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Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

play.date

91–100 of 424 posts

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#91

This will sell to indie gamedev scenesters and they have the perfect designer roster to hit that audience. From a commercial success standpoint, I'm bearish. Common pitfall in comedy is to make jokes for comedians. This scene has a similar problem where they love to make games for game devs.

I don't think they intended for it as anything but not a substantial cost loss because they wanted to make it, not because they wanted a 3DS IT PRINTS MONEY GIF of it, so that's probably a feature, not a bug.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#92
post #4

Slightly off-topic, but the website design looks like a worse version of Teenage Engineering website ( https://teenage.engineering/products/po ) with larger font size (a bit too large imo). Not dissing the website though, it isn't that bad overall, just thought it was interesting, since I haven't seen many others attempting that. EDIT: after a closer look at the page, I realized that they explicitly mentioned partner…

Thanks for pointing this out. The device instantly reminded me of the Teenage Engineering products, but I didn't read thoroughly.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#93
post #89
post #2

It would be cool if the crank was also used to charge the device's battery.

That was my first thought as well. But would it actually be practical? Anyone have an educated guess as to how much cranking it'd take to get 30 minutes of play time?

Optional power drill adapter.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#95
My feelings are not positive on this one. Trying to be for the sake of the guys making this but here is my problem...besides being very let down that the crank has nothing to do with charging, the price is just too much. Canadian here so 150USD is just over 200$CAD. For 200$ I can very easily pick up a used ipad or iphone and my kids would love to have either one of those. They play lots of games, they watch videos, they surf the internet, they make video calls, and 100 other uses I am sure. So though this device might be cool, it would be a pretty hard sell for me and my kids. The value just doesn't seem to be worth it.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#96

This will sell to indie gamedev scenesters and they have the perfect designer roster to hit that audience. From a commercial success standpoint, I'm bearish. Common pitfall in comedy is to make jokes for comedians. This scene has a similar problem where they love to make games for game devs.

This was a good Twitter thread on that topic from a couple of weeks ago: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1126531195666411521.html

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#97

Isn't $150 expensive? Or may be I am just too poor, to throw money at anyone who asks for it.

It's expensive but not nearly as expensive as I would expect a Teenage Engineering product to be. For example, their most famous product, the OP-1 (a small digital synth with a small LCD screen) is $1300.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#98
I dont know how much it costs to make specialized hardware. But i think there was a missed oportunity in cartridge based handhelds. There were a couple of games for GB,GBA and DS that had gimmicky controls that came from the cartridge. As the gyroscope for Yoshi Tipsy Turvy, Wario Ware Twisted and Kirby Tilt n Tumble. Another one was Guitar Hero for the DS and i think there was one with a light sensor for the GB? This feels like it has the same spirit. Wish them good luck.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#100
I am really excited about this. Firewatch is an amazing game with amazing execution. Teenage Engineering's OP1 is supposedly really good hardware (from what i heard and saw on youtube). Single purpose devices like this are more enjoyable to use since you aren't always itching to use a different app etc. The gradual "rollout" of games with a new one each week sounds like an exciting thing to look forwards to every week actually! Although the price is steep (for a student), i'm pretty sure i'll get it as this sounds like a well crafted and enjoyable experience
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