Miniaturized hardware is still “likely years away from launch.”
Artist’s conception of God breathing new life into the sadly neglected PlayStation Vita. Credit: Sony
Bloomberg reports that Sony is “in the early stages” of work on a fully portable console that can play PlayStation 5 software. The device is still “likely years away from launch,” according to “people familiar with its development” that spoke to Bloomberg anonymously.
The report comes less than a year after the launch of the PlayStation Portal, a Sony portable device designed to stream PS5 games running on a console on the same local network. Recently, Sony updated the Portal firmware to let PlayStation Plus subscribers also stream PS5 games from Sony’s centralized servers at up to 1080p and 60 fps.
Sony’s reported PS5 portable plans also come after months of rumors that Microsoft has also been working on a new Xbox console with a portable form factor. In June, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer added fuel to those rumors by directly saying, “I think we should have a handheld, too… I like my ROG Ally, my Lenovo Legion Go, my Steam Deck… I think being able to play games locally is really important.”
Nintendo’s follow-up to the Switch, which will be formally announced in the next few months, is also widely expected to mimic the hybrid portable/console design of Nintendo’s last console.
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Sony first dipped its toes in the portable gaming arena with 2005’s PlayStation Portable, which is still the only major handheld console to make use of optical discs (in Sony’s own proprietary UMD format). Sony followed that up with 2012’s PlayStation Vita, a well-loved console that brought a full analog stick and a larger high-resolution screen to the portable console space. But both efforts struggled to find much market success compared to the sales juggernauts of Nintendo’s cheaper Nintendo DS and 3DS hardware lines.
Honey, I shrunk the PS5
A portable PS5 would continue a trend toward portable console design kicked off by Nintendo’s hugely successful Switch in 2017 and supercharged by the Steam Deck in early 2022 (and its many PC-based and Android-based imitators). The ability to play games on the go at the lower-end of HD resolutions—without the need to take up the living room TV—has proven popular with a market segment that’s seeing diminishing returns from the push for even higher-fidelity graphics in many games and genres.
Squeezing the entire PS5 hardware stack into a portable form factor might seem difficult considering the PS5 was among the largest consoles ever released when it launched in 2020. But Sony has already made strides in shrinking the form factor somewhat—this year’s more powerful PS5 Pro was distinctly smaller than the original console, for example.
A portable PS5 might also not need to push the original console’s full 4K resolution graphics either—even the largest portable-sized gaming devices still max out at 1080p resolution these days. The hardware needed for this kind of “scaled down” PS5 software could end up taking up much less physical space, much like the reduced hardware power and overall size of Microsoft’s Xbox Series S compared to the higher-end Xbox Series X.
Sony revealed in May that the PS5 had sold a healthy 56 million units since launch. Still, the number of PS5 units in active use each month was matched by active use of the decade-old PS4, suggesting many gamers are still hesitant to upgrade.
