Sony May Be Plotting A New PSP To Compete With Nintendo's 'Switch 2'

But it's likely several years away

by · Nintendo Life
Image: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo Life

We know what you're thinking, and yes, it certainly feels like rumours of a new PlayStation handheld have been swirling since... well, probably since the launch of the Vita. But now, we have a slightly more credible report from Bloomberg (thanks, VGC), claiming that Sony may well be developing a new 'PSP' to compete more directly with Nintendo.

According to Bloomberg, development of a new handheld is in the early stages and, much like Microsoft's planned portable device, likely won't launch for some years to come. As such, the company may still decide against bringing it to market, though given the remarkable success of the Switch and the hype surrounding its successor, we honestly wouldn't be surprised if Sony dipped its toes further back into the world of handheld gaming.

As for what the 'PSP' will be capable of, Bloomberg states that it will build upon the foundations of the PlayStation Portal, but rather than requiring the cloud to stream PS5 games, the device will instead play them natively. In other words, don't expect many (if any) bespoke handheld games like Tearaway or Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

Having direct competition from both Sony and Microsoft within the handheld space would no doubt make the 'Switch 2' a slightly trickier proposition for some consumers. That said, if rumours of both firms are to be believed, it's likely the Switch successor would have the console handheld market all to itself for at least two or three years or so. Combine that with the stellar first-party software that Nintendo is known for, and we'd say the company will have little to worry about. At least for the time being.

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What do you think, dear reader? Do you reckon Nintendo would benefit from some more direct competition from the likes of Sony and Microsoft? The countless PC handhelds that have flooded the market recently haven't really made much of a dent in Nintendo's success. Let us know what you think with a comment.

[source bloomberg.com, via videogameschronicle.com]

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About Ollie Reynolds

Nintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry.

Comments 59

PS5 games natively? Will this thing be the size of 4 bricks duct taped together and have a 30 second battery?

Well as long as it doesn’t rely on specialty memory cards like the Vita, it could probably do okay. I like the Vita. I have the TV version, but those damn memory cards in my opinion are largely what made it fail…Then again, these are just baseless rumors everyone is going to assume is fact.

Wonder if they'll be able to make something that will be able to compete with Nintendo's handheld (well, hybrid now) this time around, if this is true. Should be interesting to see what they'll cook up.

Vita, I loved my OLED vita.
You’d be mad to buy a portable device from Sony, time and time again they lose interest when their product real fast if it misses sale expectations.

The handhelds that I will accept are the machines that have PHYSICAL release of the games.
I will not accept any devices with digital only games, Game Pass subscription to play the games, Online Only, streaming from another devices.

What a surpruse

Nah not for me, next to the switch, the only thing i am looking for is a good handheld pc (aka steamdeck 2)
The performances arent great yet. Steam deck is still the king of handheld pc imo.
If sony wants to compete they need to bring physical games to it, thats wat most people want, and thats why the switch was such a big hit. Scratches my collectible itches lol.

Will believe it when I see it although it wouldn't be particularly surprising since when something Nintendo makes is successful the others follow suit - look also at motion controls for example...
Theoretically, I'd welcome it for those interested (not me included as again, if I ever get a system to go along Switch's successor it will most likely be a Steam Deck), but like others here I wonder how long the battery would last, if it had the dumb proprietary memory cards like past Sony handhelds, if it were digital only since they and others are pushing towards that and so on!

Seems like all the rage these days to make handhelds. Personally not very interested in a Sony/Microsoft handheld console but it's nice to see them try where Nintendo has been very successful.

New flop incoming.

I recently got a Portal and really like it, but a stand-alone handheld would probably be expensive and/or heavy with bad battery life

Are we doing bets on how long it lasts before Sony drops it like a bag of turds?

Two years.

How is a Playstation portable going to compete with a Switch 2? People are only buying the latter for the Nintendo exclusives, whereas the former will just be a trash version of the Steam Deck.

It would be so Sony to have the very expensive VR2 languishing with no games and yet release a very expensive new console that will languish with no games (and then release the VR3 that will...)

