Playdate is a tiny yellow handheld game console from Panic, the Portland software company behind Transmit and the publisher of Untitled Goose Game. It was designed with Teenage Engineering and shipped in April 2022. Its signature feature is a fold-out crank on the side, which some games use as a controller and others ignore entirely.
The hardware
- 2.7-inch, 400 x 240 black-and-white Memory LCD with no backlight. It looks great in daylight and has wide viewing angles.
- D-pad, A and B buttons, and the crank.
- Wi-Fi for downloading games straight to the device.
The games
Every Playdate comes with Season One, 24 games that originally arrived two per week as surprises. Panic added the Catalog store in March 2023, and Season Two followed in 2025 as a 12-game, $39 bundle. Developers can build games with the free SDK in C or Lua, or use Pulp, a browser-based tool that lets beginners make games without much code.
Price
It launched at $179, moved to $199, and went up to $229 in March 2025. Panic has also sold limited runs of refurbished units for less, so check the site before buying new.
It is not trying to compete with a Switch. It is a weird, charming little machine with a lot of indie personality, and that is exactly the appeal.