4 ms·

This is going to be a tough sell. $150 dollars is very expensive for a portable game system, which will compete with any tablet/phone that can play games that

This is going to be a tough sell. $150 dollars is very expensive for a portable game system, which will compete with any tablet/phone that can play games that have better graphics and game play. The problem is that this is competing with entire ecosystems of games that have been around for almost a decade.

robertAngst 7y ago
This isnt hard for Nintendo, but Nintendo fans are fanatics.
- pushpop 7y ago
  Nintendo have had their fair share of failed consoles as well
ehsankia 7y ago
This isn't meant to compete or be "the best". I think your comment is entirely missing the point of what this is. This is more of a play on nostalgia and classic bulky simple handhelds. It would be in the same category as the NES Classic Edition or the Sega Genesis Mini. It's fun and almost a collectible honestly.
- lostmymind66 7y ago
  "It would be in the same category as the NES Classic Edition or the Sega Genesis Mini. It's fun and almost a collectible honestly" The NES class edition and Sega Genesis only work because of people that remember playing these games as a kid (like me). I have the NES classic edition and my teenage nephews were bored pretty quickly after they played it. Nostalgia isn't usually there for something new that looks like the games I used to play when I was younger.
  - ehsankia 7y ago
    I don't fully agree, there are many games that manage to imitate the "old school" look and feel pretty well, I don't see why this couldn't pull that off too. But I could be wrong, we'll see how well it sells once it comes out. By referring to it as a collectible, I also meant that this will most likely not going to be a huge success, but more of a niche product. I see it as an indie hardware; the Cuphead of Gaming Systems if you will.
    - lostmymind66 7y ago
      If the game play is there and it's fun, it could be successful.
      - pushpop 7y ago
        It won’t be. The games industry is littered with hardware that flopped. Most indie games fail to turn a profit and even the likes of Sega and Nintendo have released hardware that has failed to sell. Apple couldn’t even make a successful console and they had tried. Yet this thing is weirder and significantly less appealing to the mainstream so they’re reliant entirely only a super niche crowd to turn a profit. While I’m sure they will sell some devices and they will likely become a collectors item in the future; I can’t see them selling enough to make this worthwhile nor keep people playing on it long enough to be considered anything more than an expensive yet short-lived novelty item. Hopefully I’m wrong, but as a collector of games consoles - including many of those that failed - I’m not filled with any confidence about the Playdate.
        mcphage 7y ago
        > It won’t be. The games industry is littered with hardware that flopped. What do you think Panic means by successful? From the PlayDate's site: > Stock will be very limited. Sign up early. It doesn't sound like they're trying to take over the gaming industry here.
        pushpop 7y ago
        I wasn’t expecting that to be their mission with a device like this. What I mean by “successful” is two things: 1. Have any longevity beyond a novelty. By that I don’t mean hundreds of hours clocked up; I just mean people will use it for more than a couple of hours before putting it in a draw to never be seen again. 2. Make a profit. Obviously including all the time spent in design et al as well. Personally I can see this both being unsuccessful in terms engagement as well as financially unsuccessful.
PostOnce 7y ago
Mobile games: 1] are infested with IAP/psycho crack time gates 2] cant cost more than a dollar or so, no one will buy them 3] have no buttons, and the number of games that work well without buttons is few. 4] have a horrible reputation, people discount games just for being mobile 5] ridiculously fragmented hardware, who knows what screen size or device type you're targeting if you develop for mobile? 6] are too high res. All new game systems are. Low res games with few buttons can be developed cheaply and quickly (i.e., 20k instead of 5M) I want some simple games with real buttons. I want to make some. I'll pay for it. I think others will too. I do think $150 is a little high, but that might also convey a sense of value, rather than "another crappy emulator box thing"
- abrugsch 7y ago
  Also check out the pimoroni kickstarter 32blit then. it's a bit cheaper than the play date (but not by much and at full retail cost will be pretty much the same) but has better scope and will be open source. it's not a Pi-in-a-box-with-retropie but a STM32 microcontroller with a light OS/SDK layer on top. a development toolchain that looks a lot like the editors for Pico-8
  - PostOnce 7y ago
    Sadly I think no one will ever pay money for games for an unadvertised, not-sold-at-retail, open source game platform, which means people aren't going to make quality games that cost money to develop, which means adoption will be all the lower. So, that means it's not "viable" in a commercial sense. I would rather like to run a sustainable business, which seems more plausible with the playdate than anything else on the market outside nintendo/sony.
    - abrugsch 7y ago
      Sorry, I didn't infer that you were looking for a commercial sales games platform. You are right about the 32blit, however I don't think you're right about the playdate. If the 32blit is a niche product (which I'll admit it definitely is) the playdate is being made as a niche within a niche product and the numbers that are made in total will be a limiting factor. While the HN crowd seem to be able to see this for what it is and mostly wouldn't think twice about splunking 150 on this, I'm not getting the same feeling from any other handheld/retro/modern gaming communities. a few collectors are going "well it looks nice and well designed..." they're also the type who will buy one just to sit it on a shelf with their other oddball gaming hardware. I doubt the playdate will be any more viable to base a game business on than the 32blit, however from a different set of reasons, but along the same lines as people who buy the Pocket Operators as neat gadgets, but have no intent to actually make music with past the first few days of novelty. of course you could try the Pico-8 games on itch.io route which is a well travelled path and probably a much bigger target audience
jmull 7y ago
You know, I think it would actually be a lot harder to sell a $50 portable game system than a $150 one. Both price points are in about the same range of disposable income for the target audience. But $50 is a cheapo, side thing... as junky as the maker felt they could get away with. Not necessarily bad (Personally, I really appreciate things that are made as cheap as someone felt they could get away with, especially games. The cheapo-ness tells an interesting story and sometimes these things absolutely amaze me.) but usually pretty bad. $150 is a centerpiece. It's a product that delivers at some decent level of quality/aesthetics. From the website I think they nailed that. (It looks like the handheld console you've made out of Lego and then imagined the details of what the real thing that the Lego model represents.) So the $50 portable game is maybe too crappy to be a centerpiece gift (to another or to yourself), but maybe too expensive to fit in as a second-tier gift (e.g., a Christmas stocking-stuffer). While this might qualify as "the gift of the year". (Or purchase for self of the year.) The experience on the cheap device will probably be inferior in virtually every way to the phone you already have in your pocket. But this device is different. Your phone doesn't have a crank. (Nor does whatever handheld system you may already have). It doesn't look like Lego. It doesn't have a black-and-white screen and it doesn't have a new, unique game coming out every week. (well your phone has seemingly a million games coming out each week, but in a diffuse, general way where you have to discover them for yourself and figure out for yourself if the IAP are too annoying or not, etc.) Games are about new and fresh experiences so anything you already own and have been playing for 10 years is at a serious disadvantage, despite that it's cheaper to keep using it because you already own it.

