Microsoft Predicts Sub-$300 MSRP for Sony's Project Q Handheld

[T0@st]

Stephen Totilo, a writer for the gaming section of Axios, has uncovered an intriguing tidbit from Microsoft's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) court documents. He injected some humor into this finding and posted on Twitter: "Microsoft's lawyers with some Project Q hype." According to the legal team's footnotes: "Sony is also anticipated to release a handheld version of PlayStation 5 later this year for under $300." The handheld gaming device was first revealed during late May's PlayStation Showcase, but teaser material only revealed a small number of details.

Sony indicated that Project Q will feature a 1920 x 1080 display (with a max. 60 Hz refresh) and in-built WiFi connectivity that allows the user to stream games from a host PlayStation 5 system. Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson has gathered information from company sources since that showcase, and proposed that the device can only sustain 3-4 hour play times. He also proposed that Sony should seriously consider launching the device at a low price of $200, given the handheld's alleged limited function as Remote Play-only. It is odd that Microsoft's legal representatives think that Project Q will act as a highly portable PlayStation 5 console, but they likely did not pay attention to the limited details available to them.



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[evernessince]

Seems that every company now wants a hand held device now that they've seen the success of the Switch and Steam Deck.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Seems that every company now wants a hand held device now that they've seen the success of the Switch and Steam Deck.

The fact that you can't leave the house with this thing and it likely will still be expensive makes me feel it really won't catch on. Also there will still be a latency hit over wifi regardless of how decent your network speed is.

 

[Arkz]

The fact that you can't leave the house with this thing and it likely will still be expensive makes me feel it really won't catch on. Also there will still be a latency hit over wifi regardless of how decent your network speed is.

It will connect direct to the console a la Wii U. So latency will be even lower. Issue is it seems pointless unless it's dirt cheap, and it won't be dirt cheap.

 

[ReallyBigMistake]

Sony wants to turn the PS5 into a Wii U
ahahhahaha

 

[Vayra86]

Microsoft firing on all cylinders now to get that grasp on gaming once and for all. You can just see it. They want that Activision deal, badly.

...and it won't last. This is the company that is GFWL, the company that bundled a Kinect with your Xbox and the company that said always online is a normal thing in the world. This is the company that brought you Metro UI, it brought you UWP 'for gaming too, without any proper support that you might need in games'. This is the company of the Xbox Game Bar that is insta delete on W10. Its the company that is now running an Xbox brand based on bought out and frankensteined *ahem Remastered sorry* franchises while releasing the odd good title alongside whatever else they do, and primarily focuses on being a publisher with an on-demand gaming service. Cloud gaming at a massive latency hit 'for the gamers'. Its like presenting a car show exclusively with bicycles, for the motorheads.

This is the company that I trust for anything that is outside of gaming; if its about business, personal data, etc. Sure. MS. Benefit of the doubt is with you especially amongst competition like Google and Meta. Why? The interests align. Enterprise happy? We happy. And this means: secure data, privacy protected, and within the boundaries of the law.

Its also the company I won't ever give a dime when it comes to gaming itself. Its track record is absolutely disastrous. And it goes irrespective of whatever they say anywhere. Xbox is still anything but a stable console. Every gen is different, not just in its whole experience, but in its business model. Gaming doesn't need this hypercapitalist 'try whatever to earn cash' approach. Gaming is about games - new games mind; gaming is about letting creative talent do what they do best and turn it into a product we can play. Everything else, is bullshit.

 

[P4-630]

Steam Deck is the better option.

 

[HisDivineOrder]

Can't wait till they own a large enough chunk of the gaming industry that when they decide to go Cloud Only the gaming industry will be hobbled by fact that they did it. I still recall them trying to do the same thing to PC gaming because the 360 happened to catch fire.

 

[Vayra86]

Can't wait till they own a large enough chunk of the gaming industry that when they decide to go Cloud Only the gaming industry will be hobbled by fact that they did it. I still recall them trying to do the same thing to PC gaming because the 360 happened to catch fire.

We heard today they want Win 11 in the cloud eventually

So yep.

Avoiding this disaster is entirely up to us. That's me, that's you, that's everyone.
It starts with deleting your Xbox Cloud account, and perhaps rolling back to Win10 overnight.

Do it, before you're waking up to find shit has effectuated.

 

[Denver]

This is the stupidest product ever created, they could just release a smartphone streaming service and a special joystick instead of embarrassing themselves by releasing this...

 

[P4-630]

This is the stupidest product ever created, they could just release a smartphone streaming service and a special joystick instead of embarrassing themselves by releasing this...

