Sony Handheld Gaming Console Reportedly Coming for Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch Market Share

[Cpt.Jank]

It looks like Sony is joining Xbox in the development of a standalone handheld gaming console to compete with the likes of the Nintendo Switch and Valve Steam Deck. According to a Bloomberg's insider sources, a Sony gaming handheld is already in development, and would be designed with Sony PlayStation 5 games in mind. Unlike the PlayStation Portal, the future gaming console wouldn't be dependent on game streaming and would, instead, run games locally, meaning it would likely need significantly more powerful hardware than the Portal has. This would be Sony's first true foray into the portable gaming console market since the likes of the PS Vita, which is largely considered to be a commercial disappointment.

Sony isn't the first of the console giants looking into creating its own gaming handheld after Nintendo's Switch. Obviously, Valve, traditionally more of a software company, already has the immensely popular Steam Deck, but we also recently reported that Microsoft is in the early stages of developing its own handheld gaming console. Details on the future Sony gaming handheld are scant, and there has been no official word from Sony about the console. That said, it wouldn't be surprising to see it equipped with an AMD APU, similar to the likes of the Steam Deck and the PS5, since Sony already has history and a commercial relationship with AMD hardware.



The rise of the gaming handheld has had some unexpected side effects, like the rapid growth of the indie gaming space and an increased interest in games that can be run on less powerful hardware. It also seems like controller support has also taken more of a prominent role in the PC gaming landscape. Gaming-adjacent software, like the Xbox Game Bar on Windows have also received drastic redesigns and optimizations for touch screens as a result of the increased adoption of smaller-screen gaming hardware.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of Microsoft and Sony's mobile gaming efforts. Since both gaming giants are also game developers or have development subsidiaries, we might see a shift to more efficient or more configurable AAA console games, which would generally be good news for PC ports, which have a bit of a reputation for poor optimization.

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[Daven]

As many will try to disagree, the handheld market includes the Switch, Steam Deck, etc all together. It’s about consumer buying trends. If you buy a Switch, you probably won’t buy a Deck and vice versa. What are you going to carry two identical physical form factors in your backpack?! That’s like carrying both an iPhone and Android for personal use.

Also, any consumer overlap means the products share the same market from both an investors and developers viewpoint. A kid can want BOTH a Deck and a Switch and it’s not universally one or the other. Most parents won’t buy both.

So the content of this article has implications for the entire handheld market where Nvidia has the Switch and most other handhelds are AMD. As a gamer and investor, I am interested in this new gaming form factor and would welcome other’s thoughts who use any handheld including the Switch and whether or not you enjoy it.

 

[sepheronx]

I don't see the point of these really. Sounds like they are chasing after what nintendo's success was with switch but Sony and Xbox doesn't really offer anything that would warrant such a device. All their games can be played on a steam deck for most part. And if its just another "streaming" device, then that doubles my point.

 

[Scrizz]

As many will try to disagree, the handheld market includes the Switch, Steam Deck, etc all together. It’s about consumer buying trends. If you buy a Switch, you probably won’t buy a Deck and vice versa. What are you going to carry two identical physical form factors in your backpack?!

I had both, and most people I know use the Switch at home.
The games aren't the same and I'd say they target different audiences.
The SD is more for the tinkering type. The Switch is for people who want something that just works.
They both legally have different games. The switch is to play with friends; the SD is to play alone.

 

[sLowEnd]

Sony will need a compelling library to entice people into buying this. They've had a problem with a lack of exclusive IPs that people are interested in. Nintendo has Mario, Zelda, Pokemon...etc.

In past generations Sony did well with series like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Crash Bandicoot, Gran Turismo, Ratchet and Clank, SOCOM, Metal Gear...etc. but those are all some combination of no longer exclusive and/or not what they used to be.

 

[Craptacular]

I don't see the point of these really. Sounds like they are chasing after what nintendo's success was with switch but Sony and Xbox doesn't really offer anything that would warrant such a device. All their games can be played on a steam deck for most part. And if its just another "streaming" device, then that doubles my point.