robertAngst 7y ago

This isnt hard for Nintendo, but Nintendo fans are fanatics.

pushpop 7y ago
Nintendo have had their fair share of failed consoles as well

ehsankia 7y ago

This isn't meant to compete or be "the best". I think your comment is entirely missing the point of what this is. This is more of a play on nostalgia and classic bulky simple handhelds. It would be in the same category as the NES Classic Edition or the Sega Genesis Mini. It's fun and almost a collectible honestly.

lostmymind66 7y ago
"It would be in the same category as the NES Classic Edition or the Sega Genesis Mini. It's fun and almost a collectible honestly" The NES class edition and Sega Genesis only work because of people that remember playing these games as a kid (like me). I have the NES classic edition and my teenage nephews were bored pretty quickly after they played it. Nostalgia isn't usually there for something new that looks like the games I used to play when I was younger.
- ehsankia 7y ago
  I don't fully agree, there are many games that manage to imitate the "old school" look and feel pretty well, I don't see why this couldn't pull that off too. But I could be wrong, we'll see how well it sells once it comes out. By referring to it as a collectible, I also meant that this will most likely not going to be a huge success, but more of a niche product. I see it as an indie hardware; the Cuphead of Gaming Systems if you will.
  - lostmymind66 7y ago
    If the game play is there and it's fun, it could be successful.
    - pushpop 7y ago
      It won’t be. The games industry is littered with hardware that flopped. Most indie games fail to turn a profit and even the likes of Sega and Nintendo have released hardware that has failed to sell. Apple couldn’t even make a successful console and they had tried. Yet this thing is weirder and significantly less appealing to the mainstream so they’re reliant entirely only a super niche crowd to turn a profit. While I’m sure they will sell some devices and they will likely become a collectors item in the future; I can’t see them selling enough to make this worthwhile nor keep people playing on it long enough to be considered anything more than an expensive yet short-lived novelty item. Hopefully I’m wrong, but as a collector of games consoles - including many of those that failed - I’m not filled with any confidence about the Playdate.
      - mcphage 7y ago
        > It won’t be. The games industry is littered with hardware that flopped. What do you think Panic means by successful? From the PlayDate's site: > Stock will be very limited. Sign up early. It doesn't sound like they're trying to take over the gaming industry here.
        pushpop 7y ago
        I wasn’t expecting that to be their mission with a device like this. What I mean by “successful” is two things: 1. Have any longevity beyond a novelty. By that I don’t mean hundreds of hours clocked up; I just mean people will use it for more than a couple of hours before putting it in a draw to never be seen again. 2. Make a profit. Obviously including all the time spent in design et al as well. Personally I can see this both being unsuccessful in terms engagement as well as financially unsuccessful.

