The Mystery of the Lost Playdates, Some New Merch, and More!
November 22, 2024
Hey, friends!! There’s always a lot going on with Playdate here at Panic, but lately it feels like even more than usual… so we’ve put together a little news update for you. Let’s go!
① The Mystery of the Lost Playdates
Earlier this year, you might have heard a story about $400k worth of Playdate systems… just disappearing. You might wonder what the heck happened — and did we ever get those back?!
Well, a new episode of the Playdate Podcast is here to tell the tale!!
② New Merch Dropped
We’ve added a cool Playdate Hat, and super cool custom Playdate Tote — with special Playdate pocket! — to our online store.
We’ve also just partnered with Cotton Bureau to test out some new merch for Playdate games!
A Root Bear shirt (and pint glass) and Mars After Midnight shirt and hat are now available! (The classic Playdate shirt is back on Cotton Bureau as well.)
③ We’re On Bluesky
We’ve just added Bluesky to our social media rotation, if you’re over there! You can follow just Playdate, or a whole Panic Starter Pack!
④ Playdate Arcade Kiosks?!
When some great folks wanted to show off their Playdate games at Fantastic Arcade in Austin, Playdate’s chief engineer Dave Hayden decided to build a couple of very cool standalone Playdate arcade kiosks to make it even more fun!
Here’s a great video about this cool thing:
⑤ New Factory Update
Our brand new factory in Malaysia is at the finish line of making super-high-quality fresh Playdate systems from this point forward. That means we hope to begin shipping Playdate once again in December. Let’s all cross fingers these last few checks go smoothly.
⑥ MinnMax Spotlight
We really enjoyed a fun visit from Kelsey Lewin and Ben Hanson of MinnMax, who spent a day in our office talking all things Panic and Playdate. You might enjoy watching it!
⑦ Amazing Fan Art
We spotted this on Facebook. The description read, simply, “my son [did] this at school.” It stopped us dead in our tracks.
What an incredibly imaginative way to look at our now-not-so-little handheld gaming console, right? Just a phenomenal piece of artwork.
The father told us the backstory:
“Me and my son are in love with Playdate. My wife and kids are refugees from Ukraine leaving in California. I’m still in UA. We been separated for almost two years because of the war. The Playdate is a great way for us to connect and discuss the new games. Me and my son both own one. Thank you panic for an incredible device.”
The world keeps surprising us with the ways Playdate fits into it. We’re so proud we could help foster this long-distance connection, though we will always hope and work for a world where it wasn’t necessary in the first place. Thank you so much for sharing this, Lukas and Oleksiy — we think you have a bright future.
We appreciate you, and hope you’re having a nice week!
