Hearts dropped when the PlayStation Portal was revealed to be a streaming-only device instead of a true PSP or Vita successor. But downcast PlayStation fans have reason to celebrate: Sony is reportedly hard at work on a fully-fledged handheld capable of playing PS5 games.
The console, which is still in the nascent stages of development, per Bloomberg, is viewed as a potential rival to the Nintendo Switch.
The house of Mario’s portable gaming gadget that plugs into your TV has proven to be a gargantuan success, kicking off a handheld gaming revival. In the seven years since its launch, players have been inundated with consoles that let you play PC and Xbox games on the go, from the Steam Deck to the Logitech G Cloud.
These devices aim to bridge the gap between mobile and big-screen gaming, offering a cheaper alternative to a pricey console or PC rig.
With the Switch 2 fast approaching, and Microsoft teasing its handheld, Sony now wants a piece of that pie. While the recent PS5 Pro is seen as a niche console due to its £700 price tag, a more affordable portable device could feasibly attract the millions of gamers still playing on last-gen hardware.
But, don’t cancel that PS5 Black Friday order just yet. The new handheld is reportedly years from launch, and Sony could still wind up scrapping it altogether.
Although there’s no word on exactly how the new system will work, or its specs, there are some clues about what players can expect. Sony reportedly wanted the PS Portal to behave more like a standalone device akin to the Steam Deck versus the PS5-tethered gadget we got.
If that is true for the new handheld, we can assume that it will let you download games directly from the PlayStation Store and save them locally. The Standard has approached Sony for comment.
The Japanese firm has taken several stabs at handheld gaming with varying degrees of success. Despite selling an impressive 80 million units, the PSP failed to topple the Nintendo DS (the second bestselling console of all time behind the PS2) as the reigning portable back in the mid-2000s.
The company’s handheld gaming ambitions were derailed by the lacklustre performance of the PSP’s successor, the PS Vita, in 2012. It would take another 11 years before Sony tentatively released another handheld in the PS Portal, a device primarily designed to take advantage of the PS5’s Remote Play function.