PostOnce 7y ago

Mobile games: 1] are infested with IAP/psycho crack time gates 2] cant cost more than a dollar or so, no one will buy them 3] have no buttons, and the number of games that work well without buttons is few. 4] have a horrible reputation, people discount games just for being mobile 5] ridiculously fragmented hardware, who knows what screen size or device type you're targeting if you develop for mobile? 6] are too high res. All new game systems are. Low res games with few buttons can be developed cheaply and quickly (i.e., 20k instead of 5M) I want some simple games with real buttons. I want to make some. I'll pay for it. I think others will too. I do think $150 is a little high, but that might also convey a sense of value, rather than "another crappy emulator box thing"

abrugsch 7y ago
Also check out the pimoroni kickstarter 32blit then. it's a bit cheaper than the play date (but not by much and at full retail cost will be pretty much the same) but has better scope and will be open source. it's not a Pi-in-a-box-with-retropie but a STM32 microcontroller with a light OS/SDK layer on top. a development toolchain that looks a lot like the editors for Pico-8
- PostOnce 7y ago
  Sadly I think no one will ever pay money for games for an unadvertised, not-sold-at-retail, open source game platform, which means people aren't going to make quality games that cost money to develop, which means adoption will be all the lower. So, that means it's not "viable" in a commercial sense. I would rather like to run a sustainable business, which seems more plausible with the playdate than anything else on the market outside nintendo/sony.
  - abrugsch 7y ago
    Sorry, I didn't infer that you were looking for a commercial sales games platform. You are right about the 32blit, however I don't think you're right about the playdate. If the 32blit is a niche product (which I'll admit it definitely is) the playdate is being made as a niche within a niche product and the numbers that are made in total will be a limiting factor. While the HN crowd seem to be able to see this for what it is and mostly wouldn't think twice about splunking 150 on this, I'm not getting the same feeling from any other handheld/retro/modern gaming communities. a few collectors are going "well it looks nice and well designed..." they're also the type who will buy one just to sit it on a shelf with their other oddball gaming hardware. I doubt the playdate will be any more viable to base a game business on than the 32blit, however from a different set of reasons, but along the same lines as people who buy the Pocket Operators as neat gadgets, but have no intent to actually make music with past the first few days of novelty. of course you could try the Pico-8 games on itch.io route which is a well travelled path and probably a much bigger target audience

jmull 7y ago

You know, I think it would actually be a lot harder to sell a $50 portable game system than a $150 one. Both price points are in about the same range of disposable income for the target audience. But $50 is a cheapo, side thing... as junky as the maker felt they could get away with. Not necessarily bad (Personally, I really appreciate things that are made as cheap as someone felt they could get away with, especially games. The cheapo-ness tells an interesting story and sometimes these things absolutely amaze me.) but usually pretty bad. $150 is a centerpiece. It's a product that delivers at some decent level of quality/aesthetics. From the website I think they nailed that. (It looks like the handheld console you've made out of Lego and then imagined the details of what the real thing that the Lego model represents.) So the $50 portable game is maybe too crappy to be a centerpiece gift (to another or to yourself), but maybe too expensive to fit in as a second-tier gift (e.g., a Christmas stocking-stuffer). While this might qualify as "the gift of the year". (Or purchase for self of the year.) The experience on the cheap device will probably be inferior in virtually every way to the phone you already have in your pocket. But this device is different. Your phone doesn't have a crank. (Nor does whatever handheld system you may already have). It doesn't look like Lego. It doesn't have a black-and-white screen and it doesn't have a new, unique game coming out every week. (well your phone has seemingly a million games coming out each week, but in a diffuse, general way where you have to discover them for yourself and figure out for yourself if the IAP are too annoying or not, etc.) Games are about new and fresh experiences so anything you already own and have been playing for 10 years is at a serious disadvantage, despite that it's cheaper to keep using it because you already own it.