I don't understand how Sony and Microsoft are flirting with this idea when their consoles are struggling. Where did the spirit of competition go? Sony was great at keeping the games coming. All genres. Big and small. Microsoft was never my favorite, but they seemed to be on to something. Carving out their legacy and moving the industry forward.

Now it seems like neither listens to the people. Wants to share games. That's a plus for gamers, but exclusivity and having to make that tough choice, “Which console will give me the biggest bang for my buck” made gaming exciting.

Getting the other console, late in its lifecycle. Playing all the games you've been seeing and hearing about. That was a special feeling, too. Made even more special, if there was a price drop and a nice bundle. And a “budget” line of games. 😆

The gaming industry is in a weird place. At the age of 41, I've seen the industry go up and down. Seem like it did the know where it was going. Throughout all those years, one thing still felt palpable. Competition.

It'll be super powerful and have little/no first party support.

See PS Move, PSVR2 and PS Vita for examples of this approach (and, based on recent years, the PS5 too). I own/owned all of those aside from the PSVR2 and there's no way I'm splashing out upwards of £300 on new hardware (which is what this new thing will cost) until it's got at least 3 or 4 games that I really want to play.

The PSP was a great handheld and sold very well. The Vita was abandoned by Sony in a few years because they wanted to focus on the Playstation console? I don't see the next handheld play Playstation 5 games natively (not possible?) and I don't see Sony developing games for two totally different hardware specs (didn't work out with the Vita). Streaming PS5 first party games on the handheld seems more likely and then PS4 specs games native?

I don't see it compete with the Switch 2 because I don't think it will get the same focus from Sony. And it is years away. But more competition is good and the PSP and Vita were interesting pieces of hardware. Maybe we will see more first party games with a lower budget, less develop time with more focus on the creative side. A Daxter 2 would be interesting.

Isn't this where all consoles will go sooner or later? Running all games natively?

Because as power increases and batery tech improves then there will always be a reason to put a batery and screen in it... as the option of handheld and to a tv screen are what people would prefer overall I think. It caters for everyone.

So yeah nintendo are ahead of the game.

Good, competition drives the market forward.

I hope Sony will get some more competition on the higher specs market. They’ve become arrogant and have developed anti-consumer practices. And their CFO is ‘addicted to growth’, as he says.

@Itachi2099 Last years PC Handhelds like Legion Go and Rog Ally already runs PS5 and Xbox Series X games natively.

Duct tape is not needed with tech from recent years.

Fun fact: My "Legion Go" PC Handheld which runs PS5 and Xbox games have a longer battery time than my Nintendo Switch.

The Handheld market are already more oversaturated now than it were in 1990's.

There are already around 20 PC Handheld brands where Steam Deck, Legion Go and Rog Ally dominates in PC market.
Android Handhelds etc.

Microsoft already confirmed to work on a Xbox handheld too that will most likely launch at the same time as Next-Gen console.

If Sony can get a handheld that plays GTA6 and FF7 Remake Part 3 out of the box then Nintendo will certainly have a fight on their hands.

Ultimately, I feel like there's room for both devices. The problem Nintendo has is convincing people to upgrade their Switch to whatever their new device is versus a competitor device.

I'm hoping Nintendo have some major software trump cards up their sleeve... and not just Metroid Prime 4... Surely they have a new 3D Mario, new Donkey Kong and new Mario Kart all in late development, right?

If they don't... Man, could we be looking at a Wii U scenario all over again? I mean, surely not, right? Surely they won't do that mistake again?

I still struggle to believe that Switch doesn't have GTAV on it. Why on earth didn't Nintendo do more to secure that game? Foolish and it could bite them hard if people start to learn about another device that could do GTA6.

Because it has always worked out so well when they trail Nintendo's gimmick. But I do love my Vita as a handheld emulation powerhouse so I wouldn't say no to getting an updated one.

