was surprised to discover Playbook, a full-fledged e-reading app. Perhaps even more surprising is that it actually works pretty well.

Last March, Panic launched a curated game shop called Catalog for its Playdate handheld. And one year later, the company says it has sold more than 150,000 games through the store. “We want to let everyone who enjoys games know that there is a vibrant game dev community making hundreds of inventive and thoughtful games for Playdate,” Arisa Sudangnoi, head of Playdate developer relations, said in a statement. The news comes exactly two years after the handheld first launched.

At the beginning of 2024, Panic revealed that it had sold 70,000 Playdate units, and it now says that more than half of those users — 38,000 — have purchased a game through Catalog. For context, the Playdate launched with a “season” of 24 games from notable developers that came as part of the purchase price. Panic says that “about 32,000 of those users who have not bought a game are still working through the games included in Playdate Season One.” Some more numbers: there are currently 181 titles in the store, and so far, sales have grossed just over $544,000 (“after taxes, processing fees, and Panic’s 25% revenue share for distribution on Catalog,” the company says).

Nearly two years after it first debuted, Panic has caught up on preorders for its adorable Playdate handheld. The company says that it has shipped more than 70,000 of the tiny yellow gadgets — up from 50,000 last April — and that there is now a “limited number” in stock to purchase right now on Panic’s site. (The news comes just a day after Analogue announced a similar milestone for its Pocket handheld.)

“Going forward, Panic will notify the public when Playdates are in-stock and ready to ship,” the company explains. “Customers will still be able to place an order for a Playdate when it is out of stock, but will be notified that their order won’t ship until Panic has a new batch of Playdates ready to ship.” Speaking to The Verge, Greg Maletic, head of special projects at Panic, said that the wait time for orders “should be significantly shorter now,” explaining that “it’s an order that will be fulfilled in the near term anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.”