The leader in the portable gaming console segment has long been Nintendo with its Switch platform, which in a few months could be updated to Switch 2. Sony once had the legendary PSP and the controversial PS Vita, and now the company is going to return to this segment. Sony has just begun to develop a new portable gaming console, reports Bloomberg, but it is important that it will allow you to play games for a full-fledged PlayStation 5.
Image Source: Sony
Since the creation of a portable Xbox console is mentioned at the level of rumors, and Microsoft representatives even confirmed the existence of corresponding intentions, Sony in this situation could remain the only major market player that did not pay decent attention to the segment of portable solutions. One way or another, if Sony’s portable console is presented, it will be in a few years, and the company may abandon this idea completely.
To some extent, Sony is already testing the market in this area, since from 2023 it will offer the PlayStation Portal portable device with an 8-inch display, which allows you to play PlayStation 5 games via Wi-Fi streaming, and more recently also via the cloud service. Initial plans to make such a device autonomous and self-sufficient had to be abandoned.
The structure of the gaming market is such that the main revenues are concentrated in the mobile segment, while smartphones dominate at the hardware level. The upcoming Nintendo Switch update is expected to continue the flexibility of using the gaming console both in stationary conditions and on the go. In addition, the new console will allow you to run games from its predecessor, which will certainly please potential buyers. Sony’s recent experience with portable gaming devices hasn’t been very successful. PlayStation Portable products were discontinued about ten years ago; PS Vita remained on the production line until 2019.