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With yet more rumours and reports doing the rounds about Sony's potential portable plans, it seems the majority of fans would be interested in a handheld PS5.
We recently raised the question of whether our readers would be interested in a portable PlayStation akin to Valve's Steam Deck; capable of playing your existing games library natively. There's obviously plenty to consider, but nearly three quarters of our readers told us they would indeed like such a device.
56 per cent of those who voted in our poll were very much in favour, while a further 18 per cent also responded positively. Meanwhile, only 15 per cent told us they're not interested.
Given the latest report (and many previous rumours) on the subject, it does seem like this will be something in PlayStation's future, whether it comes alongside the PS6 or beforehand.
Such a machine wouldn't be devoid of potential setbacks; it'll likely be pricey, bulky, and may not have a stellar battery life. However, as Steam Deck and other portable PCs have proven, enthusiasts are loving these things despite those negatives.
At the end of the day, the more options for players, the better — and it seems like most would love to see Sony go this direction.
We suppose the natural next question is: how much would you be willing to pay for it? Take a vote in our poll and discuss in the comments section below.
How much would you be willing to pay for a Steam Deck-like portable PlayStation? (438 votes)
- More than $700
- $600 - $699
- $500 - $599
- $400 - $499
- $300 - $399
- $200 - $299
- Less than $199
- I'm not interested in such a device
Comments 52
How about a poll for...
"How long do you think Sony will support a handheld for if it gets made" ?
I'd say 2 years top
I've no need for a portable, and I don't want Sony using resource to develop one which will come at the expense of more attention on PS5/6 development.
The portal suits my needs for gaming in the home.
@Jrs1 The point is it's compatible with all existing software, and thus doesn't split the library.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; I have no use for such a device.
I’m not aged 6-12 with a long school bus ride where it would admittedly be pretty cool to pass the time. I don’t have a 2hr commute on the train. When I game, it’s from the comfort of a plush armchair, Dualsense in hand, parker in front of a giant 4K@120hz OLED for the full, fat console experience. I have no interest in squinting at a screen mere inches across while I play a downscaled version of a game.
The amount of people that would fork more than $400 for a handheld device is too damn high!
Removed - unconstructive feedback; user is banned
@Jrs1 it’s not a handheld with its own unique library, it’s made for existing PS5/PS4 titles, so support isn’t the worry here, especially seeing as the Portal has been well supported since launch.
@Pat_trick I hope you didn't type that on your £1000 iPhone/expensive contract! 😄
My favorite gaming device is still Switch despite having PS5.
Only if Sony didn't abandon PSP...
@get2sammyb You could understand the argument though given the track record, i thought "Abandonware" was a Sony term 😃
I like the idea of a portable PS5. The difficulty will be making a CPU powerful enough to play PS5 games that can be scaled down to mobile form, and be cooled effectively at that size, while also running at around 15W (otherwise the battery will suck).
It's the same problem having a dockable, Switch-like PS6 (or Xbox Next) would have, which is an idea some have put forward. While you COULD have an second external GPU in a dock to boost GPU power in docked mode, that would be expensive. But it's the CPU that could really hold these systems back, a mobile CPU is not the same as a home console CPU. They also have different memory requirements.
@riceNpea Nope, I typed on my £240 second hand Xiaomi.
I spend too much on games to have a top of the line cellphone 😂
@themightyant i think Sony are mad to try to rejoin the handheld market for a native device when the Portal does well and is cheap.
If Sony do, I really hope they get creative with it like Nintendo are with their handheld and don't just make a tiny PS5. I'd like it if they'd reinstate a media player on the console, so do that first Sony. Then make the handheld discoverable and usable as a streaming device so I can use my TV apps on it on other TVs
@Pat_trick 240 quid on a phone plus a contract?! What's wrong with sending letters third class via bulk mail? 😁
Sorry but this is a British website and I'm not American so on principle I'm refusing to answer the poll which is in $$$ rather than £££
Give me a portable machine that can play my entire PS4/PS5 catalog (that I don't have to repurchase) with streaming for PS6 and I'll happily pay that $500-$600. They add in PS1/PS2/PS3 support and I can go up to $700!
