Playdate video game system delayed until 2022 by battery failure

Tan KW

Publish date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021, 07:53 AM

No Playdates for the holidays.

Portland tech company Panic said Thursday that delivery of its Playdate handheld video game system has been delayed until next year after it discovered faulty batteries in many of the first batch off the production line.

“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,” Panic said in an email to Playdate customers.

Panic said it spent months working the problem, halting production at its factory in Malaysia before deciding to replace all its batteries with new ones from a different supplier.

So it’s sending those first 5,000 Playdates back to Malaysia for new batteries, which means they won’t be in customers’ hands by the end of the year, as Panic had promised. Instead, the first 20,000 orders will arrive in “early 2022.”

“We’re very sorry, and we’re especially sorry for those of you who were planning to give a Playdate as a holiday gift,” Panic said in its email.

Subsequent orders already placed won’t arrive until sometime later next year, according to the Portland company, with some arriving near the end of 2022.

Playdate is a US$179 , retro video game that harkens back to the 1980s, with a black-and-white screen, a directional button pad and a crank on the size to give it an idiosyncratic flair. The gadgets generated enormous enthusiasm when Panic announced the Playdate back in 2019 and the company sold out its initial batch of 20,000 in just 20 minutes when they went on sale in July.

It’s the first foray into computer hardware for Panic, which specialises in software for Apple products. And it’s been a bumpy road - Panic had originally planned to have the first gadgets in gamers’ hands early in 2020. The battery flaw means they will now arrive two years behind that target.

Panic has endured a bumpy road with Playdate, coping with supply chain issues, pandemic-related obstacles and now a major manufacturing failure.

Panic said Thursday that the computer electronics shortage has complicated manufacturing for the next 30,000 Playdates that customers have already ordered. The device’s central processor was backordered for more than two years.

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

However, Panic said it has revised its main circuit board to use a more readily available processor. It won’t change game play, according to the company, and means it expects to be able to deliver the next 30,000 orders in the second half of next year.

While Panic said it expects to deliver all of its first 50,000 orders in 2022, subsequent orders almost certainly won’t arrive before 2023.

“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,” Panic said in its email.

- TNS

Discussions

Be the first to like this. Showing 0 of 0 comments

Featured Posts

MQ Trader

Introducing MY's First IPO Fund for Sophisticated Investors!

MQ Chat

New Update. Discover investment communities that resonate with your ideas

MQ Trader

M & A Value Partners IPO Equity Fund has been launched - Targeted 13% Return p.a

Latest Videos