$400k worth of Playdate game consoles have gone missing in Vegas

$400k worth of Playdate game consoles have disappeared in Las Vegas.

That's according to Panic, the hardware maker behind the palm-sized, crank-operated console, with company co-founder Cabel Sasser calling it «a bit of a true crime drama» (thanks, Game File).

Sasser spoke at GDC last week, when he revealed this news, stating pallets containing the consoles had gone missing in Las Vegas. Panic, he said, was still trying to track them down.

Say Hello to Playdate!! Say Hello! to Playdate.

«We checked up on our inventory levels and it was a little bit short,» Sasser said during his GDC panel — so much so that the company quickly contacted its shipping centre.

«And they're like, 'Yeah, weird. These pallets — FedEx said they were delivered, but we have no trace of them. But another thing you might want to know that's weird is, two weeks after your pallets went missing, two other pallets were delivered by FedEx to the construction site next door instead of our shipping warehouse'.»

Panic subsequently received a picture of these particular Playdate pallets «just sitting where they're building a Circle K in north Las Vegas,» Sasser said.

«The person that signed for the two pallets they recovered was the same person that signed for the two pallets [they] have yet to recover,» Sasser continued, adding «there's a lot of research happening» on the whole thing right now.

«Now, keep in mind we know the serial numbers of every unit, so we know exactly what serial numbers are missing. Seven of them have been registered to people that live in north Las Vegas,» he said. «So anyways, I'll keep you posted — or legally not keep you posted — depending on where this goes.»

Photo of Playdates delivered to a construction site, from Cabel Sasser's GDC talk. | Image credit: Game File.

Our Christian Donlan reviewed the Playdate console back in 2022, calling it «a fascinating puzzle in itself».

«Attached to my memories of Mad magazine are inevitably a bunch of memories of early home