Last
March,
Panic
launched
a
curated
game
shop
called
Catalog
for
its
Playdate
handheld.
And
one
year
later,
the
company
says
it
has
sold
more
than
150,000
games
through
the
store.
“We
want
to
let
everyone
who
enjoys
games
know
that
there
is
a
vibrant
game
dev
community
making
hundreds
of
inventive
and
thoughtful
games
for
Playdate,”
Arisa
Sudangnoi,
head
of
Playdate
developer
relations,
said
in
a
statement.
The
news
comes
exactly
two
years
after
the
handheld
first
launched.
At
the
beginning
of
2024,
Panic
revealed
that
it
had
sold
70,000
Playdate
units,
and
it
now
says
that
more
than
half
of
those
users
—
38,000
—
have
purchased
a
game
through
Catalog.
For
context,
the
Playdate
launched
with
a
“season”
of
24
games
from
notable
developers
that
came
as
part
of
the
purchase
price.
Panic
says
that
“about
32,000
of
those
users
who
have
not
bought
a
game
are
still
working
through
the
games
included
in
Playdate
Season
One.”
Some
more
numbers:
there
are
currently
181
titles
in
the
store,
and
so
far,
sales
have
grossed
just
over
$544,000
(“after
taxes,
processing
fees,
and
Panic’s
25%
revenue
share
for
distribution
on
Catalog,”
the
company
says).
It
should
also
be
noted
that
Catalog
isn’t
the
only
place
that
sells
Playdate
games.
The
device
supports
sideloading,
and
there
are
currently
more
than
800
Playdate
games
available
through
Itch.io.
Back
in
February,
Greg
Maletic,
head
of
special
projects at
Panic,
described
the
sales
numbers
for
Playdate
games
as
“not
enough
to
certainly
make
a
career
out
of,”
adding
that
“I
think
it
is
a
decent
amount
for
a
hobby,
and
that’s
how
a
lot
of
developers
have
been
looking
at
this
as
kind
of
a
fun
hobby
that
has
in
some
cases
rekindled
excitement
for
writing
games.”
Among
the
most
notable
recent
Playdate
titles
is
Mars
After
Midnight
from
Papers,
Please
developer
Lucas
Pope,
which
launched
in
March.
(Originally posted by Andrew Webster)
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