Rumor Has It: Sony's Cooking Up a New PlayStation Handheld

You might remember Sony’s past attempts at handheld gaming with the PSP in 2005 and the PlayStation Vita in 2011. Well, it seems they're ready to give it another shot. Recently, it was reported that Sony is working on a new handheld device to compete with the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 and the Steam Deck. But, like Microsoft, Sony is taking its time before launching this new handheld. The Bloomberg report, based on anonymous sources, suggests that this upcoming console could run PlayStation 5 games natively. Last week, Sony introduced game streaming to its PlayStation Portal remote player app, but with some limitations. For instance, you can’t currently stream games you own that aren’t part of the PlayStation Plus catalog. According to the same sources, Sony’s handheld might still be years away. This means we probably won't see it in 2025. There’s also a chance that Sony might ditch the project if they think it’s not worth it, which would be disappointing for fans hoping to access their game library on the go. You’d think both Xbox and PlayStation would jump at the chance to enter this growing market, given that other companies like Lenovo, Asus, MSI, and Acer are already in the game. Earlier this month, Microsoft's gaming head, Phil Spencer, revealed that they're also working on an Xbox handheld. However, he mentioned it’s still in the prototype phase and will take years to develop.

Sony and Microsoft are playing catch-up, as Nintendo released the Switch in 2017 and is preparing for a backward-compatible sequel next year. Valve revived the handheld market with the Steam Deck in 2022. Today’s handheld PCs are powerful gaming devices and can stream games if needed. Modifiers have shown that you can scale down a PS5 with minimal performance loss. Imagine what Sony’s own engineers could achieve! Sony’s big hardware release for 2024 was the PlayStation 5 Pro, aiming to enhance games with better frame rates and improved graphics with ray tracing, at a cost of $700. This year, Microsoft simply re-released the Xbox Series X with different storage options. Meanwhile, Xbox is pushing Xbox Game Pass, promoting it on Samsung TVs, handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally, and laptops, showing it’s as good as an Xbox console. It seems Sony and Microsoft are finally grasping that many gamers are happy to trade graphics quality for portability. While streaming seems ideal, reliable WiFi isn’t always available. Nintendo, Valve, and other companies have proven this design works. Sony and Microsoft hope there’s still a market for their handhelds in the future.

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