I'd happily pay £500 if it was an OLED, had 256GB+ memory and played both PS4/PS5 games natively, with more than 2 hours battery life.
I'd probably pay about $500 but it would depend on a number of factors. I'm still sceptical they could get decent battery life into something like this.
I don’t quite get the draw of a portable console. Even my Switch is usually docked. If I play games, I like to sit comfortably on my couch and play with my nice big TV giving me the image. I get better resolution, a bigger picture, etc.
Just an honest question: when are adult people playing games portably? I don’t take my Switch to family gatherings or work. I can’t play it when I’m driving. I’d get it if I used public transportation and had that kind of commute, but I dunno. I just don’t understand.
@themightyant
PS titles run on Steam Deck quite well so I guess it wouldn't be that hard to make a good native version that runs on a 900p screen.
But I wonder what niche a portable console would fill for Sony right now.
A lot of vocal people on gamer sites like this one thought the Portal would fail. Not only did the portal not fail, its one of the most successful gaming accessories this year. Turns out a lot of casual gamers, like adults with kids, cant use the TV and want to play elsewhere in their homes. So take a grain of salt when reading the comments in sites like these from people who have "no interest".
@DonkeyFantasy Lol, yeah, that reminds me of a friend of mine, back when Warzone came out. While we were sitting in the lobby, he’d go silent because he’d be playing Witcher 3 on his Switch between matches.
@CielloArc But not at PS5 settings. The point they are trying to say here is that it is a portable PS5 that will play all PS5 games, without developer intervention. That is the hard part.
Fool me once (PSP), fool me twice (PS Vita), fool me thrice (PSVR)...
Fans have simply never shown "enough support" for those extension devices in the Sony ecosystem so why would it be different now?
@somnambulance everyone is not same. Some like to sleep in dark and silent room and some prefer dimmed light with low volume classical music. Each to their own.
I only bought handhelds as long as there were games on it I couldn't play anywhere else. If it's just a portable PS5 there is no reason for me not to play on my TV with an actual PS5.
Interested and willing to buy are two vastly different things.
I'd have an interest in it, I loved my vita but there's no way I'd actually purchase it.
Your price range in the poll is way off reality. The price would be astronomical, you're looking at basically turning the wardrobe sized ps5 into a handheld, that's not impossible to do but it is going to be very expensive to do. you'd be looking at ps5 pro prices as a bare minimum and possibly even a fair bit more
@Jrs1 The real question is will you and other PS gamers support the platform by buying the games and accessories and DLC's...
it will be a digital only console...
@locoism25 Not likely because Sony being Sony will price the thing out of reach to most.
@Member_the_game To be fair, Sony prices things in £££ at the same level as $$$. So it says $400 but we all know it means £400 as well, because that's how they roll.
Until its 799$
@amatmulisha Makes sense. I’ve always been curious on the draw of portable consoles since even as a kid, I preferred my NES to my Gameboy, so to speak (and used my Super Gameboy rather than the portable console for my GB games once that came out). Typically, I purchased consoles based on me wanting to play a specific game, so I often had portable consoles, but it was more often because something was only available on the portable console rather than it being a preferred method of playing. As we enter an age of more overlap between tv based and portable consoles, I am certainly interested in the opposite perspective, as I seek to understand. Perhaps I’m missing something, you know?
1. It must be compatible with existing ps4/5 library.
2. It must be able to download games for use offline.
3. It needs to have a screen size on a par with the steam deck.
If it ticks these boxes, its an easy yes.
@Balaam_ I have 2 teenage sons and a wife. My time with games on my tv is extremely limited because they hog it so much. If it means I can hook up some headphones and play without arguing whose turn it is, I'm in.
@Haruki_NLI
In fairness I was mostly just joking .
Still it would be nice if a UK based website such as this one would use their local currency as standard practice.
