Almost a decade after the original PSP – PlayStation Portable – was discontinued, Sony is making its return into the handheld market. Just… not in the way many had hoped for or perhaps wanted.
Due to reports from Gamescom and Sony’s PlayStation Blog, we’ve learned quite a bit about the upcoming PlayStation Portal. It’ll be a handheld gaming device for streaming games from your PlayStation 5 to the Portal via the PS5’s remote play feature. The Portal is essentially a screen set between two halves of a DualSense controller. It doesn’t look as sleek as a Steam Deck or as portable as a Nintendo Switch, but it does at least offer the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers a non-bisected DualSense controller does. Personally, the DualSense is the best controller I’ve ever used and I’m sure the PlayStation Portal will feel great to game on.
As long as you have good Wi-Fi. And don’t want to use the earbuds you already have. And can afford a $200 screen to stream your games to. And own a PlayStation 5 to begin with.
Now, I don’t mean to rain on Sony’s PSP parade. I’m glad the company is branching into the handheld space once again, but an LCD display merged with a DualSense seems like a meager first step towards something better. The PlayStation Portal won’t make you think twice about changing your primary handheld device away from a Switch or Deck – good luck trying to stream to the Portal on a five-hour flight. Hell, with how terrible my New York City internet is, I doubt I’d even be able to reliably stream to the Portal two rooms over from my router.
The PlayStation Portal in action.
The lack of bluetooth capability is incredibly frustrating. Sure, the PlayStation Portal includes a headphone jack, which is a nice concession, but no bluetooth is an obvious ploy to get you to also invest in Sony’s new headset and earbuds. Alongside the Portal, the Pulse Explore wireless earbuds and Pulse Elite wireless headset were also detailed. They will be able to connect to the Portal via PlayStation Link, which honestly reads like a fancy version of bluetooth. So if you’d want to use the PlayStation Portal at launch with wireless earbuds, you’d have to spend $400 — $50 more than an OLED Switch and the same price as the 64GB Steam Deck model.
I’m sure I wasn’t alone in hoping Sony would foray into the handheld world this generation. With handheld gaming on the rise – just look at how many Steam Deck competitors are out there – it’s only natural to expect some handheld complements from Microsoft and Sony to be in development. But I was expecting something more… substantive? Worthwhile? Widespread?
I’d like a true PlayStation handheld gaming machine where I can natively play my PlayStation 5 games on the go. Maybe that’s asking too much in the middle of a console cycle. How would purchasing games work? Would I have to purchase a PS5 and a PSP version, or does a one-time purchase allow me to install a game on both platforms? Again, the logistics might be complicated, but a true handheld gaming platform from Sony has to be preferable to a glorified Backbone you can’t even connect your own earbuds to.
Being able to freely and truly take your PS5 games on the go would be sublime.
I would be perfectly comfortable paying $400-$500 for a true PSP with a hypothetical 1080p display that can run games at 30FPS (60 would be nice, but let’s not get too crazy). It would allow PlayStation gamers to play God of War Ragnarök on the big screen one moment, upload a save to the cloud, grab that save on the PSP, and then take the adventure across the realms on the go.
Sony has been selling its current and previous generation consoles at a roughly 2:1 ratio compared to Microsoft’s offerings, meaning it has a dedicated player base I’m sure would support a true handheld. A dedicated Sony handheld would also let it compete more directly with Nintendo. With a ‘Switch 2’ closer than ever, now would have been an interesting time to launch a true PSP successor.
I’m sure the PlayStation Portal will find a niche market, and a fair number of PS5 owners will love it when it launches later this year. However, I can only hope the Portal is a first step towards something better for Sony in the handheld gaming market. I can already imagine a 2029 bundle for an even grand that nets you a PlayStation 6, a PlayStation Portal 2 –which would be much more than a streaming device – and, we’ll say, Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 co-starring Spider-Gwen (it’s my hypothetical scenario; let me have what I want). Until then, we’ll just have to settle for remote play streaming.
Join the AIPT Patreon
Want to take our relationship to the next level? Become a patron today to gain access to exclusive perks, such as:
- ❌ Remove all ads on the website
- 💬 Join our Discord community, where we chat about the latest news and releases from everything we cover on AIPT
- 📗 Access to our monthly book club
- 📦 Get a physical trade paperback shipped to you every month
- 💥 And more!
You must be logged in to post a comment.