Panic isn’t sure if people will like the Playdate’s seasonal model

theverge.com:

Panic has just begun shipping the Playdate, its unusual new gaming handheld. Part of the Playdate’s appeal is its quirky hardware: in an era where new handhelds have glorious OLED screens or are powerful enough to play your library of Steam games, the Playdate is a tiny device that has a crank and can only display games in black and white. But the Playdate is also interesting because of its “season” release model for games.

Everyone who purchases a Playdate will get access to a full season of 24 games, though you won’t be able to play all of them right away. Instead, you’ll get two games when you first set up the device, and after that, Panic will send you two new games on Mondays in an almost TV show-like release cadence.

“We’ve been excited about the idea of the delivery over time because getting 24 games at once on a device to me, for me personally, I would bet would be sort of overwhelming,” Greg Maletic, director of special projects at Panic, told me in an interview. “I think I would want to take my time with each of them. And the delivery over time kind of enforces that.”

It’s an intriguing idea. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all offer their own collections of games via their subscription services, but the sheer volume of titles available can make deciding to play and stick with any one game a formidable task. It’s akin to being paralyzed when trying to find something to watch on Netflix. And I’ve just come to accept that I’ll never catch up on my backlog of purchased games that I’ve never finished (or, in some cases, even started). Panic’s approach, in contrast, means you’ll be getting two games every week for about three months no matter when you buy a Playdate, so you’ll have a more limited selection to start