https://insider-gaming.com/sony-new-playstation-handheld-console-development/
Sony may finally be set to rejoin the traditional handheld gaming market with a new PlayStation handheld console.
It's a non-buy after the way they treated the Vita.
You can't have a handheld if you don't make games for it and, no, hundreds of crappy shovelware indie games that can be played on the devices people already own do not count.
Also they just released PSVR 2 and promptly abandoned it in terms of first party stuff, again. No reason to think they'd actually commit this time.
I think that's how most of us Vita owners are. Until they show they are really behind it, most would want to hold off.
Part of me thinks this will be DOA (dead on arrival). They’ve lost a good chunk of the abandoned Vita playerbase (me included) and the current gen are either all on the steam deck or other derivatives.
This would be a good moment for Steam to begin a non-stop marketing campaign in Japan
While I'm in the same camp as you the steam deck is not mainstream. Plenty of normies and PS fanatics will still want a handheld PS.
I hope its a handheld that can play downgraded PS5 and PS4 games instead of only handheld games made for it. What drew me to the switch was that it is just one main console that can be portable, and same with the Steam Deck of it playing the same copies of my PC games in handheld.
This seems like the only way it has a shot. I don't know that PS5 games are necessary, but PS4 absolutely are. Make it a portable PS4, and there is a real market there. The only downside is, it wouldn't work with PS4 discs, which would limit sales to existing digital only owners. Also, it would be on a system without a significant new game in site. The library is 99% done. There isn't a must play on the horizon to market. You have to hope the existing exclusives is enough.
Honestly, I talked myself out of it. It is a bigger risk than I initially thought.
Games that can are still releasing on PS4.
Give it the real controller and make it the Portal but actually useful and it will be fine.
The article says the device is at least 2 years out. There will be a trickle of PS4 games at best in 2026. I don't see how those are going to be the system sellers to drive a new system.
Hey I've seen this one before. It's a classic.
As someone who owns a Vita, and loves it. This needs to be one of two things.
A Steam Deck Clone with access to Steam, that way when they abandon it, I can still play newer games, even if they're indis
Backwards Compatible with PS4 games, that way they have a software library and I don't need to worry about games.
Otherwise, this device will be all digital, with a proprietary OS, locked down box which will be abandoned in 2 years unless it can somehow eclipse the Steam Deck in sales.
If Sony releases a new handheld, it won't have your point 1. Sony just won't allow it.
It would be nice to have backward compatibility with PS4 games though, but I don't think Sony is currently releasing enough games that they can split them into 2 separate devices.
One can only hope. I still use my vita regularly. The handheld whatever that they released last year wasn't a good replacement since it was remote play only.
Holup! A portable that plays PS4 and PS5 games??
Why did they just release the Portal then? I know it is for streaming FROM your console but still.
This is a rumour based on nothing substantial. They released ps portal because that's how you can play a ps5 game portable today.
The portal only really works where you have decent internet, in practice that's basically just within your house (because hotel internet typically sucks, and you probably can't play at work).
A more powerful variant would allow you to play anywhere (on your commute, in a plane, ...).
So they would be completely different products. A cheap portal if you want to play in your bed or if someone's using your TV, this more expensive one for real playing on the go.
I appreciate the balls of trying to compete in that marketplace still. They’ll need a killer exclusive to draw anyone away from the massive amount of content available for the Deck.
Handhelds exist right now that can play the PS5 pc ports of games pretty well, they’re just not that cheap. Sure, Sony could have had a handheld that plays PS4 games natively, but it probably would have cost more than the PS5 and with a terrible battery life.
Whenever Sony launches a PS6, I imagine PS4/5 capable mobile chips will be cheap enough for Sony to sell a handheld at the same price if not less than their home console. Then you can just use streaming to play PS5 Pro or PS6 games (and beyond) remotely.
I believe we got the portal as a stop-gap to discourage users from just buying steam decks (which I did) and migrating to steam, but I think a dedicated Sony handheld, with all its haptics and build quality, would be a hell of a device for people with an extensive PS library such as myself to own. I bought my deck (and will keep it) to play retro treasures that aren’t easily available on console, but would more than likely buy a new Sony handheld over a Deck 2 in the future.
Steam Deck shows you can definitely do PS4 level gaming in a portable.
And the PS4 has a decent back catalog.
Just not sure the market is there for people to want to play a bunch of stuff they've already played, but on the go. And I'm not sure they're ready to be abandoned again after the PSP and Vita failed to really live up to expectations.
I just can't see it working for them. Nintendo are plain better at this, don't have a main product to fall back to when it fails to take off.
The PSP and Vita were great. I don't think the devices themselves were the problem at all
The hardware was fine (apart from my Vita which would throw errors about the SIM card slot all the time). But they didn't immediately displace Nintendo DS or 3DS, so Sony weren't really interested in keeping them alive.
If this thing can't even play PS4 games, it's dead on arrival. Having launch access to a huge back catalogue is the only thing that could make it interesting. Even then, a lot of the best PS4 games already launched on PC. How are they going to differentiate themselves from the Steam Deck?
Third time's the charm, I guess? I'd at least be interested to see what this ends up looking like, given just how different the handheld gaming space is now compared to when they launched the Vita.
Doubt it's a fully handheld console. Maybe something similar to the PS5 controller with the screen in the middle they released last year?