Today, Panic released the latest Playdate update and announced two big things. First, Catalog, Playdate’s on-device digital store has gone live with a selection of Playdate software for players to choose from. The second thing that Panic announced was that the Playdate will be getting a $20 price increase. It will go from $179 to $199 This will begin next month starting on April 7.
In the Playdate Update #3 video, Panic Co-Founder and CEO Cabel Sasser explained the reasoning behind the increase in price. “Now why? Ok. That twenty-dollar delta is largely because our factory recently gave us the inevitable news that in 2023, the price of building a single Playdate is going up. Our margins are sadly already surprisingly slim, so although we’ve absorbed a lot of weird price increases on this weird journey, this was one that we couldn’t avoid and we are truly sorry.” The price increase will not affect anyone who has already ordered a Playdate. The new price will take effect next month on April 7. Sasser said that the increase in price today “didn’t seem fair to folks who have been on the fence about the Playdate. So we decided to give everyone one last chance to get a Playdate at the current price.”
Catalog represents the third-way Playdate owners can get new games on the platform. It is a “curated selection for neat Playdate software. 16 Playdate games and apps are launching with Catalog, including 11 brand-new titles. Recommendation Dog!! and Real Steel are free for all Playdate owners as a bonus for Playdate Season 1. The Catalog launch lineup consists of:
- Direct Drive, a silent-movie-musical game about being an intern in the music industry in 1927, from DAC Vector
- Carve Jr, where you’ll hit the slopes like never before, from Chuhai Labs
- Playmaker, with six playful creative spaces where you can paint, compose, build, record, and dance, from Dustin Mierau
- Swap Machina, a fast-paced puzzle game made in the Pulp game engine by NaOH & Zion D. Hill
- SKEW, the world’s 1st real-time 3D endless spinner, from Oiffy
- Grand Tour Legends, an epic bicycle racing game from iorama studio
- The Botanist, an interactive sci-fi adventure comic with a linear story, from Cadin Batrack
- Bloom, the real-time narrative-driven social sim about starting up a flower shop, from RNG Party—now with a new post-game story, and more!
- Eyeland, a mysterious bite-sized adventure made in Pulp by Ron Lent
- Tapeworm Disco Puzzle, a grid-based puzzle game where you play as a tapeworm, the local nightclub owner; from Lowtek Games
- Down the Oubliette, a dungeon crawler for people who like tower defense games, from Rebecca König
- A Joke That’s Worth .99¢, now in Catalog with a NEW .1¢ joke! From kamibox
- Hidey Spot, a little Pulp-made adventure about sneaking around in the middle at night, from Neven Mrgan and us here at Panic
- Word Trip, a light-action word-building game from Shaun Inman, Matthew Grimm, and Charlie Davis