Playdate Season 3 launches October 8 with eight new games
Panic has announced that Playdate Season 3 will begin on October 8, bringing eight new games to the handheld console. The season costs $39 and is now available for pre-order.
Panic, maker of the handheld Playdate console, has announced its third game season, launching October 8 and running for four weeks. Two new games will be released each week, totaling eight titles by the end of the season. Season 3 is priced at $39, with pre-orders already open.
Each Playdate season is a curated collection of games built specifically for the distinctive black-and-white handheld with its signature crank control. Titles are unveiled gradually in a blind-box style rollout rather than all at once.
Eight titles revealed
During Wednesday's Playdate Update Showcase, Panic revealed all eight games coming in Season 3: Soggy Froggy by team root of Root Bear, Gloom Gate by LuBu of satOlite, Houm by BuuuuBunnyGames of fissh studio, Sound Mind by Chuck Jordan of Sasquatchers, HELLEVATOR by DRD of ICY DUNGEON, Bonkhope by indiana-jonas, maker of Long Puppy, Chance's Lucky Escape 2 by Goloso Games and Julia Minamata, and Cross Words by Shaun Inman, developer of Ratcheteer.
Three of the games received a closer look during the showcase. Soggy Froggy is a cartoonish, crank-driven game about stirring a pot to keep the water at the right temperature for a bathing frog. Gloom Gate is an old-school dungeon-crawling RPG featuring soulslike elements and detailed animation. Houm is an unsettling point-and-click adventure set inside a mysterious mansion filled with valuables and unresolved emotional undertones.
How it compares to earlier seasons
Season 1 comes built into every Playdate device and includes 24 games. Season 2, also priced at $39, offers 12 games plus the campy cable-TV simulator Blippo+. Season 3 contains fewer games than Season 2 despite the same price tag; individual Playdate games typically sell for around $10 on their own.
Separately, the Playdate Catalog will hold a fall sale from November 5 to 19, discounting more than 200 games.