If they want to add $$$ & €€€ prices as well I've no problem with that but there's no excuse not to use Pound sterling prices from the start
@Hordak this! Exactly this.
The vita is/was a great bit of kit. Even those of us who bought huge memory cards got stung by the early death of a great handheld.
Based off your 1600 votes????
It will be a flop, just like all PS Handhelds
I guess if poll results can fail for a presidency, they can also fail for a gaming system.
74% seems way too inflated... Unfortunately people's positivity doesn't always relate to them putting their money where their mouths are!
Sony needs to understand the Portable Market more.
Games like Pokemon. Monster Hunter, Tetris etc. Games that people have historically preferred to play on the Go. We love our big budget Sony games, but gaming on the go is different. Sony needs to tap into the market that Nintendo has full understanding of.
To be fair since I got the Steam Deck I am slowly moving there. And even if the new handheld plays PS5 or PS4 games natively they would be the digital versions and if the device doesn't sell well Sony will probably abandon it. And if it is abandoned developers may not optimise the games for it or the fans will claim that a handheld will hold the games back like what they say for the Series S console.
So people want to pay the exact same price as the Steam Deck... for something that will be really locked down.
I think Sony will struggle against the Steam Deck and other PC handhelds and that's not including the Switch 2! Sony is incapable of having two teams with two devices, it proved that with the Vita! A system with so much potential relegated to a PS4 remote control. And they can't exactly done wonders with PS VR either.. another capable device left in the cold, stupidly priced too though.
Look I love playing in 4k on the big screen as much as anyone.
But being able to game on any piece of furniture, or relaxing outside,
to be sitting in my office and getting paid to game for hours is peak video game bliss.
I don't want them compromising the PS6 though, so bit of give and take
For Portal/Vita/PC handheld owners sure or dedicated fans but what dedicated want power/a PSP/Vita but are ACTUALLY going to support it if it did become real this time? So in my view they are a bunch of liers at that percentage, the illusion more then believable or wanting it.
Sure Portal/PC handhelds have changed things, many are likely Switch/Vita owners as well I get that but I still don't buy that percentage and the large absolutely of that poll. Regardless of the how many voted, how many visit this site and other factors and it's a percentage then vote count but I still don't buy into that wish fulfillment/wishful thinking.
Also the PS4/5 expectations, an eshop that's likely PS4/5 then it's own. The realism is just hmm of possibilities. Which is why PC handhelds having Windows, or G Cloud with Android besides cloud apps or Steam Deck with Steam. Makes sense. Working around PS4/5 eshop or it's own is a challenge. Let alone how close to make handheld hardware to PS4 let alone other aspects functional.
The studios and how they'd have to balance themselves aside even. I don't need 4K or power I need game design to be good and a suitable form factor for gimmicks, otherwise no interest to me.
Regardless of getting in the way of PS6, no matter the specs, the screen, anything else and being too big or whatever power/bad battery life to balance it out. Nah just pass.
The end of small handhelds is over, whether it splits like Switch or folds like a dual screen smartphone of Samsung/Microsoft's Flip/Fold/Duo ones and carrying a thick handheld? Nah pass on that I'd take a laptop instead at that point. Not a tablet with controllers or a sandwich sub sized handheld. I'll take a folding dualscreen one but not a large typical handheld pass.
Being realistic I don't see it happening or have interest even as a handheld fan and even then Switch is just 'ok' it's pretty average of a handheld and kind of boring, gets the job done and has it's quirks but they are kind of weak but the games just happen to be more exciting then PS/Microsoft's offerings.
Wanting one? Eh pass on 1st party due to how PS4/5 games just aren't my thing anymore, the priority of their design is not for me, too empty, too un-fun of what I'm looking for not being there. So pass on 1st party entirely unlike PSP/Vita which I found had better IPs and better execution of content/value/game design. 3rd parties regardless I have no hope for the west caring to bother. The any Indies and the Asian market eh they better deliver or else, pass on them and the handheld as well.
But I don't trust the casuals, or many others, enough let alone the devs to support it.
