Key Takeaways
- With the portable gaming market lacking, Sony could revitalize handheld gaming with a new device.
- A handheld PlayStation could bridge the gap between big first-party releases and provide a better multimedia experience.
- By unleashing the back catalog and expanding the PlayStation Portal, a new handheld PlayStation could revolutionize gaming.
It’s been just a hair over five years since Sony discontinued the PlayStation Vita, and there hasn’t even been a whisper of a new mobile gaming offering from Sony since. Of course, the closest we’ve come is the PlayStation Portal for the PlayStation 5.
However, the PlayStation Portal is not a standalone console; it’s merely a display for your PlayStation 5. Truthfully, it feels like Sony ought to give it another shot with a handheld PlayStation. Though the PlayStation Vita is not as fondly looked back on as the PlayStation Portable of old, there’s still a lot of potential in another handheld offering from Sony. Moreover, there are plenty of reasons why Sony should make one.
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1 The truly portable market is barren
Breaking free of the hybrid domination
The best-selling console currently on the market is the Nintendo Switch, which is itself a portable console. While that is reason enough for Sony to take a second look at making a handheld, the other reason lies in what exactly the Nintendo Switch is: a hybrid.
The Nintendo Switch can be played either entirely handheld or connected to a TV. While this is an impressive feat that seemed almost magical when the console was released in 2017, it also lacks something that Nintendo’s Game Boy and DS lineup had in spades: genuine portability. Fitting a Nintendo Switch in your pocket is far more challenging than sliding a Game Boy Advance into your pocket. The same principle applies to a PSP.
It would be unwise for Sony to reduce the power of their premier PlayStation lineup to fit it into a hybrid-portable device like the Switch. However, there’s a wide-open market for an exclusively handheld gaming device with genuine portability. The only thing remotely similar that’s currently on the market is smartphones, but gaming to the level that a PSP used to offer on a smartphone nearly always requires an attachable controller like the Backbone One.
With a pocketable handheld console, Sony could revitalize a nearly extinct form of console in the gaming market.
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2 New iterations for PlayStation franchises
Easing the long wait between big, first-party releases
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Video games take a long time to develop nowadays and are very expensive to make. It’s not uncommon to wait five or even ten years between games in a series. The idea of getting four new Grand Theft Auto games in a decade sounds completely foreign now, but it was a reality in the past. These long waits have also come to PlayStation’s console-exclusive titles.
Marvel’s Spider-Man and God of War both came out in 2018, and neither saw a full sequel release until 2023 and 2022, respectively. So what does this have to do with a new handheld PlayStation? In the past, plenty of first-party PlayStation IPs have made their way to the PSP and PS Vita. God of War, in particular, has a rich history with the PSP.
Imagine if, instead of waiting five years for a new first-party title to release, with only some DLC and possibly a spin-off game in between, there was a more dialed-back mobile take on the franchise released for a handheld PlayStation. With what handheld consoles could be capable of today, they wouldn’t be nearly as limited as the mobile takes on popular franchises previously seen on handheld consoles like the PSP and Nintendo DS.
With games taking longer and longer to develop, it makes sense for Sony to create a platform to house more modest offerings from their biggest franchises.
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Capitalizing on what the Nintendo Switch lacks
If there’s any particular area where the Nintendo Switch lacks, it’s the UI and the multimedia experience. Doing anything beyond gaming on a Nintendo Switch is a nightmare, but this is an area where Sony has previously excelled. The PSP and PS Vita both had stellar multimedia experiences, and there’s a lot of potential for how to modernize those features.
While smartphones have become the default all-in-one device in your pocket, there are still some areas where a portable gaming console could be better. It’s no secret that almost everyone wants native Discord support everywhere, but a handheld PlayStation could go a step further and include a full Discord app alongside that support.
And that’s just one potential piece of multimedia support a new handheld PlayStation could offer. While internet browsing and playing UMDs of your favorite movies and shows was cool in the past, there are still plenty of ways Sony could modernize the multimedia experience of a handheld console.
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4 Unleash the back catalog
Access to previous handheld (and home) PlayStation games
At nearly 30 years old, the PlayStation line has been around for quite a while, resulting in a significant back catalog of PlayStation games. Unfortunately, without the original hardware, some of those games can be very difficult to actually play.
Given the current state of technology, it’s not far-fetched to say that just about everything up through the PS3 could be playable on a new PlayStation handheld, including PSP and PS Vita titles. However, Sony doesn’t have a great track record with backward compatibility in recent years, with PS3 games still only available for streaming through a PlayStation Plus subscription.
Imagine if, instead of streaming, Sony offered subscription-based access to classic PlayStation titles on a brand-new handheld console, similar to what Nintendo offers with Nintendo Switch Online. For a particularly bold move, Sony could even create a new handheld that can read UMDs or PS Vita cartridges.
For a convenient destination for an impressive back catalog of games, Sony could definitely release a new handheld PlayStation with these capabilities.
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5 Expand the PlayStation Portal
The PlayStation Portal is a one-trick pony, but it doesn’t have to be
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Rumors swirled for quite a while before the release of the PlayStation Portal, with some even suggesting it could be a new PSP. In hindsight, we now know that is not the case. The PlayStation Portal is a PS5 controller with a built-in screen, allowing it to mirror the display from your PS5 via Wi-Fi. Beyond that, it doesn’t really do anything else of note. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Sony could have released a new portable console with the same streaming capabilities as the PlayStation Portal while actually functioning as a standalone console. It would have been unique in the current gaming landscape and an interesting way to capitalize on the hybrid nature of the Nintendo Switch without actually making a hybrid console.
A handheld PlayStation with streaming capabilities would have been a genuinely appealing concept, and it’s not too late for it to happen. Sony could still create such a device, but only time will tell if they have any real interest in re-entering the handheld gaming market.
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