Sony is apparently in the “early stages” of developing a brand-new handheld console in the same vein as their own PSP and PS Vita machines.
That’s according to the esteemed Takashi Mochizuki and Debby Wu of Bloomberg. They spoke to anonymous sources in the know at Sony who claim the company is working on the new device to battle against Nintendo’s handheld domination, as well as to “counter” Xbox’s own foray into the handheld market. In case you missed it, Xbox head-honcho Phil Spencer outright confirmed that Xbox is actively working on a handheld of their own, though it is still years away.
The report goes on to say that the new machine would be based on the existing PS Portal (which just got updated to allow streaming via Premium) to a degree, but would be a fully standalone device capable of playing PS5 games. Think of it being like a Steam Deck.
Personally, this seems a tad far-fetched. Packing PS5 specs into a handheld machine at this stage seems unlikely, although since it’s at least a few years away from launching Sony may be speculating that the technology will be available and affordable by the time they are ready to manufacture it. By that point, the PS6 will be out or getting close to launching.
