Note: This article is based on leaks and rumors, therefore, unless explicitly stated, you should not regard anything hereafter as fact.
With the poor reception of the PlayStation Vita, I think a lot of us just assumed that Sony would be leaving the handheld market for good. A slight glimmer of hope appeared when the PlayStation Portal started to be talked about in the industry, but when it was released, it was merely an accessory to the PS5 and not capable of running software on the device itself.
But now a new rumor has emerged, giving rise to a lot of discussion about whether Sony is in fact, preparing to release a new handheld gaming device in the coming years.
According to the YouTube channel Moore’s Law is Dead, Sony is working on a new handheld gaming system that is using an undisclosed custom AMD APU. The APU could have 18 CUs clocked at 1.8GHz, this would put the handheld’s graphical power not far from what the Xbox Series S is capable of.
“Developers” state that the handheld would be compatible with digital PS4 titles, and would be able to play select PS5 games on a case-by-case basis depending on developers patching in compatibility for the handheld.
Obviously, the handheld wouldn’t be running games at 4k, and likely PS5 games wouldn’t even run at 1080p, but given modern upscaling technology, we think a game running at 720p and upscaled to 1080p would be just fine on a handheld.
The rumor then ends by saying that it’s possible this next handheld is part of Sony’s PS6 marketing strategy and that this would be a portable console launching alongside the PS6 to offer a portable alternative.
You can check out the full video with this leaked info down below, specifically after 13:30 is the discussion of the “Vita 2” leak.
As you can tell, not much is set in stone here, even the leaker himself states that a lot of this boils down to rumors and speculation that he’s heard. The only thing he 100% can confirm, is that there is a Sony handheld that makes use of an AMD APU in the works and that the PlayStation 6 itself will also use AMD hardware. This isn’t much of a surprise given that both the PS4 and PS5 also made use of AMD APUs.
As for a release date of this supposed handheld, given that it’s “at least 2 years out” and possibly “Part of the PlayStation 6 family”, I would estimate we should expect to see this handheld release around 2027 or 2028.
Ultimately, given the amount of speculation at play here, I think the main takeaway from this news is that Sony is indeed working on a new handheld, and that has to be a good thing, right? Let us know what you think of this surprising news in the comments below!
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