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Comment by RototRobot | Hacker News Reader

while the device is novel and I wish the devs the best, I just cant wrap my head around who would actually want to use this device?

The Gimmick seems like it would wear off rather fast for anyone interested in gaming, the Seasonal model of games released seems to put all the risk on the consumer to hope they make more. the games dont actually look all the interesting, and as a fun toy for non-gamers it seems to expensive.

to me it looks like a product a lot of teenage engineering fans and hipsters will want to buy but after a week sits on a shelf unused.

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I've said as much in previous comments, but I certainly want to use this device!

It's got an open SDK, binaries are freely loadable and runnable. The Lua API at least is quite simple, and plenty enough to get a backend dev like me up and running with my own games, on real gaming hardware! That's almost never been practical, in my experience anyways. Playdate promises to dramatically lower the barrier to portable game development; I'm looking forward both to playing with it, and helping show my son that he too can make awesome things with computers.

The crank is seemingly a gimmick but a good one, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it is (or isn't) incorporated in games. It seems to have inspired a good bit of creativity, at least in the Season One games they've demoed so far.

I'm kind of mad about the seasonal model. It means that only the "first wave" of owners will get to experience the excitement of the new games with other owners. For everyone else, it's old news.

The season begins once you first power up the device. Everybody is on their own release schedule.

My take is the same. I suspect we will see them strategically placed in the background of Cool People Who Make Youtube Videos, but that's about it.

> will want to buy but after a week sits on a shelf unused.

Just like my nintendo switch!

The Nintendo switch is a much more compelling device that I can actually see a use case for, but yeah not for me mine also sits unused for more than 2 years now.

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