Playdate handheld console delayed until next year, thanks to chip shortage and battery issues

(Pocket-lint) - More atrocious quality for handheld consoles pursuing the hold of Valve's Steam Deck, the wacky hand-crankable Playdate console volition beryllium delayed until 2022 arsenic well.

Originally planned to onshore with pre-order customers in precocious 2021, issues with the CPU and artillery person resulted successful a delay.

In a connection sent to pre-order customers, Panic said that upon investigating its archetypal 5000 units "We rapidly became acrophobic that immoderate of them weren’t giving america the artillery beingness we expected."

"Playdate’s artillery is designed to past a precise agelong time, and ever beryllium acceptable for you, adjacent if not utilized for a while. But that was not the case. In fact, we recovered a fig of units with batteries truthful drained, Playdate wouldn’t powerfulness connected astatine each – and couldn’t beryllium charged. That’s a artillery worst-case scenario."

If that wasn't atrocious enough, the spot shortage past reared its disfigured caput too. Meaning the archetypal CPU planned for the Playdate was nary longer available, forcing a alteration to a much readily disposable CPU and, successful turn, a redesign of the circuit committee to accommodate it.

Panic assures its pre-order customers that their spot successful enactment hasn't changed. It expects the archetypal 20,000 orders to beryllium fulfilled successful aboriginal 2022, with orders 20,000 to 50,000 onshore successful the 2nd fractional of 2022.

You tin find retired much astir the Playdate console connected the official website here.

Writing by Luke Baker. Originally published connected 12 November 2021.