3 Years Later, Playdate Is Still Gaming's Best-Kept Secret

With almost laughably low power, a monochrome screen, and unique controls, niche-micro console Playdate shouldn't make any sense in a world of modern gaming. Yet, it's near impossible not to love it.

When video game developer and publisher Panic launched its own console, Playdate, back in 2022, it upended just about all conventional wisdom when it came to gaming hardware. Coming just two months after Valve’s Steam Deck, the micro-handheld was comparably laughably low in power, brandished a tiny monochrome screen, and took a minimalist approach to physical controls, with only a D-pad, two buttons, and a bizarre crank on offer. Even stranger than the crank was that buyers didn’t really know what they’d be playing on it—the earliest games were released in a season pass format, with mystery titles drip-fed to players weekly.