Dead batteries push the Playdate’s launch date to 2022

By DeAngelo Epps Published November 11, 2021

The Playdate, the unique new handheld console from Panic, just had its initial release date delayed. Via both a Twitter post and an email to pre-order adopters, the company announced that consoles set to ship out in late 2021 will now get into the hands of owners in early 2022.

Hi! If you've pre-ordered a Playdate, check your email for a copy of the "Playdate Owner's Update #1".

There's bad news (a battery tragedy means Late 2021 units are now Early 2022, see email for your timing) but also good news (Pulp+SDK release dates!!)

Thanks for reading it. pic.twitter.com/03BUolZetY

— Playdate (@playdate) November 11, 2021

The Playdate is a new handheld console that is shaping up to be something totally new. It sports a season-based game release schedule and a unique control peripheral in its crank. Its pre-orders were set to release in quarterly waves, with its first shipment now set for 2022.

Playdate cited battery issues as a reason for the delay. This issue reared its head during early shipment testing, when the team noticed that early models weren’t reaching their expected battery life.

An email from Playdate states that it “found a number of units with batteries so drained, Playdate wouldn’t power on at all — and couldn’t be charged.”

Due to that issue, Panic decided to replace all the existing Playdate batteries with new ones from a new supplier. This means that 5,000 of the consoles were shipped back to Malaysia to be given new batteries. While the delay may sting, at least the team caught the issue before actually shipping out the consoles, which would have resulted in an even greater frustration.

Those who pre-ordered a Playdate and were part of that late 2021 group will now receive their consoles in early 2022. The other groups set to receive their consoles in later quarters of 2022 will still get their consoles on previously established dates.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

De'Angelo Epps is a gaming writer passionate about the culture, communities, and industry surrounding gaming. His work ranges…

Topics

Gaming

Modern Warfare 4 brings Call of Duty back to its glory days. I hope the streak lives.

Infinity Ward’s latest campaign goes back to Call of Duty’s roots and recaptures what made me a fan more than a decade ago.

Call of Duty MW4 menu screen

The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.

After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.

Gaming

Epic is throwing $50,000 for vibe-code games. What could possibly go wrong?

Epic is rewarding vibe-coded games with real money

Epic MegaJam 2026

Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.

Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”

Gaming

Monster Hunter Outlanders arrives on Android and iOS next week with four-player co-op

The free-to-play spin-off launches October 29 with open-world exploration, mobile-focused combat, and a building system.

Monster Hunter Outlanders poster

It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.

Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.