Earlier this yr, Panic, the corporate behind the whimsical Playdate gaming handheld, revealed {that a} cargo containing greater than a thousand of the units had been stolen. A number of months and plenty of sleuthing later, the rogue shipments have been found after seemingly being dumped on the pavement exterior a random restaurant in North Las Vegas.
“Did you hear the story about how $400k value of Playdates have been misdelivered by FedEx to a building website close to our warehouse?” the Playdate account tweeted right this moment. “After which somebody simply… stole them? Critically. Properly, guess what bought swiftly dumped at a random restaurant this morning? Welcome again stolen Playdates!”
Images from the placement confirmed dozens of containers stuffed with Playdates exterior of what seems to be like an unfinished steakhouse in a vacant lot that’s nonetheless below building. A few of the containers have been simply hanging out on the street like whoever was ditching them determined midway by stacking them alongside the wall that they didn’t truly give a fuck.
The Playdate is a $200 handheld with a crank that performs indie video games designed for it its distinctive display screen and inputs. A type of is Mars After Midnight, a sci-fi journey by Papers, Please designer Lucas Pope about operating a late-night assist group for aliens. It’s the form of bespoke retro oddity that shouldn’t even exis,t which is a part of why Panic determined to make it within the first place.
Cabel Sasser, Panic’s co-founder, instructed attendees at GDC earlier this yr that they solely found shipments have been lacking after he realized the stock numbers weren’t including up. FexEx claimed on the time that the $400,000 value of lacking Playdates had been delivered regardless that there was no hint of them. Different shipments had gone lacking at a close-by building website, which have been later recovered. Apparently the identical particular person had been concerned in each incidents. “It’s a little bit of a real crime drama,” Sasser stated on the time.
“Extra particulars—and sure an excellent Playdate Podcast episode—sooner or later,” the Playdate account tweeted right this moment. “For now, this was our greatest doable final result, the results of numerous time and detective work. (Which, okay fantastic, we loved.) The true query is, can we promote these as a restricted version? Playdate Scorching™.”