But then you'll get people complaining when they have a lower end phone which is not capable for optimal gaming experience....

 

[Denver]

But then you'll get people complaining when they have a lower end phone which is not capable for optimal gaming experience....

These days, even devices under $300 have decent SOCs and 6-8GB of ram. I don't think that would be a problem, honestly.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Not sure I even need this...

Btw I do game using Steam Link A LOT. I stream to my Samsung SM-T876B, it has a nice 11ich 120Hz OLED, Snapdragon 865 meaning it can reach very good wifi speed due to premium chipset combo. I can take it in any room and mood and do what I wish, giving me the performance of my main PC. Because of the OLED screen it sometimes even pushes me to use it more in certain scenarios, especially for casual games.

I have absolutely no problems gaming on it games that are meant for controller usage etc... ofc not FPS or driving. But the latency ain't a problem for most of people IMHO. You have to had a good router tho.

 

[Nordic]

This will probably outsell the Deck and Ally. I am really happy to be seeing non-Nintendo handhelds getting some mainstream attention.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

These days, even devices under $300 have decent SOCs and 6-8GB of ram. I don't think that would be a problem, honestly.

What? IDK what magic space time you live in, but I want in.

Most sub $300 devices are either rocking snapdragon 4 gen 1s, SOMETIMES a snapdragon 600, or a mediatek something-or-other. 3GB of RAM is standard, 4GB maybe if you have a nice model. 6-8GB of RAM is reserved for the $500-700 price bracket.

 

[Denver]

What? IDK what magic space time you live in, but I want in.

Most sub $300 devices are either rocking snapdragon 4 gen 1s, SOMETIMES a snapdragon 600, or a mediatek something-or-other. 3GB of RAM is standard, 4GB maybe if you have a nice model. 6-8GB of RAM is reserved for the $500-700 price bracket.

Huh? Devices with that SOC you mentioned are rare. Btw there are many options with 6GB-8GB + SD695 or better, bellow $300, to list a few:

Moto G82, Moto G71 - SD 695((2x2.2 GHz Kryo 660 Gold & 6x1.7 GHz Kryo 660 Silver) - 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM: Motorola Moto G82 - Full phone specifications (gsmarena.com)
Moto G73, MT 930 (2x2.2 GHz Cortex-A78 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) - 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM: Motorola Moto G73 - Full phone specifications (gsmarena.com)
OnePlus Nord CE3 Lite: SD 695 - 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM: OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite - Full phone specifications (gsmarena.com)
Galaxy A54 - Exynos 1380 (5 nm) Octa-core (4x2.4 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 6GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM - Samsung Galaxy A54 - Full phone specifications (gsmarena.com)

 

[vmarv]

Seems that every company now wants a hand held device now that they've seen the success of the Switch and Steam Deck.

What? Never heard of Sony PSP and PS Vita?

A console that can be used only to stream the PS5 games can appeal only a small number of customers.
On the other hand, if this baby will have a micro-SD slot and a powerful hardware, this could be hacked and transformed in something more powerful than the current Switch.

 

[trsttte]

DOA. Every dollar that was spent developing this was wasted and it would have been much better spent trying to bribe make a deal with Nintendo to have PS remote play on the switch. Besides every smartphone from the last couple years which are obviously much better as they can do a lot more things, that's the competition, the weak and outdated nintendo switch and funnily enough, they won't even beat that.

I'd be really interested to know what was the train of though here, I imagine it as something along the lines of "let's try and make something worst and more expensive than everything else on the market and see how many people buy it just because it's playstation".

Like, it's a cheap ips display, not that great battery from current reports and only works over wifi connected to your PS5! They didn't even had the vision to promote their own streaming solution for fuck sake!!!

 

[Kn0xxPT]

so, under $300..that means $290 ? DOA ...
this thing would be nice to have on $150 to $180 range ...more than that is just stupid its a Screen with a controller attached and a battery ( more or less ).

 

[MarsM4N]

This is the stupidest product ever created, they could just release a smartphone streaming service and a special joystick instead of embarrassing themselves by releasing this...

Right? My first thought was it has to be a april fools joke. A portable device should run on it's own. Just release a next gen Sony PSP.
This is basically just a cheap money grab. They are just too lazy because adjusting the games to the lower performance handhelds would require extra development resources.

Also why is Microsoft so obsessed with Sony lately?

