The makers of Playdate, the console-with-a-crank, will no longer accept games created with generative AI

The Playdate is a curious little device. It's a handheld console with a crank built into the side, which developers can make use of for in-game controls. What devs can't do anymore, though, is get their games accepted onto the Playdate Catalog store if they use generative AI "for art, audio, music, text, or dialog."

So says an announcement on the Catalog developer blog. Panic Inc, the developer of the device, defines generative AI as the use of:

• Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Google Gemini
• AI-based image generation models such as Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, Midjourney
• AI-base audio generation models such as MuseNet, Suno, Udio, and others

The announcement clarifies that games using AI in their development will no longer be accepted, but custom-written functions like enemy AI are fine. It also says that games already listed on the Catalog store that have p...