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    Looks like nobody is getting theirs till next year now.

    Now that you’re part of the club, we want to keep you updated with the status of your Playdate. This first email contains some bad news, including a delay for some, but hey there’s also some good news, so really it’s the whole human experience in one email. Let’s go.

    First, Overcoming A Surprise Battery Issue
    As our first 5,000 finished Playdate units arrived at our warehouse in California for 2021, we began to test a few of them. We quickly became concerned that some of them weren’t giving us the battery life we expected. Playdate’s battery is designed to last a very long time, and always be ready for you, even if not used for a while. But that was not the case: in fact, we found a number of units with batteries so drained, Playdate wouldn’t power on at all — and couldn’t be charged. That’s a battery worst-case scenario.

    This quickly turned into a months-long, all-hands-on-deck research stress-ball, and we halted production at the factory.

    The conclusion?

    We made the difficult, expensive decision to replace all of our existing batteries with brand new ones, from a totally different battery supplier.

    It was extra frustrating, because when we built our Developer Preview units, the exact same type of batteries worked just fine — but something, somewhere (we're researching) changed between then and now, and the new ones did not work just fine. We have no time to waste, so we’re moving on.

    And so, we shipped 5,000 finished Playdates back to Malaysia to be given new batteries. How did that feel? Not great!!!

    The good news: we’ve already received the new batteries from the new supplier, and they’re looking really impressive — they’re exactly what we’re hoping for, if not even better than before. We’re extremely confident the new supplier can give Playdate the battery life we designed, and you deserve.

    And there’s one huge silver lining: we’re extremely glad that we found this potential issue before shipping you a Playdate.

    In just a few weeks, factory production will ramp up to full speed again, with new batteries in place. They’ll be put in all units, even those we’ve already made. But, it does mean “Late 2021” units are now “Early 2022”. More on this below.

    Then, Preparing for 2022 Challenges
    With lots of pre-orders in place, we immediately placed an order at our factory for all the parts needed for 2022 units and beyond. The response was… sobering. Many of our parts have been delayed significantly. In fact, we can’t get any more of Playdate’s current CPU for — you’re not going to believe this — two years. Like, 730 days.

    Maybe you’ve heard about the “global chip shortage” everyone’s talking about? We’re here to say it is very real. Covid-19 caused an ever-cascading set of worldwide supply chain failures that are leading to many, many electronic parts being simply… gone.

    Here’s one way we’re working to beat the chip shortage: we’ve just finished a revision of Playdate’s main board (for units made later next year) so that we can use a similar, but more widely available, CPU.

    Board revisions are complex and costly. But this other CPU can, for whatever reason, be obtained much sooner. And you won’t notice anything different about this new board revision when it comes to playing games — functionally it will be the same. But it’ll give us the best chance at getting you a Playdate next year, which we both want.

    There are a number of other part shortages we’re trying to outsmart right now, and while it’s stressful and frustrating, rest assured we will do everything we can to make as many Playdates as we can for you.

    As we enter 2022, we’ll keep you posted.

    And So
    As you probably guessed, surprise bummer setbacks slam right into our schedule, and as a result, Playdate will arrive a little bit later than expected for some. We’re very sorry, and we’re especially sorry for those of you who were planning to give a Playdate as a holiday gift.

    But, don’t worry: your place in line is not changing!! You will keep your place in line as long as your pre-order is active.

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      BUTTHOLES! First the Steam Deck and now this? Christmas is ruined.

      RUINED!

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        Will I get my Playdate or Pocket first?! The action is heating up!

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          This is their revised estimates now, they will send everyone an email it will specifically tell you what group you are in for ordering, Mine is in group 2 according to email.

          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)


          Notes:

          • Units past 50,000 will almost certainly land in 2023, but we’re not quite there yet.

          • Should anyone ahead of you in line cancel their order, your place in line will move up.

          • If you placed more than one order, the Group Number above reflects only your first order.

          • The Order Number listed on your receipt is not an accurate indicator of your place in line. Group Number is canon!

          • Of course, these estimates are all subject to change. It’s a wild time. But we’ll do everything we can to speed up our process as we begin to crank out (ugh) units, and as always we’ll keep you posted.

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            Yeah, I’m group 2.

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              While it's disappointing to be delayed i find it refreshing that they have been totally transparent in letting people know & the exact reason as well. Better people get bad news now than a company lies & pretends everything's going normally and then delay just as you were expecting to be getting one delivered.

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                Yep, that’s true. But what am I getting for Christmas now?

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                  Also in Group 2 Gang here.

                  It's a little bit disappointing, but I'm OK with it. They're not Apple or Sony (not that Sony are able to keep their products on shelves either), they''re a small outfit doing hardware for the first time, so I think this kind of setback is understandable. I appreciate them spending the money to make sure the product is right.

                  I've been a fan of Panic since first using their (excellent) Mac software in the 2000s. They always make quality stuff and I'm confident this will be good when it comes

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                    Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
                    Yep, that’s true. But what am I getting for Christmas now?

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                      Originally posted by importaku View Post
                      Group #2 ~10,000 to 20,000
                      Late 2021 → Now Early 2022

                      Group #3 ~20,000 to 30,000
                      Still 2022 (Second Half)
                      Originally posted by importaku View Post
                      • The Order Number listed on your receipt is not an accurate indicator of your place in line. Group Number is canon!
                      Didn't properly take this in before, but I'm in 17xxx range and still group 3. Boooo!

                      Anyway, the reason I came here was this...



                      Any group 1 folks round these parts?

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                        Ohhhh, exciting

                        Mine is Group 2, so fingers crossed for some news on that group soon. I have been looking forward to this for a very long time.

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                          With people err i mean youtubers already having them in their posession there's now reviews going out and it seems mostly positive although some tubers are adding drama to try to appear that they aren't been bought out with false praise by bitching over the tiniest things.

                          The game selection actually looks preally nice, obviously spoilers if you don't want to see what comes in season 1 so you have been warned

                          Personally i love the aesthetic it's like a powerful gameboy from a different reality.

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                            Christian Donlan has done a nice write up over at Eurogamer which steers clear of spoilers.

                            Screw the reviews though, give us news on when we’ll get our machines!

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                              I err, ended up cancelling my pre-order. Wonder if that was the right decision now.

                              Comment


                                Broken record here but no backlight is a bit benders for the money, hard pass.

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