Sony is currently looking into the handheld gaming market after the success of the PS5’s PlayStation Portal accessory, based on the latest report.
Well-known insider Tom Henderson took to Twitter/X to share that almost everyone at Gamescom, 2024, had interesting hardware discussions about handheld gaming devices. His hunch is that potential buyers should save their money a little longer if they’re planning to purchase one. He said that a lot more options and improvements appear to be coming soon, though he isn’t sure about the exact timelines.
Furthermore, Henderson was asked by a Twitter/X user regarding the chances of a dedicated PlayStation handheld device arriving in the future. In his response, he said that the PlayStation Portal was very successful and that Sony is paying very close attention to the current handheld market. A bit of a vague statement, but it seems like the success of the PS5’s handheld accessory has renewed the company’s interest in developing a successor to the PS Vita. Though, this time around, it would be wise of Sony to more closely integrate the device with its console, ensuring that developers won’t have to work on entirely different builds of their titles for the console and handheld. A Steam Deck-like approach would work well here.
During an interview earlier this year, PlayStation’s VP of product management Hiromi Wakai had stated that the demand for the PlayStation Portal had continued to exceed the company’s expectations. She didn’t have any numbers to share, however. Wakai pointed out that, from the beginning, PlayStation Portal was intended to be a product best suited for people with specific needs and those who want to play in a specific way, so the reactions after the announcement were very much within Sony’s expectations. As such, it’s likely that the company had modest expectations from the gaming accessory in terms of demand prior to launch.