Probably they will be able to launch their new 'PSP' before Nintendo releases the Switch 2

They will compete against Switch 2.

and against Steam Deck, AyaNeo, Lenovo Legion Go, MSI Claw, Zotac, ASUS Rog, Logitech G cloud and a potential Xbox handheld.

Sony was dumb reading the portable market back then when they decided to stop supporting Vita. They have lost their opportunity. Now everyone is onboard.

Sony hardcore fans will buy it at whatever price Sony sets. They will have to support 2 different products with 2 different specs, since I don't see ps5 games running in anything affordable. Or ps6, since this thing might not even be in development

Maybe they should just release some games for their existing console lmao.

@tourjeff Yeah that's not how things work buddy

@Ironcore And not rush their developers into making dissapointing products just so they can be entered into the game awards while also giving said devs insanely poor security allowing countless plans and assets to leak then very likely plan on liquidating the team and their assets as im typing this very reply!
: D

Spider-man 3 will be so peak and totally release guys trust me Sony totally wont scrap insomniac and find a new studio to abuse the living h3ll out of like they do every other studio they have nowadays whether it be games, movies, shows etc.

Handheld gaming in the console space is a lost art at this point. The bite-sized gaming experience made for small screens saw it’s doom a mile away as the advancing technology of standard games and the ubiquity of mobile games, squeezed it out of existence. Now we just play ‘real games’ on portable consoles as we squint to read the text. And Sony basically said as much to investors after the Vita: people want standard console games or mobile games, but not handheld games. So a return to the days of PSP (or even Vita) this ain’t.

@nocdaes Nintendo will already have to contend with the ROG Ally X, which has an impressive battery and can play all current PS5 games at 60fps.

Nintendo will absolutely crush it in the price department, as well as the battery department (likely) but not in other areas.

In the entertainment space in general I think Nintendo’s biggest direct competition is from tablet gaming. Kids love tablets. Gamers like us might want both a PS5/PC and a Switch and so for us they are competing but we are the core not the mainstream. Basically I think a decent PSPortable can co-exist quite happily without affecting Ninty too much and so I welcome one.

The bubble is going to burst sooner or later on the flood of all these handhelds, there’s just simply too many of them with barely improved versions being tossed out an an hilarious rate all targeted at a much nicher audience than Switch.

But the Nintendo Switch isn't only a handheld...

The problem with a new Sony handheld is that it will be completely restrictive like Vita and Portal and could be abandoned by its creator, like Vita and PSVR2, if it doesn't meet Sony's expectations.

Personally, besides Switch, I'd buy an Xbox handheld if they made one or a third-party handheld PC.

@Banjo- Yes, that's a good point actually.

Sony doesn't have the studios to support two systems. You can see it with the PSVR2 as well.

I hope it will be a product worth owning, especially for the PSP and Vita lovers. So until then I would say, that I am more than happy with my Switch and I have high hopes for the successor.

By the way Tearaway: Unfolded is such a geat and magical game.

Unless they are going to make two different sets of games this will not work. And even if they made games specifically for this Sony only will support it a year or two before abandoning it. And to get the kind of console quality games they want on the go would mean a very expensive handheld with terrible battery life. Microsoft and Sony just need to focus on consoles. Cause when they try new things it is not good. I suppose Microsoft can better gamble at this since they have been last for a while now. But Sony things to focus on games cause it is very dry now and psvr2 is doing bad and ps5 pro still doesn’t make sense.

@Friendly Thanks. There are also interesting thoughts that others have posted, like:

· How could Sony feed a handheld with exclusives when they barely can release new games for PS5?

· How could it run PS5 games natively?

· Unlike Xbox and third parties, Sony is as restrictive as Nintendo, but Nintendo sells its exclusives massively and has only one platform since Switch, while only 6.8% of the PS5 software sales were first-party in the last quarter.

· That 6.8% of first-party sales on PS5 is going to be available on Windows, so you can play Sony's games on third-party handheld PCs and maybe on a future Xbox handheld, on top of the Windows/Xbox games.

