Panic Pushes "Pause" On The Playdate Stereo Dock

If you're a Playdate owner, chances are you've heard of the much-hyped Playdate Stereo Dock, a device which was teased when the handheld launched a few years ago and still isn't available.

A combination of desktop dock, Bluetooth speaker and pen holder, it rose to the top of many Playdate owner's mush-have list – but sadly, it doesn't look like we'll be getting it anytime soon. It turns out that making a Bluetooth speaker is harder than you'd think.

In a statement on the Playdate site, manufacturer Panic has admitted defeat when it comes to releasing the dock. "We thought it would be easy," the company says. "But somehow, along the way, making the Stereo Dock was almost more challenging than making the Playdate itself."

It then goes on to explain that the factory commissioned to make the speaker had actually outsourced the Bluetooth software and chipset "to another company in another country," which meant the device had quality control problems.

"As a result, the Stereo Dock would crash often — rapidly adjusting the volume would do it," says Panic. "The Bluetooth pairing/unpairing experience was rough. And when we played music, it just didn’t sound very good. The back-and-forth between three companies trying to fix bugs became a huge challenge. And worst of all: the cost of the Stereo Dock kept getting higher and higher."

Panic then took matters into its own hands. "We took over the audio part and hand-tuned the speaker EQ curves, eventually significantly improving the sound. We also managed to negotiate a buyout of the Bluetooth chipset source code, hoping we could take over development ourselves and improve the user experience, only to be greeted with some gnarly code (think #IFDEFs for every Bluetooth speaker ever made) and an obscure toolchain."

Ultimately, even this effort didn't work out. Despite having "a number of beautiful finished prototypes, in beautiful final packaging, that look incredible on our desks," the Playdate Stereo Dock simply didn't reach the quality standards that Panic expects from its products. "Eventually we hit that painful line: we’re spending more to make this product than we are likely to ever make back from it. And so, we hit pause."

So, while it doesn't look like we'll be using this dock to listen to music (and store pens) anytime soon, Panic hasn't totally given up on it.

"We all deeply hope there’s a time when we can reboot this project, and bring the Playdate Stereo Dock to the finish line! But for now, we need to focus on Playdate itself, as our new factory comes online and production once again resumes, and getting more Playdate systems into the world. If we pick this project back up again, you’ll be the first to know — we promise."