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Rumours are rife of a potential PlayStation handheld that is purportedly in the works over at Sony – but may leave fans hoping for a follow-up to the PlayStation Vita feeling underwhelmed.
Reports heated up this week, following a claims that new Sony hardware was in the works, and that said hardware may even be handheld. However, dreams that it’d be a full fledged console were doused by industry insider Jeff Grubb who tweeted to temper those expectations.
“I see the reports about a potential Vita 2, and I would definitely scope down those expectations,” he tweeted. “I’ve only ever heard about a cloud streaming handheld.”
However – this was then elaborated on by the original source of the rumour, with Tom Henderson’s Insider Gaming claiming that specifically, the console wouldn’t be a general cloud gaming machine, but would instead utilise the PlayStation 5’s Remote Play features.
According to them, the machine is codenamed the Q-Lite, and would reportedly support adaptive streaming up to 1080p and 60FPS. It’d also support the PlayStation 5 exclusive features like haptic feedback as well as the mod cons you’d expect – headphone jack et al.
However, the Q-Lite also apparently will always require an internet connection to function, so playing on a long distance journey could prove an issue. The use of the Remote Play feature would also mean a PlayStation 5 is required, a lot like the PS VR2.
Of course, we have to take this rumour with a pinch of salt, as there’s been no confirmation from PlayStation at the time of writing. These rumours have also been trucking alongside ongoing whispers that PlayStation may be working on a hardware refresh for the PlayStation 5 that could include a PS5 Slim or even a PlayStation 6.
The last handheld PlayStation console was, of course, the PlayStation Vita in 2011. It was a full-blown console, complete with its own game catalogue that included spin-offs of Uncharted, God of War and plenty more. While Cloud Gaming is a relatively big deal these days, it’s struggled to get a foothold in the market – with even Google closing down Stadia earlier this year.
Could a handheld be the next addition to our list of PlayStation console generations in the future? For now, we’ll have to wait and see.
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