A (Play)date with destiny

#10: Crank it up

This week saw Panic and Teenage Engineering's long-awaited Playdate console finally arrive at the doors of critics and a few lucky early adopters. The tiny yellow handheld with a crank controller and a games subscription model is designed to provide a playground for current and aspiring developers to create and share small-scale indie games. It's niche in the extreme, but the fact that a product like this exists at all - a product Panic says they made "just for fun" - is a testament to the diversity, creativity, and desire for bold new ideas within the games industry.

A little less niche, but still some way from mainstream, is Valve's Steam Deck. It makes a lot more sense on the surface (take all of your Steam games on the go!), and is a technical powerhouse, but it’s big, a little unwieldy, and it’s a PC in a lot of the bad ways as well as the good. Setup can be complicated, patches and updates are endless (these should level out after the initial launch period, of course, but will never go away), and software compatibility is a technical and logistical nightmare. In some circles, it is being hailed as the Switch killer, but it’ll never come close to reaching the kind of audience Nintendo’s all-conquering crowd-pleaser enjoys.

Still, just like Playdate, Steam Deck at least deserves a fair shot at success. But protracted development cycles, delayed releases, and extreme scarcity are endangering both consoles' prospects before they have even begun.

I placed a Steam Deck pre-order within half an hour of them going live in July 2021 - nine months ago. It was officially released in February this year and my current estimated shipping date is "April-June 2022". I tried to pre-order a Playdate when they went live too (also in July last year), but European payments were broken during the 20 minutes it took for 2021 stock to completely sell out. If you were to stop reading this and place an order for either console right now, you’re looking at "October or later" for a Steam Deck, and simply "2023" for Playdate.

Some of this is outside of Valve and Panic's control, of course - those who currently own (or still don’t own!) a PS5 or Series X will know all too well that hardware scarcity is nothing new these days - but these handhelds were a risky proposition even before global chip shortages and logistical problems helped make them borderline impossible to get hold of.

Thankfully, the critical consensus for Steam Deck and the critical consensus for Playdate are positive, with most reviews stating that both comfortably achieve what they set out to do. Also, many people (and I’m sure a few reading this) will look at Steam Deck and see a dream machine. A portable powerhouse capable of playing hundreds of games they already own, and one that also seems strangely open to emulating older and current systems. Similarly, many will see Playdate as the gorgeous piece of industrial design it is, and delight at its gradual delivery of weird and wonderful bite-sized games.

But are those audiences big enough to see these consoles escape their respective niche? To prevent them from becoming another abandoned Valve hardware experiment and another unique handheld destined to gather dust in gaming’s collective cupboard?

I truly hope so.

-

If you are thinking of picking up or if you already own a Playdate or Steam Deck (or even an Analogue Pocket or Amiga 500 Mini!) please let me know what you think about them, I’d love to hear your thoughts. As always, please just reply to this email directly or catch me on Twitter and I'll be sure to get back to you.

Until next time!

NEWS

  • A Streets of Rage movie is in the works. Penned by John Wick and Nobody writer Derek Kolstad.

  • If you watched the staggering mountain climbing documentary Free Solo a few years ago and wondered what looking down from those heights would really feel like, The Soloist VR experience from Oculus - featuring Free Solo's Alex Honnold - has you covered.

  • In an interview with Kinda Funny Games, Returnal director Harry Krueger says the game's difficulty and narrative are inseparable.

  • There was a Meta Quest VR game showcase held this week. Everything announced during the show can be found here.

  • Sega are reportedly working on "big budget" reboots of Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio. Excellent news on the surface, but the company's desire to create live-service games like Fortnite means the games likely won't be what many are expecting.

  • New details and official images from the long-awaited Return to Monkey Island have been revealed.

  • Sony and Microsoft are reportedly both working on plans to place adverts in free-to-play games.

  • Portal co-writer Erik Wolpaw wants Valve to make Portal 3 before he's too old to work on it.

  • Nintendo has brought the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 forward from September to July 29th.

  • Digital Foundry have gone hands-on with Epic's stunning Unreal Engine 5.

  • Sega has announced retro collection Sonic Origins, complete with a June release date.

  • A movie based on It Takes Two is in the works at Amazon.

  • Klonoa 1 & 2 remasters are coming to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC alongside the previously announced Switch version.

NEW RELEASES:

Wii Sports is back. This time as Nintendo Switch Sports.

(PS4, PS5) – April 19  – Read review

(Switch) – April 20 – Read review

(PC) – April 21

UPCOMING RELEASES:

(Switch) – April 26  – Read review

(PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC) – April 27

(PS5, PC) – April 27

(Xbox, Switch) – April 28  – Read review

(PC) – April 28

(Xbox, PC) – April 28

(PS4, PS5, Xbox, PC) – April 28

(Xbox, Switch, PC) – April 28

(PS4, PS5) – April 28

(Switch) – April 29

GAME OF THE WEEK

A randomly selected game each week! Any and all games are eligible for selection regardless of age, platform, popularity, or otherwise.

This week, the honour goes to…

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (2017)

Widely derided when the game's development was prematurely leaked, Mario + Rabbids went on to receive universal acclaim from players and critics alike. But not before a heart-warming moment of redemption when - during its official unveiling - a rapturous response from the audience reduced its director to happy-tears.

Ubisoft’s collaboration with Nintendo exhibited qualities from both studios, and proved to be far more than the mere ‘XCOM in Mario clothing’ it initially appeared to be.

Expansion DLC 'Donkey Kong Adventure' was just as good as the main game, and sequel Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is due this year.

RECOMMENDED READS

James Batchelor - GamesIndustryBiz

University of West London's Jay Shin discusses the barriers that the video games industry needs to bring down to attract future talent with GamesIndustryBiz.

Matt Gardner - Forbes

Ok so Easter weekend may have been and gone, but this lovely list of worthwhile indie games from Matt Gardner works at any time of the year.

CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGNS

Toasty: Ashes of Dusk

By Pocket Llama - campaign ends April 28

Stop the cataclysm and save your friends in this Action RPG! Overfunded in just 5 hours!

Long Live Mortal Kombat - The Definitive History of MK

By David L Craddock - campaign ends April 28

This first book in the Long Live MK trilogy of books celebrates the series' coin-op era, the fandom, and impact on pop culture.

PuffPals: Island Skies

By Fluffnest - campaign ends May 7

A wholesome life simulator where you can collect, farm, customize and explore new lands with cute and fluffy PuffPals!

A Handheld History

By Lost In Cult & Retro Dodo - campaign ends May 9

A high-quality, explorative jaunt through the systems and games that defined the legacy of portable systems.

Gold Project - A karma based Metroidvania

By Dreamirl - campaign ends May 19

The God of Light and the God of Gold are facing off in this dark fantasy metroidvania game, which side will you choose?

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...and that's it for this week!

I hope you enjoyed this issue of The Week in Games!

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