Sony designing standalone portable games console to do battle with Microsoft and Nintendo says report

Sony is working on a portable gaming console that will aim to compete against Nintendo and Microsoft, according to reports. This portable gaming device will allow gamers to play Playstation 5 games irrespective of the location, unlike the PlayStation Portal which is a connected remote play device. However, the standalone device may still be “years away from launch,” leaving plenty of time for Sony to change or abandon the project.

Earlier, Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer said that the development of a portable Xbox gaming device would take a few more years, which now seems similar to Sony. Nintendo is a major player in the handheld gaming market, and its next-gen Switch is expected to be released next year.

Sony’s spokesperson declined to comment regarding its plans.

In recent years portable gaming has evolved dramatically with Valve’s Steam Deck and its newer OLED version making big waves. This encouraged others to step into the market- namely Asus, Lenovo Legion, Logitech, MSI, and many more. The major benefits both Microsoft and Sony have are their wide collection of games in their libraries and the ability to attract more IPs and developers for their platforms- either exclusive or cross-platform – by indie and AAA studios.

Making a portable device to work with the PlayStation 5’s games will take time as it will need suitable hardware and specially optimized firmware. Since this project is still in its initial design phase, it remains a distinct possibility that Sony may change the design goal or abandon it completely.

The State of Portable Gaming- Then Vs. Now

Sony is familiar with the portable gaming market, as it released the original PlayStation Portable, PSP Vita, and PSP GO years ago. According to Bloomberg’s earlier report, the PlayStation Portal was meant to be a standalone device, but the company ended up opting for a remote gaming device with an 8-inch screen that wirelessly streams games from the user’s PlayStation 5 via WiFi.

Irrespective of its success with the PSP in the past, Sony has many competitors now. Sony will also be competing with cloud gaming services that are device agnostic – led by Nvidia with GeForce Now and Microsoft’s Xbox cloud gaming offerings.

There are major benefits to going portable, as it opens its offerings to a wider audience base who may not play games on either PC, cloud, or console. If Sony decides against marketing a new portable, it is going to be the only gaming platform not to enter the handheld gaming market.