Sony confirms its working on a new Playstation portable, codenamed Project Q

[koito17]

I still have a Japan model PS Vita that was manufactured circa 2018. It is unfortunate the hardware is stuck in 2014 (including the bundled WebKit!!). Through a Vita->SD converter and a jailbreak, I have nearly 40 games in this device. It has great battery life and is truly portable. I also recall last year a few new releases made for the Vita in the Japan PS Store, but due to the SSL certs in the Vita, you need to purchase the games on a PS4 device then transfer to the handheld, or something like that. Very unfortunate because from every angle it seems like deliberate sabotage by Sony, and the platform is basically dead, but not to me. I'm still yet to finish all of the games I have on the device.

If Sony releases a new handheld, I hope they took lessons on how poorly they managed the Vita.

[goosedragons]

They stopped letting you add funds on the Vita so you have to do it on the web or another device. I don't think the PS4 store has Vita Games, the PS3 did but it actually supported transfering to and from the Vita whereas the PS4 never did. So you still need to make purchases on the Vita itself (or I guess a PS3).

I had all my Vita games on my PS3 so I could transfer them rather than slowly redownload them on it itself but Sony BROKE that functionality when they forced two factor authentication. The worst bit is they couldn't even be bothered to offer a sensible error message like "this feature isn't supported anymore" you just get some cryptic error number.

I loved the Vita but I'm never giving Sony money for a handheld again.

[cableshaft]

I just came across my Vita a week ago after it sat dormant for two years and decided to go ahead and jailbreak it. Seems like the homebrew scene is still pretty active on there. They're even writing wrappers for Android games, like GTA 3 San Andreas, effectively bringing over games that never existed onto the platform.

Still a bit of a learning curve figuring out how to get it all working after that though, but it still seems to be a popular platform for homebrew. There's enough happening for people to have monthly videos on new apps, games, and updates.

I might even port one of my small puzzle games to it if I get a hang on homebrew development sometime, although that's probably a ways out still.

[gambiting]

Well this device is just a PS Remote Client, literally nothing else. I would love to see a new PSP/Vita-like device, but this isn't it.

[cosmotic]

Do you mean the software is stuck in 2014?

[tetrisgm]

Have you considered getting a GPD Win 4? It's the same form factor and very modern PC specs.

[WhereIsTheTruth]

Cloud only, what a mistake..

I want a dedicated Sony handheld like a proper PSP/PSVITA with its own games including PS1/2/3/4 PSP/VITA games..

They should do like the Nintendo Switch, not like Microsoft and their cloud only devices..

I don't think this will sell very well.. that's a shame because that'll give wrong market signal..

This whole event.. I feel like somebody wanted to sabotage it, I can't believe that's what they have to offer!

[ThatPlayer]

I think 'its own games' is the problem. It would require a lot of investment to be able to support it. Which is what they didn't do with the Vita. The competitors like the Switch and Steam Deck deck don't split the game library they have to support into two separate libraries.

The dedicated handheld market is just another of the devices replaced by smartphones. The Vita and 3DS generation combined sold about half as many as the Nintendo DS alone. So an investment into those games may not get a return.

[RobotToaster]

Why would you want a streaming handheld?

The places you would want to use a handheld (trains, planes, &c) all tend to have unreliable or no wifi.

[delecti]

I use handhelds plenty just because I like the formfactor. Also sometimes the TV is in use, or I want to play in a different room.

[nocsi]

So I can play tucked in bed. Most of my ps5 gameplay has been that 1 hour window of time before I fall asleep

[tapoxi]

As a dad, because my kid is using the TV.

[kin]

This is kind of a shame. I was hoping from the headline that it would be a PSP successor. Instead, they're coming out with something already accomplished by this: https://playbackbone.com/playstation I own this and it sucks because the connection always cuts out. I'm considering feeding a direct ethernet cable to my PS5 so that it could hopefully work? But improving your home network is a lot to ask of consumers IMO

[dylan604]

I remember when the PSP came out, and we thought it would have been cool if it had a phone in it, as the form factor was pretty close to landline phone headsets. other people complained it was too big for that purpose. hindsight and all, but it's funny that it's close in size to some phablets.

[vivaldidev]

Too bad it's not a Steam Deck or ROG Ally competitor, to enable native games to be played on device..

[shmerl]

A better question is when will Sony support Vulkan instead of constant NIH. Nintendo does.

[8kingDreux8]

This is interesting. As a father in a house with only one PS5, I hope it allows concurrent play. It would suck to be on a trip, and not able to play cause my dudes are watching Youtube at the house.