For Sony, the Japanese market, if you look at the weekly game sales 19 out of the top 20 games sold are for the Nintendo Switch. If Sony wants to be relevant in software sales they are going to have to come out with a handheld.

 

[Raiden85]

And knowing Sony, it wouldn't surprise me if they decided to use a stupidly overpriced proprietary memory card format again because they love shooting themselves in the foot.

If everyone else, including Nintendo, can use cheap SD cards, then so can Sony.

 

[Hyderz]

Gaming handheld so hot right now

On a separate note but handheld wise, this is amazeballs

 

[mrnagant]

With rumors coming out that AMD is going "mobile" would be interesting if Sony is the driving force here and AMD will have ARM w/ RDNA.

 

[TechLurker]

I don't see the point of these really. Sounds like they are chasing after what nintendo's success was with switch but Sony and Xbox doesn't really offer anything that would warrant such a device. All their games can be played on a steam deck for most part. And if its just another "streaming" device, then that doubles my point.

If Sony wanted to chase Nintendo's Switch success, they would have made a portable sooner.

This is entirely aimed at blunting Xbox's own reported foray into portable gaming and seeing the long-term success of handhelds like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally, plus the unexpected popularity of the PS Portal. Sony still has a massive catalog of legacy PS1-PS3 era games it can quickly port over (or rather, continue to port over, given they've been bringing old PS1 and PS2 games over to PS5 with a built-in emulator layer), whereas Xbox would need to start porting over the legacy catalog of games that they now own the rights to, such as Jet Force Gemini.

Given some degree of commonality with the PS5 and with PC, a "PSP2" could allow for gaming at lower res and bringing back the old hybrid gaming concept they started in the PS3/PSVita/PS4 days where some games were cross-playable between the Vita one of the consoles, allowing players to save and pause at home, then hop onto the Vita and continue from there. In the modern day, maybe allowing for 2-way between PS5 and PSP2, or even 3-way between PS5, PSP2, and PC, assuming said PC games do have a PSN account linked to said game (and would also explain Sony's heavy-handed demands for a PSN link to Sony-sponsored games). I'd assume most games would be PS5/PSP2-ready, and shared between the two (like how some PSVita/PS4 games had copies for both consoles), but players would have to own a separate copy of the PC version to maximize continuity of play.

Basically like how some Steam games can be continued between both Steam Deck and PC, provided cloud-saving is enabled. But possibly more advanced, given that Sony patented the ability to basically near-seamlessly pick up from where one left off, or even share said game with another user or device to allow someone else to play the game for you. If tweaked to allow yourself to effectively pick up from where you paused on another device, it could allow for the truly seamless continuity of gaming that they tried years earlier, before the tech was mature enough to handle it.

This would be Sony's first true foray into the portable gaming console market since the likes of the PS Vita, which is largely considered to be a commercial disappointment.

That's due to Vita being more expensive than the Nintendo equivalent, and the lack of games for Vita compared to PSP or even the PS3/PS4. However, the hardware itself has remained pretty highly rated, including its early OLED, and has seen something of an odd resurgence being repurposed via homebrew OS making it capable of playing plenty of emulated PS1 and PS2 games, to say nothing of emulating other, non-PS games.

The rise of the gaming handheld has had some unexpected side effects, like the rapid growth of the indie gaming space and an increased interest in games that can be run on less powerful hardware.

Given that Sony was on record about shifting to be a bit more agile in gaming again, I'd hope they'd return to fostering more support of indie devs and games like they did in their PS2-early PS4 days, when they released a bunch of budget and high-end games and just basically drowned the PS2 market with everything from the no-budget movie tie-ins to then legacy AAA games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider, and later on PS3 a number of digital-only budget games alongside some heavy hitters.

 

[watzupken]

Sony and Microsoft’s success here is probably going to be limited. Nintendo does not target the same gaming audience, so unless Sony decides to release games that are similar in nature to Nintendo, ie, family and party games, it is not likely to gain the same success. Between say a Sony handheld console and something like a Steam Deck/ ROG Ally X, I would go for the latter because I am not tied to any ecosystem, and don’t have to worry about compatibility down the road. Games on both platforms are exclusive anyway.

