Indie handheld Playdate Developers have earned an amount of over $1 million dollars thus far through the storefront catalog for the platform since the system launched back in March of 2023. Panic, the company behind the handheld, shared this news via email, explaining that 289,305 titles total have been sold through the curated marketplace, leading to a profit of $1,043,186, which has been paid out across all the people who have developed for the platform.
An official statement from Panic said:
Playdate might be an indie platform, but seeing numbers like this makes us realize that even an indie platform can be meaningful in the gaming world. Catalog has been successful beyond our expectations
We’re so extremely happy and proud to be working with so many amazing developers from all around the globe and helping them sell the amazing things they make! And thank you for buying them.
Since the debut of the platform, players have seen an additional 262 hand-selected titles added. This doesn’t fully reflect the entirety of the platform’s titles either, as third-party storefronts such as Itch.io via sideloading, ensuring there are plenty of options on the Playdate.
Recently, Panic has also announced that they, like many hardware developers, will be increasing the price of the Playdate by $30 due to increases in manufacturing costs, which seemed to catch Panic off guard. Similarly, Sony recently announced an increase in the price of the PlayStation 5 in several regions for similar reasons. Around the same time, Panic announced they would allow for a resell market, selling certified refurbished Playdate’s for $179, rather than the $229 of a new system, but noted supply would be “extremely limited.”
Playdate is a quirky handheld that predominantly differentiates itself with a crack on the side that is used for several games, with most games releasing on it looking like old-school Game Boy titles but with a more modern twist. Originally, games were released in seasons with two games dropping each new ‘game day’, however, with the large amount of titles available now, the storefront allows for individual purchase as well.
Panic plans to announce what is next for the Playdate during an update video on April 17th. This will include information about the next season of game releases as well.
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