When Panic first launched pre-orders of its cute little retro-inspired handheld gaming machine, Playdate, it anticipated the primary 20,000 models to ship by the tip of 2021 — simply in time, they hoped, for the vacations. That first batch sold out in under twenty minutes.
Sadly, because of last-minute battery element points, even these first orders have now slipped again to 2022.
In an replace electronic mail despatched to impacted pre-orderers, Panic writes:
As our first 5,000 completed Playdate models arrived at our warehouse in California for 2021, we started to check a couple of of them. We shortly grew to become involved that a few of them weren’t giving us the battery life we anticipated. Playdate’s battery is designed to final a really very long time, and at all times be prepared for you, even when not used for some time. However that was not the case: in reality, we discovered quite a lot of models with batteries so drained, Playdate wouldn’t energy on in any respect — and couldn’t be charged. That’s a battery worst-case situation.
This shortly was a months-long, all-hands-on-deck analysis stress-ball, and we halted manufacturing on the manufacturing facility.
The conclusion?
We made the troublesome, costly determination to interchange all of our current batteries with model new ones, from a completely totally different battery provider.
Panic goes on to notice that they’ve acquired new batteries they usually’re now working as hoped… however delivery every part again to Malaysia, swapping out the batteries, and getting them again throughout the ocean goes to take some time.
In the meantime, the corporate additionally found that the CPU it deliberate to make use of for all Playdate models shipped in 2022 is now backordered for literal years.
Actually, we will’t get any extra of Playdate’s present CPU for — you’re not going to imagine this — two years. Like, 730 days.
Possibly you’ve heard concerning the “world chip scarcity” everybody’s speaking about? We’re right here to say it is vitally actual. Covid-19 induced an ever-cascading set of worldwide provide chain failures which can be resulting in many, many digital elements being merely… gone.
To work round this, the corporate has redesigned Playdate’s boards to assist a distinct CPU — one they are saying is extra available, however that they don’t anticipate to influence the best way the hand held works in anyway that the person may discover.
The corporate says that though models 1 by way of 20,000 have slipped into 2022, they don’t at the moment anticipate orders positioned to date to slide into 2023.
As at all times, {hardware} is tough. Add a pandemic to the combo, and, effectively…
