author: Frozen
Crank-Equipped Portable Console Playdate Announced
Panic, the publisher of Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game, will launch a new mobile console called Playdate. The device will have a black and white screen and an unusual controller in the form of a detachable crank.
- The Playdate portable console has been announced;
- The device will have a black and white screen, will not support physical media, and will have an analogue crank instead of an analogue stick;
- Games for the new console will be published in seasons, the first one is to count 12 titles;
- Playdate will be released at the beginning of 2020.
Panic has announced a new mobile console called Playdate. Yellow device measuring 74mm x 76mm x 9mm is to be equipped with a monochrome, 2.7-inch screen without backlight (with a resolution of 400x240), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, as well as a USB-C port and a headphone jack. Apart from the standard buttons (power supply, pause, A+B, cross, etc.), the device has a crank - a rotary analogue controller.
Playdate will not support physical media. Games will only be available digitally in packages called "seasons". The first one, consisting of 12 titles, will be available for free to all Playdate owners. The games included in the package will be released every week, starting from the day of the release of the device. Panic only guarantees the release of the first season. There will be others if the console is successful.
The first title to be released on Playdate is Crankin's Time Travel Adventure. The production was designed by Keita Takahashi, the creator of Katamari Damacy. The task of the player during the game will be to manipulate time using the crank in such a way that the main character gets to his date in one piece despite the obstacles that lie ahead of him.
Sample games from the first season.
The launch of Playdate is scheduled for the beginning of 2020. The device is supposed to cost $149. Panic, company responsible for creating the console, has been on the market since 1999, specializing in the production of software for Apple devices, recently also involved in video game publishing (Firewatch, Untitled Goose Game). Playdate is their first hardware project. The Swedish company Teenage Engineering helped to create it.
