I mean, we have Evercade and it’s not failed yet.
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just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 months 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 months ago
i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 2 months 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 months ago
I think one of the things playdate has going for them is they are portable.
MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 months ago
Good point. With the specs fully open, hopefully we get a portable of this, at some point.
just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Evercade sitributes digitally.
MurrayL@lemmy.world 2 months 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 months ago
Why does it need to be commercially viable? What’s wrong with doing it for love of the game?
markz@suppo.fi 2 months 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 months ago
Is this…sarcasm?
Nemo@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
no, this is earnest anti-commercialism
just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 months 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…