Reporting from Bloomberg suggests Sony is to return to the handheld space with a portable PS5.
Fresh reporting from Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki and Debby Wu suggests that Sony may be looking to get back into the dedicated portable space with a new PS5 handheld.
The report, shared Monday, November 25, claims that the Japanese firm is currently in the early stages of "developing a portable console that would play its PlayStation 5 games on the move".
After the PSP and PS Vita, Sony exited the handheld market, but recently dipped their toe back into the water with the PlayStation Portal. This 2023 8-inch handheld, allows players to stream PS5 games to the device over the internet, but it cannot play titles directly. However, this report hints that the PlayStation Portal was in fact originally intended to function as a standalone handheld, similar to the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch.
Chelsea Beardsmore
As such, in light of this report it may be fair to now view the 'remote play' Portal as something of a beta for whatever this future product may end up being.
A handheld capable of natively playing PS5 titles would sure be an interesting prospect — but it's one that this report suggests, like Microsoft's planned handheld efforts, is "likely years away". To no surprise, Sony declined to comment on the Bloomberg report.
Takashi Mochizuki