Playdate

One day in May, I opened Twitter and everyone was talking about one thing only. Surprisingly it wasn’t another story about Trump, it was an announcement for completely new game console. I’ve checked the calendar, yeap, it’s still 2019 and yet here we are.

I was pretty late to the Mac party, when I got my first Apple computer, so I’m not personally amazed by the Panic (company behind Playdate), but I’ve heard a lot about it. Considering I follow mostly Apple enthusiasts on Twitter, I see that name mentioned often. I also haven’t played Firewatch, their video game, but heard only nice things about it.

But after looking at the device, I knew that it’s something I would like to buy. And I could see why everyone was so excited about it. Nowadays nobody launches a new platform for video games. Even some old ones struggle to compete in the market. So one thing that’s going for the developers is the desire to support something new and fun.

Another reason why I think people love this new device – they are tired of huge corporations sucking all of our data, of games consisting mostly from lootboxes and monetization. They want something simple, pay the fair price and get a couple of fun games. That’s all. No paying to get to the next level faster or to get another try. Just plain old game. 

The device itself is very simple, but very attractive. It has black-and-white screen, but also the best connectivity options there are – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB-C. There is also the crank, which is used for some game mechanics, which is very interesting to see.

We still don’t know a lot about the games, but I’ve already signed up for the e-mail, so when it comes out, I sure want to get one. Hopefully they will ship to Latvia.