Sony once tried its hand at handhelds with the 2005 PSP and the 2011 PlayStation Vita. The brand is reportedly ready to get back in the game with an all-new PlayStation handheld to compete against the Nintendo Switch 2 or Steam Deck. However, just like Xbox, the company thinks it’s better off taking its time to bring a new handheld to market.
On Sunday, Bloomberg first reported, based on anonymous sources, that Sony has a PlayStation handheld in the works. The report is light on details, but this upcoming console could supposedly run PlayStation 5 games natively. Last week, Sony finally brought game streaming to its PlayStation Portal remote player, though in a limited capacity. For one, you can’t currently stream the games you own that aren’t on the PlayStation Plus catalog.
Bloomberg’s sources added that the Sony handheld may still be years away, so it’s unlikely we’ll see it in 2025. Sony may eventually decide the effort is not worth it and give up, which would be a major shame for Sony fans desperate to find more ways to access their game library when not at home.
You would assume that both Xbox and PlayStation would be eager to plant a flag in this expanding market, as OEMs like Lenovo, Asus, MSI, and Acer. Earlier this month, Microsoft head Phil Spencer finally revealed that his company was working on an Xbox handheld. However, the CEO of Microsoft’s gaming arm said the device is still in a prototype phase and requires years of work before it can come to fruition.
The lethargic tech behemoths Sony and Microsoft have yet to capitalize on innovations from more than seven years ago. Nintendo released its Nintendo Switch in 2017, and it’s set to release a backward-compatible sequel console next year. Valve then reinvigorated the handheld market with the Steam Deck in 2022. Today’s handheld PCs are fully gaming-capable machines, and if there’s a game they can’t handle, they’re also very effective streaming devices. Modders have already proved you can scale a PS5 down with basically no loss in performance. Now, imagine what Sony’s own engineers could do.
Sony’s big hardware release for 2024 was the PlayStation 5 Pro, a $700 console meant to play a slate of “enhanced” titles at better framerates with slightly improved graphics with ray tracing. This year, Microsoft simply re-released its Xbox Series X. You can now get it with a 2 TB hard drive or without a disc drive. At the same time, Xbox is doubling down on Xbox Game Pass as its premiere gaming product. Its latest ads promote Samsung TVs, handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally, and laptops, which are as good a way to access Game Pass as an Xbox console itself.
Sony and Microsoft are only now realizing that a growing section of gamers will accept downgraded graphics quality in exchange for portability. Streaming may seem like the best way to get the best of both worlds, but when traveling, you can’t possibly rely on WiFi for all your needs. Nintendo, Valve, and many others proved this design has legs. Sony and Microsoft should hope there’s still a market for their handhelds years down the road.
)
English (US) ·