 

[dondonper]

The next step after making PC games portable with the Steam Deck is the portability of PC VR games. Ultimately, this will likely be achieved with standalone glasses or goggles. However, as an intermediate stage, it could involve adding a handheld unit to accommodate the computer hardware that cannot yet fit entirely within the glasses or goggles. Just as increasingly powerful mobile devices are encroaching on the realm of PCs, miniaturized PCs are advancing into the mobile space.

 

[Vayra86]

The consoles are losing ground to the PC, and it was bound to happen, because platforms sell on content. The PC has always sold on content - it just has the largest catalog of games, the best compatibility, and is always current.

The console makers have made and continue to make capital errors of judgment. Microsoft still thinks it can capture the market by buying up content creators and content itself, forgetting that every franchise has gone or is going stale rather quickly these days, and the few survivors are set in stone (like CoD) and can be played anywhere anyway, so that's no reason at all to buy console X or Y.

Sony used to understand content is king, and I think they still lead the charge on content that you'd rather have a Playstation for, but since I can just connect a dualshock to my PC and Sony is happy to port their stuff over to it, why would I now? To play the three system exclusives a few years earlier? Myeahhh forget it guys.

And now they bring us handhelds with the same ecosystem lock in? Dudes, wake the fuck up, this is diametrically opposed to the strategy of bringing more content outside your ecosystem?! Why would this work? Or is the idea now to just poop out anything you can, throwing shit at the wall until something sticks?! I don't get it. Explain the madness, as well as the broken strategy of releasing updated 'betterer' console versions... are they purposefully trying to eliminate a console's unique selling points now?

All the consoles really have left is plug and play. And even that... if you buy the correct PC, its also plug and play. Install OS, install drivers, install your preferred launchers and go...
And now we have a Steam Deck that manages to make a PC feel much more like a plug and play console, too - but can still do more.

Pray tell, how is Sony going to sell us a handheld now. The only road they have left is retro gaming on the olde Playstation legacy library. So they want to sell you old shit once more, stuff you can just grab a ROM for and emulate on Deck for free. Lmfao. Why would it work now when it hasn't before?

 

[Hyderz]

The consoles are losing ground to the PC, and it was bound to happen, because platforms sell on content. The PC has always sold on content - it just has the largest catalog of games, the best compatibility, and is always current.

The console makers have made and continue to make capital errors of judgment. Microsoft still thinks it can capture the market by buying up content creators and content itself, forgetting that every franchise has gone or is going stale rather quickly these days, and the few survivors are set in stone (like CoD) and can be played anywhere anyway, so that's no reason at all to buy console X or Y.

Sony used to understand content is king, and I think they still lead the charge on content that you'd rather have a Playstation for, but since I can just connect a dualshock to my PC and Sony is happy to port their stuff over to it, why would I now? To play the three system exclusives a few years earlier? Myeahhh forget it guys.

And now they bring us handhelds with the same ecosystem lock in? Dudes, wake the fuck up, this is diametrically opposed to the strategy of bringing more content outside your ecosystem?! Why would this work? Or is the idea now to just poop out anything you can, throwing shit at the wall until something sticks?! I don't get it. Explain the madness, as well as the broken strategy of releasing updated 'betterer' console versions... are they purposefully trying to eliminate a console's unique selling points now?

All the consoles really have left is plug and play. And even that... if you buy the correct PC, its also plug and play. Install OS, install drivers, install your preferred launchers and go...
And now we have a Steam Deck that manages to make a PC feel much more like a plug and play console, too - but can still do more.

Pray tell, how is Sony going to sell us a handheld now. The only road they have left is retro gaming on the olde Playstation legacy library. So they want to sell you old shit once more, stuff you can just grab a ROM for and emulate on Deck for free. Lmfao.

modern desktop with current os has made it more simpler than ever to build a pc and get it up and running...
in the 90s and 2000s it was a different story...

