Frequently Asked Questions

How big are games?

Game range from 200 KB to 50 MB Source 1, Source 2

Multiplayer?

Currently the Playdate doesn't have any Networking APIs but Panic plan to in the future. Source

How durable is the crank?

Users report no noticeable issues after 3 years. Source

Are there haptics (vibration motor)?

No. Panic ran out of space within the unit. Source

Is there a Playdate app store?

Panic has made Catalog which is more of an editorial selection.

Can you sideload apps?

Games can be sideloaded onto any Playdate without the need to jailbreak or otherwise modify the device.

What do the different colors of the lock light mean?

The console checks into Panic's servers 10 minutes after you lock it, and then in 10-hour intervals thereafter until you open it again.

A "New game(s) available!" purple light will flash if it sees and successfully auto-downloads some new games to your device while it's asleep (so, if you sideloaded something and didn't go to download right away, or if some new season games came in - those are weekly, midnight PDT).

A "New Catalog games!" aqua light will flash when it sees a new Catalog batch in its next check (these are every other Tuesday, 10am PDT).

Those are the only times it'll pop up while it's sleeping, but there are a couple other times it turns on: A white light followed by toppling blocks on-screen is an e0 crash - best to send in a crash report when available if you get one of those.

In the data disk mode, the light will glow a steady blue (and then flash purple when there's disk activity), and it'll glow a steady orange if the microphone's being used at all (most easily visible in the Settings' input test, where you can also test the mic).