Sony is developing a dedicated handheld console that would play PS5 games. Bloomberg reports that development is still in the “early stages”, and Sony could still decide against releasing the product.
Sony intends to compete with Nintendo (Switch), the market leader in portable gaming. If Sony goes ahead with its plan and launches the handheld console in a few years, it will compete with the Switch 2, which Nintendo plans to release next year. Sony’s release of the portable gaming console would allow it to be ready to compete with whichever mobile hardware Microsoft is working on.
According to Bloomberg, Sony intends to build on the idea of its already existing PlayStation Portal that lets players stream PS5 games from the cloud. Sony’s original plan for the PlayStation Portal was to have it as a standalone device like Valve’s Steam Deck.
Sony has not had a dedicated handheld gaming device for years since discontinuing the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and the PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) a decade ago. The PSP tried to compete with Nintendo, shipping 76 million units, while the PS Vita fared less well, selling around 16 million units.
