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[sncvsrtoip]

The idea is that the portable will play the same games as the main console.

same as ps5 ? so we have now xbox series s problem that it will impact games development for stronger console

 

[Kabelly]

Small handhelds were outcompeted by phones. As such, handheld type games had no reason to exist any longer.

I get what you're saying but as I mentioned, games that could easily be played on a "pure handheld" still exist. Now we have higher production values, better resolution and better performance for these smaller games. What would a new Nintendo "pure handheld" do over a Switch lite. Plus they're not just gimped versions of their home console counterparts. Mario Kart 8 is a Wii U game, a home console game, but they were able to make it run better and look better on the Switch and it plays great in both modes.

 

[Sebastian1295]

We already have Devs complaining about the series s holding then back. Imagine owning a ps6 and having it kneecapped by a portal ps.

This scale narrative only popped up when people were down playing the impact the series s would have.

The hardware isn't what's holding devs back, it's there own incompetence that's holding them back from making games with good performance and graphics.

 

[Guesclin]

Ok boomer.

The glorified remote play PSP proves there is a market

 

[jm89]

same as ps5 ? so we have now xbox series s problem that it will impact games development for stronger console

Why would it though?

If sony plays it like steamdeck then this won't be an issue.

And i'm not buying this whole "oh they won't have the people for it"

when there own studios and nixxes are getting stuff steramdeck verified.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

same as ps5 ? so we have now xbox series s problem that it will impact games development for stronger console

All of the games are going to be PS5 based anyway. If the PS Portable is powerful enough that it can run all PS5 games with little or no effort, that would be good enough.

Almost have to assume that the PS6 will be what the PS5 Pro should have been.

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

The hardware isn't what's holding devs back, it's there own incompetence that's holding them back from making games with good performance and graphics.

Yeah larian of all people were incompetent and just couldn't figure the series s out /s

 

[Sebastian1295]

Yeah larian of all people were incompetent and just couldn't figure the series s out /s

Look at the ps5 pro right now and how devs are screwing up with that now. You can make the hardware stronger, faster, and more efficient but if the devs using the hardware are incompetent than it won't matter a lick. The series s is not that strong i agree, but there's also alot of incompetent devs nowadays that aren't efficiently using the hardware they're developing for and that goes for all platforms.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Interesting. I like the thought process here, but I wonder why the Playstation Portal seems so popular? Could not the Xbox or Sony handheld reach some level of success, even if they will never compete with Switch 2 or even Steamdeck?

 

[hououinkyouma00]

Yeah larian of all people were incompetent and just couldn't figure the series s out /s

What makes Larian different? Why is it not possible for it to be them? I'm just curious because I see Larian put on a pedestal all the time without ever having made a big graphically intensive game before.

 

[Zacfoldor]

It is true that Sony and MS had had enough trouble managing their regular consoles this cycle. PSVR2 has been a clusterfuck.

Portal is good but kinda a side loading thing with no real need for "support" so I'm wondering if investment beyond a newer portal type product might be a mistake.

 

[Deerock71]

Honest question: do we have any concrete numbers on the portal, other than,"it's selling well"?

 

[Sooner]

Nobody wants to make dedicated handhelds anymore, including the players. Supporting them with exclusive/dedicated content is just not feasible these days. It's all about making a single game that works on everything. If the screen is not tiny like on the PS portal, I find that pretty much everything translates well to a handheld experience.

The Portal's screen is tiny? What? How big do you want the handheld to be?

The Portal screen is already bigger than most handhelds including the SteamDeck and Switch OLED.

 

[grvg]

This thread is an xbox

 

[mayham2199]

It makes sense to me. None of this stuff is really for me since my playtime when I'm not at home is limited to almost 0 which is something I quickly realized after getting into handhelds.

 

[midnightAI]

Regarding PlayStation

This whole 'portable PS5' is nonsense in my opinion. I think it will be powerful enough to natively play PS4/PS4 Pro games and then, same as Portal, will be able to stream games from the PS5 and PS6.

They wont need to make handheld specific games, it will just play everything you throw at it (PlayStation version of games) either native or streamed (either direct from the console or cloud)

As for Microsoft?

I have absolutely no idea, probably just a Steam Deck like handheld PC with an XBox interface that plays PC versions of the games.

 

[GymWolf]

And i can't describe how much i fucking hate the idea of wasting even a single dev on portable games instead of working on home console games, so...you have my sword buddy.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

Regarding PlayStation

This whole 'portable PS5' is nonsense in my opinion. I think it will be powerful enough to natively play PS4/PS4 Pro games and then, same as Portal, will be able to stream games from the PS5 and PS6.

Portable PS5 is doable. It just won't be cheap. That's what the Portal is for.

 

[buenoblue]

I kinda felt the same, u til I picked up a ROG ally on Black Friday. This thing is legit. Plays All games and looks and plays great. But the best thing is I can just continue said games on my desktop with cloud saves. It's bloody amazing

 

[SweetTooth]

What makes a handheld game different from a non-handheld game? What are the design considerations?

Handheld: italian plumber that rescues a princess.

Non handheld: trash cinamatic adult games

Spoiler: Spoiler

Sarcasm of course

 

[bender]

Nobody wants to make dedicated handhelds anymore, including the players.

I want to make a dedicated handheld. Here is the startup sound:

 

[mckmas8808]

Weird post.
The Steam deck has limited market penetration, and the bulk of the games available for it were never meant to be played handheld.

The ‘point’ of the SteamDeck is to play PC games on the go. Relatively higher fidelity games than the usual Nintendo handheld on the go. That’s all there is to it. Nothing holy or divine about that.