@Toastmaster moot point, your Legion Go and Rog Ally play games that released on PS5 but they don't play them at PS5 equivalent settings/framerate/resolution and those are 800$+ PC handhelds you can tinker with, not locked down console ecosystem.

This is talking about PS5 games playing natively, meaning the already fully existing PS5 library on PSN rn without any changes to them. As in this handheld will just boot up and it plays all your PS5 games at the same settings, settings that need a monolith sized console.

You can say "well they'll just patch the games to lower settings and resolutions to fit them for this handheld" but that still doesn't make any sense and makes this claim even dumber. They'd need to patch literally thousands and thousands of games on PSN for "portable mode" meaning games that arent patched are more than likely gonna be blacklisted from being playable.

Do you see Sony doing that and going thru this long process in any conceivable way while also telling 3rd party devs to do that? For a more than likely niche device like this? Do I need to remind you about Playstation TV? Devs couldn't be bothered just turning off PS Vita features to whitelist their games, what makes you think they wanna go back and literally rebuild the PS5 games around this portable hardware and patch them for free?

Can’t really see a place for this at all. Back in the day it was worth having both a DS and PSP or a 3DS and a Vita (to a lesser extent) because they were so different to one another and provided things you couldn’t get on the opposing machine. What would be the key difference here? Power? There are already handheld PCs that are more flexible than dedicated handhelds and offer PlayStation games on them anyway.

A straight up portable PS5 would be amazing but how much would that cost, how bad would the battery life be etcetera…on the other hand, if they decide to make a bespoke new machine then that means splitting up their dev teams to work on games for a separate device (when they struggle to make tons of games for the console they already have) and would require third parties to consider another platform when making games. I just don’t know where a new PlayStation handheld fits in today, honestly.

They will only produce 500 units, so they can trick gullible news reporters into thinking it's a success, just because it's sold out.

@Itachi2099 It'll probably only support a limited selection of games, and not play most of the big 1st party titles.

Well good luck to them I certainly wouldn’t buy one I still feel like I got burned off the ps vita it was a great little machine with an awesome screen at the time but it was dead on arrival it’s as if Sony had no intention of supporting it and the memory card fiasco killed it off very quickly

@Itachi2099 I agree with what you say more or less.

Yes, these PC Handhelds are real PC's without a locked down system like Switch for example.
I know PC Handhelds cost more, but they have no limitations as they are running Windows 11 and they can run over 100.000's of games.
Both of these PC Handhelds currently have great discounts this week.

There is only 3 + soon 2 more, PC Handheld brands that is sold anywhere on the planet. Legion Go, Rog Ally and MSI Claw.
The upcoming Acer and Zotac Handhelds will be sold globally too. MSI Claw is the only Handheld using Intel hardware.

PS5 games still looks good on a 8.8" screen on Legion Go at 1200p because of the tiny screen.
I get 55 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 with medium settings on Legion.
Over 250 FPS in Resident Evil 7 on low settings which is insane on a handheld...

Next-Gen PC Handheld hardware is coming in 2025.
Microsoft and Sony will have a problem when it comes to power vs price. If they use PC Handheld hardware, you know the price already as consoles isn't sold at a loss anymore.

I also don't think Sony will bother this much to get old games compatible, at least not for free.

You can bet Microsoft will do upgrades on games 100% for free on their handheld including third party games.
Remember Microsoft already upgraded lots of third party Xbox 360 games like Red Dead Redemption to 4K for free, and they manually made over 600 games run on newer consoles without emulation. It took them 3 years or so to do it.
In fact MS even bothered to replace the Xbox 360 assets with PC assets on a lot of games. As you know PC had higher quality textures.

@Toastmaster
Handheld PCs are designed to run PC games, which is possible since PC games are designed to run on a range of different hardware spcifications, from low-end gaming laptops to top of the line rigs.

PS5 games are designed to run on the PS5 (and now PS5 Pro). That's it. There is no low-spec PS5 equivalents. For a PS5 handheld to work, developers would need to patch their games to run on this device because there is no way a handheld device will be able to run native PS5 games without significant downgrades.

