Hey I’ve seen this one before. It’s a classic.
As someone who owns a Vita, and loves it. This needs to be one of two things.
-
A Steam Deck Clone with access to Steam, that way when they abandon it, I can still play newer games, even if they’re indis
-
Backwards Compatible with PS4 games, that way they have a software library and I don’t need to worry about games.
Otherwise, this device will be all digital, with a proprietary OS, locked down box which will be abandoned in 2 years unless it can somehow eclipse the Steam Deck in sales.
-
Steam Deck shows you can definitely do PS4 level gaming in a portable.
And the PS4 has a decent back catalog.
Just not sure the market is there for people to want to play a bunch of stuff they’ve already played, but on the go. And I’m not sure they’re ready to be abandoned again after the PSP and Vita failed to really live up to expectations.
I just can’t see it working for them. Nintendo are plain better at this, don’t have a main product to fall back to when it fails to take off.
The PSP and Vita were great. I don’t think the devices themselves were the problem at all
The hardware was fine (apart from my Vita which would throw errors about the SIM card slot all the time). But they didn’t immediately displace Nintendo DS or 3DS, so Sony weren’t really interested in keeping them alive.
If this thing can’t even play PS4 games, it’s dead on arrival. Having launch access to a huge back catalogue is the only thing that could make it interesting. Even then, a lot of the best PS4 games already launched on PC. How are they going to differentiate themselves from the Steam Deck?
Doubt it’s a fully handheld console. Maybe something similar to the PS5 controller with the screen in the middle they released last year?
Holup! A portable that plays PS4 and PS5 games??
Why did they just release the Portal then? I know it is for streaming FROM your console but still.
Why did they just release the Portal then?
Greed.
This is a rumour based on nothing substantial. They released ps portal because that’s how you can play a ps5 game portable today.
It’s a non-buy after the way they treated the Vita.
You can’t have a handheld if you don’t make games for it and, no, hundreds of crappy shovelware indie games that can be played on the devices people already own do not count.
I think that’s how most of us Vita owners are. Until they show they are really behind it, most would want to hold off.
This is my view. I’m still not over what Sony did to the Vita.
Also they just released PSVR 2 and promptly abandoned it in terms of first party stuff, again. No reason to think they’d actually commit this time.
I held off because it wasn’t BC with VR1, glad I did now… wait for the fire sale. :)
I appreciate the balls of trying to compete in that marketplace still. They’ll need a killer exclusive to draw anyone away from the massive amount of content available for the Deck.
One can only hope. I still use my vita regularly. The handheld whatever that they released last year wasn’t a good replacement since it was remote play only.
I hope its a handheld that can play downgraded PS5 and PS4 games instead of only handheld games made for it. What drew me to the switch was that it is just one main console that can be portable, and same with the Steam Deck of it playing the same copies of my PC games in handheld.
So much this. They’ve only had that figured out since the TurboExpress in 1990.
This seems like the only way it has a shot. I don’t know that PS5 games are necessary, but PS4 absolutely are. Make it a portable PS4, and there is a real market there. The only downside is, it wouldn’t work with PS4 discs, which would limit sales to existing digital only owners. Also, it would be on a system without a significant new game in site. The library is 99% done. There isn’t a must play on the horizon to market. You have to hope the existing exclusives is enough.
Honestly, I talked myself out of it. It is a bigger risk than I initially thought.
Games that can are still releasing on PS4.
Give it the real controller and make it the Portal but actually useful and it will be fine.
Holy crap, that thing had a backlit LCD and could play 16-bit home console games on the go. What a beast. How did I not even know this thing existed? 0.o
And a TV tuner add-on.
You read it here first. It will be called the PlayStation Deck
PlayStation Dreck
Part of me thinks this will be DOA (dead on arrival). They’ve lost a good chunk of the abandoned Vita playerbase (me included) and the current gen are either all on the steam deck or other derivatives.
This would be a good moment for Steam to begin a non-stop marketing campaign in Japan
While I’m in the same camp as you the steam deck is not mainstream. Plenty of normies and PS fanatics will still want a handheld PS.
Third time’s the charm, I guess? I’d at least be interested to see what this ends up looking like, given just how different the handheld gaming space is now compared to when they launched the Vita.
Handhelds exist right now that can play the PS5 pc ports of games pretty well, they’re just not that cheap. Whenever Sony launches a PS6, having a handheld that can play any PS4/5 game in your library natively could probably be a viable option. Then you can just use streaming to play PS5 Pro or PS6 games (and beyond) remotely.
We got the portal as a stop-gap, but I think a dedicated Sony handheld would be a hell of a device for people with extensive PS libraries like myself.