 

[Vayra86]

modern desktop with current os has made it more simpler than ever to build a pc and get it up and running...
in the 90s and 2000s it was a different story...

Yeah and even in the 2000s, the PSP didn't quite last...

 

[Hyderz]

Yeah and even in the 2000s, the PSP didn't quite last...

i wanted to like the psp but it was too bulky and the games framerate was bad...
nintendo ds on the other hand.... was better which i bought

 

[Chomiq]

Knowing Sony it will cost $1000 and run everything at max 30 fps.

Gaming handheld so hot right now

On a separate note but handheld wise, this is amazeballs

I feel sorry for him, nobody told him how to pronounce his own name correctly.

 

[Ruru]

Yeah and even in the 2000s, the PSP didn't quite last...

PSP was maybe even too ahead of its time to be honest.

 

[Vayra86]

PSP was maybe even too ahead of its time to be honest.

Possibly, but I think its more a case of what happened to the PS3 as well. It was always primarily a console, but Sony positioned it, like the PSP, as multimedia systems. And yes in that aspect it was ahead of its time, because we were still slapping physical media in there... but that whole UMD business was never going to work for movies, its like a whole separate market with discs that only work on a tiny screen on one device. When all things are data and not carried by physical media, that's when this approach works... but now everyone can do it, so its not a selling point

 

[Kraust]

As many will try to disagree, the handheld market includes the Switch, Steam Deck, etc all together. It’s about consumer buying trends. If you buy a Switch, you probably won’t buy a Deck and vice versa. What are you going to carry two identical physical form factors in your backpack?! That’s like carrying both an iPhone and Android for personal use.

Also, any consumer overlap means the products share the same market from both an investors and developers viewpoint. A kid can want BOTH a Deck and a Switch and it’s not universally one or the other. Most parents won’t buy both.

So the content of this article has implications for the entire handheld market where Nvidia has the Switch and most other handhelds are AMD. As a gamer and investor, I am interested in this new gaming form factor and would welcome other’s thoughts who use any handheld including the Switch and whether or not you enjoy it.

I don't think this is necessarily the case. Back in the day I owned a DS and 2 PSPs and had very blue collar working class parents. There are definitely pros and cons to each of them, especially if you have friends (thinking in the child mindset there) that like different sets of games.

I've largely grown out of handheld gaming, but recently had an interest in it again, but a Switch (or my Phone) doesn't really meet either of these needs and I'd feel guilty just to buy a Deck here when I can just play those games on my PC. A competitor in this space might be interesting, although I don't know if I'd trust either Sony or Microsoft (in reality Xbox) here.

 

[TechLurker]

The consoles are losing ground to the PC, and it was bound to happen, because platforms sell on content. The PC has always sold on content - it just has the largest catalog of games, the best compatibility, and is always current.

And now they bring us handhelds with the same ecosystem lock in? Dudes, wake the fuck up, this is diametrically opposed to the strategy of bringing more content outside your ecosystem?! Why would this work? Or is the idea now to just poop out anything you can, throwing shit at the wall until something sticks?! I don't get it. Explain the madness, as well as the broken strategy of releasing updated 'betterer' console versions... are they purposefully trying to eliminate a console's unique selling points now?

All the consoles really have left is plug and play. And even that... if you buy the correct PC, its also plug and play. Install OS, install drivers, install your preferred launchers and go...
And now we have a Steam Deck that manages to make a PC feel much more like a plug and play console, too - but can still do more.

Pray tell, how is Sony going to sell us a handheld now. The only road they have left is retro gaming on the olde Playstation legacy library. So they want to sell you old shit once more, stuff you can just grab a ROM for and emulate on Deck for free. Lmfao. Why would it work now when it hasn't before?

The reason consoles sell well even now is simple; you buy them, plug them in, download game/insert CD, then play. That they can also double as multimedia centers is a bonus. And given that games just work on consoles (most of the time) with very little settings tweaking, they're still popular and still selling because of it. And in parts of the world where PCs with similar performance are more expensive either due to tariffs or restrictions, a console is still a cheaper choice.

