Playdate delays to 2022 amid scramble to revise entire handheld console ~ USA Latest Games

The Playdate's shipping box, modified to reflect today's news.

The global chip shortage has made a serious impact on upcoming portable gaming device production this week. Barely a day after Valve announced that its handheld PC, the Steam Deck, would be delayed "two months," the quirky Playdate console, initially slated to arrive by the end of 2021, followed suit on Thursday.

The Game Boy-like system's producers at Panic have given a lengthy explanation for why the system is being delayed to "early 2022," with orders beyond the first 20,000 pushed back further.

In a newsletter sent to Playdate preorder customers, Panic detailed the reason for the delay: broken batteries in the first batch of 5,000 systems. "We found a number of units with batteries so drained, Playdate wouldn’t power on at all—and couldn’t be charged," Panic wrote.

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