@westman98 You are 100% correct about everything you say.

The new PC Handheld hardware coming next year is for handhelds that will probably cost closer to 1000$

In 2-3 years Rog Ally and Legion Go hardware will maybe drop enough in price to run downscaled PS5 games natively.
PS5 Pro cost 980$ in several countries in Europe, so it's not unlikely Sony would sell a 600$ PS5 Handheld too.

Someone in the comments was mentioning the Lenovo Legion Go, as an example of "battery life". 1.5 hours is a laughable battery time. Imagine a PlayStation portable console that plays the PS5 games natively, it will last 30 minutes, with luck. People tend to forget, that games on the Switch, actually have been optimized to take advantage of the console's capabilities, including, battery life. Hence why the usual playtime with games with high graphical fidelity, goes between 2.5 hours, to 3.5 or maybe 4 hours, depending the game. A lot of games can be played for 6-8 hours on the Switch.

@Pipulitoch Leaving the handheld market was actually a very wise decision, it was just no longer a sustainable market and they just couldn't pull what Nintendo did with the Switch.

@Gs69 If PS VITA were as big as Switch, and used SD cards it would still be a great handheld today.

It should never have been shipped with a small screen and small buttons, on top of two missing shoulder buttons.

As for the PS Vita OS, still a joy to use in 2024 as it's so optimized and polished.

I'm surprised Switch isn't as fast and polished as a VITA to use.
Perhaps Switch 2 can be on par with VITA there.

The Tegra X1 inside Switch were designed for Android TV to stream video at 4K/60 and run 4K movies locally back in year 2014.
This is the reason why Switch have a slower OS as the chip wasn't designed for gaming handheld's.
In fact Switch doesn't even have more RAM than the 10 year old NVIDIA Shield TV media boxes.

Neat, but I won't believe it until I see it

Not following much the Sony side of things, all I'm gonna says is this.I know this is a rumor at this point and there's probably something I'm missing, but still:

What a waste of resources. Why make that Playstation Portal if you plan to make a separate handheld? Why they didn't make the Portal its own handheld that can work with the PS5 instead?

@Itachi2099 I think Sony could take advantage of the Xbox Series S existence. I imagine a portable PS5 would have similar specs, and therefore studios could use Xbox Series S versions of games as the base for the portable PS5 ones.

@Edu23XWiiU Battery time is mostly irrelevant as there is power almost everywhere including ships, trains, ferries, planes, cars etc.

Legion Go have "Charge and Terminate" like Switch, so the PSU can stay in power 24/7 all year without breaking the battery.

Legion Go have a optional charging feature missing on Switch.
When it reaches 80% charging, the charger changes to PSU mode.
These handheld batteries last a lot longer when they end charging at 80%.
Nintendo never thought of that.

With the Steam Deck OLED existing, they have a pretty hard time. And when it comes out, Steam Deck 2 will likely be out.

Still, millions of people have full digital libraries of PS4 and PS5 games, with crossplay it could still be a decet success. Just buy and enjoy hundreds of games you already own. Like the Portal, where people thought it would be a big failure but its selling actually well. Now imagine that but no internet restrains.

Competition is always good for the consumer in the end. Let's see the two giants battle it out for your hard-earned money!

@The-Chosen-one No chance Sony will bring physical media to a new portable device when they are moving away from it on the console side where there's more flexibility.

It'll probably be a PlayStation Portal again but this time with real hardware and internal storage in there (hopefully ssd). My guess is it'll be similar to a PS5 Digital Edition where you can download and play all your PS4 and PS5 digitally but is also compatible with a disc drive too for those who still wants to play their physical games on the go.

İ have never buyed a PSP before and for sure İ will not buy this one too. About handheld gaming İ have buyed the Gameboy, DS Lite Black and New 2DS XL. That New 2DS XL model is beautiful İ am still in love with it. DS Lite Black model when İ buyed that for the first time that was so beautiful too.

@SalvorHardin PC Gamers are not a niche audience

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