Sony has started work on a portable console that can play PlayStation 5 games. Bloomberg reports.
Citing anonymous sources familiar with the device’s development, Bloomberg said the new handheld is likely years away from launch, and that Sony could still decide to pull the plug on the project.
Sony is said to be considering this move to compete with Nintendo’s dominance in handheld consoles, and to head off competition from Xbox, which has indicated it is exploring the idea of a handheld. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer recently said that a potential portable Xbox would also happen in a few years.
In recent years, Valve has opened up a new market for more expensive, powerful, premium portable gaming devices with the Steam Deck, which now has a number of competitors that also run PC games. This appears to have encouraged Microsoft and Sony to reconsider the handheld market, long thought to have been blocked by Nintendo after Sony’s attempts to challenge it with the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita ultimately came to nothing.
Meanwhile, Nintendo plans to replace the almost eight-year-old Switch – the third best-selling console of all time – with a successor in the first half of 2025. “Switch 2” is believed to be less powerful than PS5 and Xbox Series X, but capable of similar experiences thanks to AI-powered upscaling technology.
Sony has developed its own AI upscaler, dramatically called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which is used in the new PlayStation 5 Pro console. This technology would likely play a vital role in the development of a portable device that can play PS5 games.
For now, Sony is offering the PlayStation Portal, a handheld device that can stream PS5 games directly from the owner’s PS5 or via Sony’s cloud gaming service, offered as part of the PlayStation Plus subscription.