As if Portal being a boring device that gets the job done but no one has to develop anything for it. Yeah I really trust Sony there.
Vita you had dual screen use even if in few places. Where is that on Portal? They don't care. To offer anything interesting just the bare minimum and boring game design game. No thanks. No sale. No matter the high price, or dev team software/hardware wise.
If they did they wouldn't have cut Playlink or PSVR or others with dual screens or offered other features or had devs have a reason to support it. They don't.
Leave it alone. If I’m out, I really don’t need to play games. I rarely play my Switch undocked.
And on a lite handheld note, the PSVR2 has taken that niche of an alternative ecosystem that brings something new to the table.
@CupidStunt Well they had Soul Sacrifice/God Eater/Freedom Wars, just because Capcom focused on 3DS then Vita and did PSP prior. They couldn't get around that.
They had Invisimals since the PSP and that studio is still going with their stuff on mobile pretty sure. Just had to be an AR Pokemon before Pokemon GO so who really cared. I don't know if it was advertised well.
It's like saying Sega didn't when Cruscader of Centy, Phantasy Star or others competed with FF or Zelda or others. They try but do they really work, it varies.
As if Xbox isn't the obvious of audiences want to have other IPs on there but the larger audience (stereotypical or more favoured of other types and end up buying the western 3rd parties big games) end up being the problem. Sony not putting more entries is one thing but they did put a lot of IPs on Vita. The same applies, audiences differ and what changed with Sony for PS3/4 era type IPs/interest or otherwise or device use of PS4/mobile. It was an awkward period as we know.
Look into what Vita actually offered.
And as if the kids game publishing or the HD PS3 collection ports to Vita weren't something even if not 'new'.
As if remote play being exclusive till Android (besides third party devs unofficial apps of course years prior to that) in 2019 around the time of Vita/game cart production ended too.
They had Smart As compared to the other 3rd party ones that were on PSP to compete with Brain Age.
They had 3rd party kids games they published on Vita after the hardcore left (besides he Indie/JP game dedicated western gamers) and 3rd party western studios only did mobile to Vita/3DS ports if they cared to. They wanted that mobile money, failed but still were greedy for it.
I did enough of my research even with late to Vita.
Xcom was on Vita in 2016, who cared then? Mass Effect Infiltrator I think too. The bad Lego games of that period then they changed back once they realised it wasn't a good idea to do a phone to other port and made them better then worse game design.
The Japanesse did great, but Sony didn't bother to market them at all to the west really, Indies they supported well enough but didn't do wider enough marketing besides what their YT channel? They didn't care to on other presentations? I don't remember
But also management changed too so that didn't help which was the main problem.
I voted for not interested the PSP & PSP VITA got abandoned way to early Sony fans seems to want things then don't support those things that's why Killzone, Resistance are gone now. Some of it was Sony fault they didn't have enough developers developing games for their handheld system's it's the same thing happening with PSVR2
@Jrs1 I'm still burning from them losing interest in my Vita! I loved that thing.
$300-$399 for a device that can play ps1-4 natively and ps5 in cloud seems fine, I want to play a lot of indie games on it and continue it on tv with ps5. The problem with switch is I can do that but most of the games on switch didn't have 5.1 surround, like the shantae series on switch vs ps4/5.
Since steam deck can already play ps1-4 and some ps5 games natively, I don't think that's a tall order for sony to do. It's better if the portable can play ps5 games directly with wifi like wii u pad if it's in the same room with ps5.
@get2sammyb I believe that's called a Nintendo switch 😉
PlayStation already has a handheld and it's called PlayStation Portal. Add more features to it like being able to play PS1 to PS4 games natively or some such, sure. But don't drop its main focus because that's what's made it successful.
Lack of support killed the Vita, decent support (that dwindled as time went on) made the PSP a moderate success. Lack of support would once more kill this rumoured handheld, if it's not a Portal-like.
@riceNpea @Pat_Trick I am not paying more than $300 for a handheld -Typing from my 256GB iPhone <_<
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