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Playdate first shipments delayed back to early 2022

Due to a major battery issue in its first products, the first shipments Playdate hand-cranked handheld have been delayed beyond 2021.

TJ Denzer

November 11, 2021 11:44 AM

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The Playdate handheld gaming platforms have met with some unusual production difficulties late this year and it looks like the first shipments of the device will be delayed because of that. A faulty battery issue forced the developers at Panic to switch battery companies and, as a result, the first and second round of Playdate shipments are being delayed from late 2021 to early 2022.

The Playdate developers announced the delay in a blog post update on November 11, 2021. According to the post, Panic was inspecting the first thousands of units and found many were experiencing battery issues up to and including not only a charge at all. With this in mind, the devs decided to switch battery companies and replace all of the batteries in said devices, which had to be shipped to Malaysia for the process. Unfortunately, that extra time spent on the battery issue ended up delaying other important production schedules. To that end, the first and second shipments of Playdates that were supposed to roll out in late 2021 have now been delayed to shipping in 2022.

The developers feel confident about the new window for the Playdate shipment schedule and announced that later planned shipments will not be delayed. The new schedule of Playdate shipments as it is currently can be seen below:

• Group #1 (1 to 10,000): Late 2021, Now Early 2022
• Group #2 (10,000 to 20,000): Late 2021, Now Early 2022
• Group #3 (20,000 to 30,000): Still 2022 (Second Half)
• Group #4 (30,000 to 40,000): Still 2022 (Second Half)
• Group #5 (40,000 to 50,000): Still 2022 (Late Second Half)

The Playdate has been a popular pre-order, to say the least, having sold 20,000 reservations in less than 20 minutes. We also have an idea of some of the games that will release with it. The delay might be a little disheartening, but it seems that having caught the battery issue, a lot of folks will be happier to have a working Playdate when they arrive next year. Stay tuned for further updates on the Playdate, here at Shacknews.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.