It's been quite some time since the announcement of Playdate, a new portable games console that puts the emphasis more on creativity and quirkiness than graphical fidelity. 

• Best retro games consoles: Go back to the future

The unveiling made quite a splash in a world where consoles and gaming phones are starting to feel more than a little homogeneous, showcasing itself as a little yellow square with few buttons, a noticeable crank and a low-resolution black and white screen.

It's going to be home to an evolving lineup of short and unique indie experiences, taking advantage of its unique control scheme to conjure up novel bits of fun over content seasons that users will subscribe to, and has plenty of excited fans waiting eagerly to try it out.

Now, after a bit of radio silence and some understandable delays while 2020 had its fun with us all, Playdate has issued a welcome update to confirm that it should start taking and shipping orders for the console in early 2021. 

There are plenty of other juicy details in the update, including information on how the units will be packaged, how many of them there will be in the first wave (20,000) and what news we can expect in between now and the launch, which should include details of games the device will ship with, and video of it in action. 

Until then, though, we're still waiting with bated breath to see what sort of fun little tidbits developers will come up with for this undeniably unique prospect.