I guess bespoke hardware for the well off just seems like the logical extension of where we are right now, what with the huge income and opportunities disparity in games.

There is nothing surprising about a very well off company being able to piss 4 years up the wall for something of neither use nor ornament to anyone. Depressingly, I expect it.

It's the same sort of pervasive cultural money spunk that has largely gestated in retro, if anything I'm surprised it took this long to find an avenue into indie. Though there's plenty of previous wrt inaccessible artefacts being fetishized. Rohrer's tosh, games only available to a select few, limited time etc...

It's a world apart from DIY controllers and that, obviously. Intent and access, approach all count and I don't want to lump all that together.

But! Really. It was only a matter of time before someone fused that with an exclusive folly, available for more of your cashmoneys than a 3DS will set you back. Just happened to be Panic.

Does slay me that Edge did a cover feature and write up for it, mind. That's so unintentionally perfect.

Oh, and the whole "we wanted to see if we could do it thing", like they've probably thrown more money at making this yellow toy than I'll see in my life so yeah, you probably could. *Shrugs*

It all boils down to "we made a yellow thing with a crank on it" and *looks up from knitting* *goes back to knitting".

I'm still trying to parse the seriousness the announcement of an executive toy was met with.

Judging by The Discourse, the press treatment (special shout out to Edge for going all in, in the most Edge style possible) and all that - you would think someone had announced a PlayStation 19. Not a toy for well off people.

It is, as they say, twisting my melon.

I know games and disproportionate responses are inseparable at the best of times but seriously, what the fuck

Are the parts ethically sourced was legit a take I read yesterday and I can't even.

I get the feeling some people should step into a menkind store because they'll be shocked at what's in there.

A BRAND NEW CONSOLE

Just. Can't. Off to play a crap videogame.

Still continuing "Rob is very confused and pissed off about videogames volume 9879878", Kotaku piece on the yellow thing. Why aren't games weirder? Positing this pretty ordinary device as weird (but it's got a crank on it - Ed) is awkward enough but complaining that you have to turn to Indies to find the strange and experimental seems a bit like having to go to water for a swim.

I don't go to Michael Bay for a quirky story about a child who runs a video shop with his pet duck that eats pies shaped like moomins or something, I dunno. It's late, I can't do quirky at 2am. Work with me here.

Yes, it would be nice if our ultra hypercapitalist factory sized productions took some of the slack off of us but hahahaha haha hahaha ahhhh yeah.

I'm not entirely sure I understand the point the piece is trying to make. It certainly doesn't make the case for diversity appealing as it does for big budget games to pick up the slack, positioning Indies as being burdened.

But then, I don't understand much around the yellow thing. So.

@RobF it's cute... we actually got a dev kit at my studio and built a few toy projects for it. they pitched us a hilariously low budget to make a real project for it so we fucked right off with that one

@RobF don't really know why hardware manufacturers dont care about, you know, the software that will actually make the thing useful and appealing, but they sure fucking dont

@RobF i mean, it's neat but not anywhere near 150 bucks neat

@RobF also as a dev platform it's 100% going to stay closed source / hyperexclusive as hell which makes me immediately lose all interest tbh

@Ludonaut @RobF I'm really hoping that this creates a whole offshoot of overly expensive handheld systems with weird controlstyle additions. Still hoping for something you can control with your nose, to be honest.

@Ludonaut "artisanal gameboy" is a really good answer to "so where do you think games are at right now"

@RobF cursed phrase but very true

@Ludonaut @RobF given everything else about it i initially assumed it would require a mac to develop for or something ludicrous like that. apparently "C or Lua" can be used, so if it's somewhere in the ballpark of PICO-8 that would be reasonable.

@jplebreton @RobF yea that was my first impression as well. oh that company makes mac software, i bet theyve never heard of free software then

@Ludonaut @RobF sounds like the SDK and simulator might be mac-only. LOL

@jplebreton @RobF figures LOL

also looks like it has no backlight thats the last of my interest gone

@Ludonaut @RobF they are apparently just gonna release an SDK for download

@RobF do you think someone will make a fishing game for it?

@RobF or that game he buried in the desert

@RobF I'm partially optimistic that it might spur someone to make a less-expensive/more-approachable device with similar characteristics. something with the playdate screen/form factor and a price point closer to the arduboy would be a lot more interesting if they could pull it off

@RobF someone could make one as one of those Get The Kids Be Coding grifts and blag some R&D money out of the government or the BBC or whatever

@aeonofdiscord @RobF The screen is likely one of the most expensive components in the device. Those Sharp b/w suckers go for $40 alone.