Unlike most PCs, consoles are loss leaders that get their foot in the door of many homes, and then people buy games for them afterwards. Even the Steam Deck was sold as a loss leader, because it got a Deck into many peoples' hands. And sure, it technically could be used as a portable tablet with the Linux-based GUI, but the average joes and janes won't be using that feature, even if the knew it existed. The fact that "it just works" out of the box is also the same reason that most average joes and janes also don't do things like sailing the high seas for ROMs and Emulators, much less music or movie content. For the tech savvy, we're able to make PCs do basically whatever we want or need it to do to replace a console, but for the majority of the population, just being able to work out of the box is enough, without jumping through hoops or gray zones.

While Xbox doesn't have much to really push their consoles, Sony has an entire ecosystem they can integrate with Playstation, from music to movies and TV series. If they want to start selling PS7s with audiophile-grade tech, and 10.1.2 surround sound capabilities, they could. If they want to bundle in their version of Netflix with all the TV and Movie content they own as part of their PSN+ subscription and turn it into an all-in-1 Superpass to all Sony content, they could. If they want to keep pushing VR and evolve it some more as the tech matures, they could. Sony can afford to keep adding bells and whistles to their consoles because they have a broad reach beyond just gaming, whereas Xbox is entirely reliant on what MS is able to negotiate for.

In the portable space, sure, all that was considered too forward thinking with the Vita and its own early online accessibility via 2G and its advertised ability to being able to watch videos or play music online, but with nowadays tech, most won't bat an eye at having some of that multimedia capability on the go. If Sony chooses to integrate 4G/5G capability on a theoretical PSP2 via an optional SIM card slot again like they did on the Vita, that would give them a major leg up over the competition, none of which (AFAIK) currently have any built-in 4G/5G mobile networking capabilities.

 

[Ferrum Master]

The only thing I took in my last trip to Munich was a Type-C to HDMI cable and a joystick... I hooked my phone to TV and played ZZZ or Genshin, for the better sleep Alien Isolation... it worked flawlessly. Do I need another device when being outside for entertainment? Absolutely no, I can do emulation of that same switch in android if I am petty enough, it works fine.

So... they are late to the party, it will not take off.

 

[NoneRain]

Sony is so dumb they managed to exit the market just to see it grow exponentially, and while seeing that, they still waited long enough to be the last horse in the race. I mean, even Lenovo released a handheld!

 

[evernessince]

So the content of this article has implications for the entire handheld market where Nvidia has the Switch and most other handhelds are AMD. As a gamer and investor, I am interested in this new gaming form factor and would welcome other’s thoughts who use any handheld including the Switch and whether or not you enjoy it.

Handheld gaming devices have been popular in Japan since the 90s (and in the US with the Gameboy). The difference is that they dropped out of favor in the US for regular fat consoles while they remained popular in Japan.

It's certainly not a new form factor. The only difference now is that you can get pretty good graphics running on one. Of course it won't run RT well but RT is mostly just a money pit anyways. Rasterized graphics are vastly more efficient in terms of visual quality per watt spent.

Sony could have owned this market if they continued making handhelds but they didn't so their loss. They are going to have to offer something to consumers their competitor's don't. If I had a choice between handhelds from Nintendo, Valve, and Sony I'm going to choose Valve every time. It's just too hard to ignore how massive the PC game ecosystem is.

 

[Ruru]

Possibly, but I think its more a case of what happened to the PS3 as well. It was always primarily a console, but Sony positioned it, like the PSP, as multimedia systems. And yes in that aspect it was ahead of its time, because we were still slapping physical media in there... but that whole UMD business was never going to work for movies, its like a whole separate market with discs that only work on a tiny screen on one device. When all things are data and not carried by physical media, that's when this approach works... but now everyone can do it, so its not a selling point

PS3 is actually still an awesome BD player and I prefer that over PS4 for that usage as it's quieter.