Panic hits pause on the Playdate Stereo Dock, says it’s unlikely we’ll see it anytime quickly

The long-promised Playdate Stereo Dock is formally useless, a minimum of for now. After many months with the desktop accent stuck in development limbo, Panic has updated the product web page so it not says it is “coming quickly,” however as a substitute that it’s been placed on pause indefinitely as a consequence of points with the Bluetooth expertise, the manufacturing unit that dealt with it and the rising prices of resolving all of it. The Stereo Dock, first announced in 2021, was meant to be a charging dock that doubles as a Bluetooth speaker (and pen holder), together with being a cute approach to show your Playdate when it’s not in use. However, issues didn’t fairly work out as deliberate.

The Playdate crew stated it hit some surprising hurdles in making an attempt to deliver the thought to life, and located that “making the Stereo Dock was virtually more difficult than making the Playdate itself.” The assertion explains:

It goes on to say that the crew labored to enhance the expertise, even shopping for the Bluetooth chipset supply code in hopes to repair the problems, to no avail. Whereas there are “numerous lovely completed prototypes,” Panic says “they weren’t superb to make use of.” The official replace was foreshadowed in a social media trade shared on Reddit earlier this month during which Panic’s Cabel Sasser, replying to a query in regards to the Stereo Dock’s standing, stated it “turned out to be extremely onerous for plenty of extremely dumb causes” and was placed on pause.

The crew says it’s now turning its focus wholly again to the persevering with manufacturing of the Playdate. There should still be an opportunity that we see the Stereo Dock sooner or later down the road, however don’t maintain your breath. “Will it arrive sometime? We nonetheless hope so,” Panic stated. “Will it arrive anytime quickly? Unlikely.”