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Huh? Devices with that SOC you mentioned are rare. Btw there are many options with 6GB-8GB + SD695 or better, bellow $300, to list a few:

Moto G82, Moto G71 - SD 695((2x2.2 GHz Kryo 660 Gold & 6x1.7 GHz Kryo 660 Silver) - 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM: Motorola Moto G82 - Full phone specifications (gsmarena.com)

Not available in America

Moto G73, MT 930 (2x2.2 GHz Cortex-A78 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) - 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM: Motorola Moto G73 - Full phone specifications (gsmarena.com)

Not available in America

OnePlus Nord CE3 Lite: SD 695 - 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM: OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite - Full phone specifications (gsmarena.com)

Not available in America

Galaxy A54 - Exynos 1380 (5 nm) Octa-core (4x2.4 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 6GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM - Samsung Galaxy A54 - Full phone specifications (gsmarena.com)

The Galazy A54 IS for sale in america, starting at.....$449.

Buy the Samsung Galaxy A54 | Price & Deals | Samsung US

Buy the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G affordable smartphone.

www.samsung.com

so where are these sub $300 snapdragon 8GB phones at?

 

[Denver]

Not available in America

Not available in America

Not available in America

The Galazy A54 IS for sale in america, starting at.....$449.

Buy the Samsung Galaxy A54 | Price & Deals | Samsung US

Buy the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G affordable smartphone.

www.samsung.com

so where are these sub $300 snapdragon 8GB phones at?

Wow... I thought that smartphones and electronics were better available and priced in the US than in other countries. Recently I even saw the Galaxy S20FE for just over $300, it's been a long time since cheap devices with more than 6Gb of ram became commonplace, even the A14 5G has versions with 6-8GB: https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a14_5g-12004.php

Also, It seems that there are several cheap devices with more than 6gb on amazon-us

Amazon.com

 

[TechLurker]

Also why is Microsoft so obsessed with Sony lately?

Some of the reports from the whole brouhaha has the general claim that Microsoft feels threatened by Sony's dominance in multiple markets (automotive, industrial, movies, audio, visual, gaming, etc), and wants to try and corner them in at least the gaming market, as Sony has enough financial power to soft buy out various games from under Microsoft (which admittedly Sony has done, via timed exclusives; whether it's just a few DLC bits or an entire game). Microsoft's counter is to just straight-up buy out as many game devs as they can and hope to both choke Sony out of the gaming market and try to become the dominant controller of the gaming market; via both PC and just straight-up owning the studios. It also would make it easier for them to force the move to the cloud that they've been wanting to do since the X1 days.

As for Sony's own device, I feel it's DoA unless it turns out to secretly be a PS Vita successor; except it runs on PS5 level hardware but at lower graphical resolution for both heat and battery management. Basically like the RoG Ally and Steam Deck, just with Sony's special SoC that improved loading time on the PS5 added.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Wow... I thought that smartphones and electronics were better available and priced in the US than in other countries. Recently I even saw the Galaxy S20FE for just over $300, it's been a long time since cheap devices with more than 6Gb of ram became commonplace, even the A14 5G has versions with 6-8GB: https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a14_5g-12004.php

Also, It seems that there are several cheap devices with more than 6gb on amazon-us

Amazon.com

The last 5 years we've been screwed on decent budget devices. Corona really obliterated the market, but before then your only real option was Motorola. Those cheap samsungs have a horrid reputation.

Due to the way american bands work, we dpont really get the cheaper phones from canada or europe, those "global" phones dont have all the bands, and the carriers (mainly ATT and verizon) are utter dicks when it comes to VoLTE on BYOD devices that they dont specifically support.

 

[vmarv]

As for Sony's own device, I feel it's DoA unless it turns out to secretly be a PS Vita successor; except it runs on PS5 level hardware but at lower graphical resolution for both heat and battery management. Basically like the RoG Ally and Steam Deck, just with Sony's special SoC that improved loading time on the PS5 added.

The PS Vita can stream PS3 and PS4 games, but its hardware can't emulate those console.
The new portable console will have an APU inside, I suppose, and if that is powerful enough to run PS3 games, then the players don't need anything more.
A chipset that powerful could run Dreamcast, Switch, Gamecube, PS2 games and everything below that level, if the modding comunity can hack it. Just think at the games library available for all those consoles and you get the idea. The big 8" monitor would do the rest, providing a great gameplay experience with all kind of games, old and new.
I don't lose my hopes for this, also because right now we read only rumors: there is nothing set in stone.
Remote play can't sell like a regular portable console, I doubt that Sony will limit the device to that.
The PSP sold 80+ millions units. The PS Vita way less, but because Sony didn't believe in its potential. The Switch sold more than a100 millions units. So the market is worth billions, counting all the stuff that is sold with these consoles. Hard to think that Sony won't come back with a proper device: why limit themselves?