Sony's Upgraded PlayStation Portal Adds Internal Storage With A Catch

Sony’s PlayStation Portal, which launched back in 2023, initially served as a way for players to stream their games from their PlayStation 5 but has slowly evolved through software updates to become a more versatile handheld. Its next chapter includes a new model that’s packed with more internal storage, which could open the door to even more possibilities.

Sony announced the upcoming model on its Japanese blog, saying that this variant has additional internal storage “with future features in mind.” However, the company didn’t provide any hints as to what features players can look forward to. As part of this shift, the device will be referred to as the PlayStation Portal Player, removing the “Remote” part of its name.


While Sony doesn’t officially list how much storage the device comes with, well known hacker Andy “theflow” Nguyen hacked the handheld and shared that they found 6GB of free space available. With as expensive as memory is these days it’ll be interesting to see just how much more memory this new model will get, and if it’s enough to make it a worthwhile pickup for those who want to use it for emulating older games.

Potential performance is a bit of a question mark, too, because Nguyen didn’t disclose much more than a picture of the Portal running Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories on the PPSSPP emulator. It ran natively, but they didn’t divulge any kind of benchmarks or their personal experience while playing with it.

The PlayStation Portal Player will release in Japan on December 10 for 39,980 Yen, which is the same price as the current model. It will only be available with Japanese language support and will require a Japanese PSN account. It's worth noting that Nintendo does the same with the Switch 2, as it offers the handheld for a lower price there, so it doesn’t mean the new model won’t be headed for other regions in the future.