I mean, we have Evercade and it’s not failed yet.
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just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It’s cool as a fun project, but I don’t see how this could possibly be commercially viable, especially with cartridges. The need for physical distribution alone is already a huge money burden on both the producer and the consumer.
Peffse@lemmy.world 2 days ago
i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 2 days ago
Evercade has the advantage of a huge software library to draw from (they have a few native games but the majority are emulated), whereas this will only run it’s own software, which puts it at a disadvantage.
Mind you, the Playdate seems to be going well.
ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I think one of the things playdate has going for them is they are portable.
MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 days ago
Good point. With the specs fully open, hopefully we get a portable of this, at some point.
just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Evercade sitributes digitally.
MurrayL@lemmy.world 2 days ago
No they don’t? The games are only sold on physical cartridges (or built-in in some models).
There’s no online store or downloadable games, besides the ‘game of the month’ trial thing they occasionally run.
Nemo@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
Why does it need to be commercially viable? What’s wrong with doing it for love of the game?
markz@suppo.fi 2 days ago
It’s a product for sale.
There are tons of people who are fine not profiting from their cottage industry projects, but it’s not expected that someone wants to lose money on them.
just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Is this…sarcasm?
Nemo@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
no, this is earnest anti-commercialism
just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I don’t think that’s a great model for the maker who is clearly trying to SELL things.
Seems that might be a competing idea…