[gambiting]

It will not. It's literally just a PS Remote Client, it's been around since PS3 times and you can try it now with your phone - it just streams the screen of your PS5 to your device of choosing, nothing more complex than this. It's just a dedicated device that can only do this and nothing else. I guess the integrated Dual Sense is nice, but ultimately not that different to a Dual Sense + phone holder setup, probably somewhat more comfortable to hold.

[bentcorner]

I didn't watch the Sony showcase but I wouldn't be surprised if they're working on a "PS5 as a service" thing like xbox has.

[honkycat]

Everyone keeps trying to sell us streaming gaming, and I'm sorry, it just is bad.

It is too laggy and too disconnected for me to enjoy it. It constantly cuts out and makes me reconnect. No thanks.

[brandrick]

Yeah, the recent Logitech G Cloud (pushed as an Xbox streaming device) was met with rather lukewarm reviews. I can see this getting a similar reception.

[gtop3]

The big players all seem to be interested in 'portables' that feel very large and cumbersome to carry.

I'd be much more interested in a PSVita or even GBA Micro sized device.

[jsheard]

I think portables have settled around the Switch/Deck/Ally form factor because that's about as small as you can make a system while being able to run "full sized" games. You need enough processing power to run the games to a reasonable standard, and the battery/cooling to back that up, and enough physical space for all of the buttons and sticks on a conventional controller, and a big enough screen to see what's going on in games designed for TVs, which means you can't realistically go smaller than the Switch Lite.

Sure you could make "pocket sized" games designed specifically for much more limited hardware like they did during the Gameboy and DS eras, but I'm not sure how much appetite there is for that now that people have had a taste of full fat console games on the go.

[crooked-v]

Check out the Retroid Pocket Flip [1], which is basically a recreation of the DS form factor as a relatively powerful Android device (though, sadly, with only one screen).

[1]: https://www.goretroid.com/collections/frontpage/products/ret...

[PaulBGD_]

I have a GBA micro and I can't imagine something like this ever being released again to a wide market. It's just too dang small! Now a GBA (or SP) sized handheld I'd definitely be down for.

[robotnikman]

I've always hoped they would release a successor to the Xperia play phone. That looked perfect for on the go. And overall their current phones are not too bad either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xperia_Play

I know that this is not what the announcement is about, but if they are embracing remote streaming maybe they might make something similar in the future.

[sureglymop]

I remember when this came out it blew my mind as a kid and I really wanted it. Now we are deep in the era of the resurgence of the handheld and it's everything I ever wanted!

[detaro]

Streaming from your existing console is an interesting choice. No/less server costs, but also a bunch of extra latency if you are away from home. So maybe mostly for in-house streaming? would have to be relatively cheap to justify itself for that IMHO, but that's possible.

[lillecarl]

It'd be pretty cool if games could use it to argument playing on the TV too, like multi-player gaming on one console with separate displays, for games that don't need all CPU power that is, or extra stats or whatever in some triple A game.

[nocsi]

You can already do that. Just turn on your tv and remote play in, it’ll be seen as another controller.

[bluefirebrand]

The Wii-U did this and it was a massive flop.

[rektide]

Supposedly a remote steaming device. I was going to say, good luck competing with Asus Ally & future AMD chips especially!

[coffeebeqn]

I mean they would just buy AMD chips and PlayStation certainly has much better chances of making a portable console stick than asus

[chaostheory]

All of the major consoles have been using AMD for multiple generations now.

[LegitShady]

competing with the asus ally is simple. It doesn't have enough battery life to play games at full resolution and high refresh rate without being plugged in, it isn't as efficient at lower power gaming as the existing steam deck, and it costs more than the steam deck. It's PR claims were a lot better than the benchmarks, and I don't really need a portable that requires being plugged in all the time to be effective - thats sort of missing the whole point.

[mepian]

Reminds me of the Wii U gamepad.

[MBCook]

That’s exactly what it is.

And you know what? That was the best part of the Wii U! You could play games while watching TV. Or while someone else watched TV. With any luck you can play this in another room!

I’ve wanted this for years.

One wish: OLED. I don’t wan’t to go back to LCD.

[dirtyid]

That design looks not portable... cloud only.

[macjohnmcc]

Already bought into the PlayStation Portable and the Vita. I think I'll skip this next one.

[hammyhavoc]

Imagine applying that logic to the failure of the Wii U and assuming the Switch would also fail.

[devops3]

Interesting