Sony Is Paying Close Attention To Handheld Market Following PS Portal's Surprise Success

It certainly is an interesting experience sitting anywhere in the house and loading up PlayStation 5 game, without being next to Sony's console. This is what Sony's PlayStation Portal has allowed owners of the console to do, and it has been surprisingly successful. Due to this surprise success, it appears Sony is now perking up its ears towards the handheld market with increased intereset. 

It is no surprise that Sony always has a foot in the handheld market, since historically it has produced devices such as the PlayStation Portable or PSP. Perhaps following in the footsteps of Nintendo, a company that has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success with handheld devices of its own such a the Switch. 


As an owner of a PlayStation Portal, I can attest to its excellent build quality, and it is a good overall gaming experience with the screen. There are issues, however, and it is not an ideal portable devices for many reasons. The reliance on an accompanying PS5 console is the first issue, making it accessible to only current owners. Secondly, the games are streamed via Wi-Fi to the device, and that can be hit or miss depending on your connection due to latency. 

There are no exclusive titles made for the PS Portal, since it cannot run games on its own. This dependence on the PS5 console is both a blessing and a curse, but there may be a future remedy for this. An entirely new handheld console in the spirit of past Sony attempts could take the design and other elements of the PS Portal and turn it into an independent system. 

A standalone portable handheld, with its own set of exclusive games and design, could certainly prove successful given the strong game franchises available for Sony. Second only to the intellectual property on the Nintendo Switch side, Sony has plenty of exclusive titles to make it attractive. 

Sony is no stranger to trying out-of-the-box experiences, such as shown by the PlayStation VR 2. A handheld device that could combine console streaming with its own native game library could be a good idea. Together with the excellent ergonomics and physical design of the handheld, it could be a strong competitor in the field. 

The current PlayStation Portal is a good device overall, and has been made better recently with software updates that allow it to be used beyond the home when away. 

This speculation is made more solid by Tom Henderson, a known source of information for PlayStation tidbits on X. He feels that Sony is paying close attention to the handheld market given how well the PS Portal is doing. This could lead to an independent handheld console that is not reliant on the PS5 in the future, if Sony believes that the market warrants the increased effort.