Most casual gamers aren’t getting the Deck either. They’re gravitating to the switch. And nobody really cares that it’s the same game available on home flagship consoles. The entire point is portability, not unique handheld experiences. The main uniquely Nintendo gimmick that people use on the Switch is just the detachable joycons. That’s it.

Make a portable PS5 and it’ll easily outsell the Deck

I think EVERYONE here agrees with O Ozriel here that a Portable PS5 will outsell the SteamDeck right?

 

[SHA]

We are still dealing with downscaled resolution, it's inevitable, 720p is the norm on handheld without sacrificing basically everything.

 

[Loomy]

The last time Nintendo released a dedicated handheld console was the 3DS back in 2011. You are aggressively overthinking this.

We already have Devs complaining about the series s holding then back. Imagine owning a ps6 and having it kneecapped by a portal ps.

This scale narrative only popped up when people were down playing the impact the series s would have.

Have you seen/heard any devs complaining about the Steam Deck or the ROG Ally or the Legion Go holding anything back? I bet you haven't.

You meet people where they are. There was a time when not everyone wanted to be tethered to their PCs to play games. Now we live in a time where not everyone wants to be tethered to their TV while playing games anymore.

 

[Loomy]

We are still dealing with downscaled resolution, it's inevitable, 720p is the norm on handheld without sacrificing basically everything.

Between 720p and 1080p is perfect for a handheld right now.

 

[FoxMcChief]

I’m playing Stalker 2 at work on my phone/xbox.

It’s fantastic.

 

[IDKFA]

There will likely be a Switch Lite 2 as well.

I think that's a cert. The Switch Lite has been a success. I have one and use it more than the base Switch. It's just more comfortable to use.

It's probably the best handheld I've ever had.

 

[mckmas8808]

We already have Devs complaining about the series s holding then back. Imagine owning a ps6 and having it kneecapped by a portal ps.

This scale narrative only popped up when people were down playing the impact the series s would have.

I would throw up if Sony made a portal PS and a PS6 at the same time that had to play the same games.

 

[tmlDan]

its not that serious, it gives people another option and way to play that doesn't require internet access.

Why so whiny

 

[mckmas8808]

I kinda felt the same, u til I picked up a ROG ally on Black Friday. This thing is legit. Plays All games and looks and plays great. But the best thing is I can just continue said games on my desktop with cloud saves. It's bloody amazing

Curious.....how much did that ROB Ally cost you?

 

[TropicanaTwista]

Nobody at Sony or Microsoft proper knows how to make dedicated handheld games. Gio Corsi, the former champion of the Vita, went to Nintendo. Speaking of Sony, if they keep chasing service games, then how are you going to play those on the go? Tether your phone? Play on shitty public WiFi?

Ehh I kind of push back on this. MS is still TBD, as they've never tried. I don't have high hopes for them seeing the way they run Xbox overall but who knows, maybe that will be their niche. As for Sony, I feel like they've done a pretty good job with handhelds. Maybe not up to par with Nintendo but still good. The PSP was awesome, the portal is a fantastic accessory as well. I never owned a vita, mainly due to crazy pricing of the memory cards, but that seemed like a good piece of hardware as well.

 

[Skifi28]

The Portal's screen is tiny? What? How big do you want the handheld to be?

The Portal screen is already bigger than most handhelds including the SteamDeck and Switch OLED.

uhm, no.

If the screen is not tiny like on the PS portal

 

[cireza]

Proper handhelds with games designed specifically to be easy to see/read died with the 3DS. Treasure your DS, 3DS, PSP and Vita. Because these are the last consoles to have good games well designed for small screens (Vita had a ton of PC/TV ports though, that are barely readable, so it was the beginning of the end).

Nobody cares about having a decent experience anymore. Video-games are made on engines that waste resources, and then all the cursors are dropped until we reach absurdly low resolutions and framerates, and everything is blurry. Launch the game on whatever potato hardware : it doesn't crash ? job done. On top of this, add some reconstruction that will generate even more shit on screen and call it a day.

No optimization. No hud adjustment. Nothing. Nobody cares. And everybody is happy.

 

[Crayon]

You are correct. Add to that you either have a separate console to support with games or a series s companion holding the main one back.

I know a many don't agree, but the portal makes way, way more sense than a stand lone handheld. Especially now that it can be used without a PS5.

 

[rm082e]

It is a naked attempt to clone the Steam Deck, but what's wrong with that? The Switch led the way, then the Steam Deck proved that idea is desired by people with large digital libraries. PlayStation and Xbox both have people in their user base who want that.

I have a gaming PC and a Steam Deck - it's great. Being able to take games with me and play while I'm staying in a hotel room is wonderful. Gaming laptops have never interested me because they're too expensive and bulky. But a handheld is a great solution for gaming while traveling. I took my Steam Deck and tablet to Florida a few months ago. We had a day where my family was not feeling well, so I hung out on the couch watching movies and playing games. It was great.

 

[Euler007]

Low hanging fruit with a 3450 PS4 and 813 PS5 game library. With a 1080p target and 2025/2026 fab nodes it's a realistic target.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

We already have Devs complaining about the series s holding then back. Imagine owning a ps6 and having it kneecapped by a portal ps.

This scale narrative only popped up when people were down playing the impact the series s would have.

The limitation on the series s was known from the start, memory bandwidth. As long as the mobile devices aren't memory starved, everything should be ok. Will be important to balance performance, heat dissipation and battery management, but otherwise should be fine.

Obviously there's also the assumption that this hardware will not be sold at a loss and literally play the same library of games the main console does. So basically correcting all the errors made in the past and making a product that appeals to a large number of users.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

its not that serious, it gives people another option and way to play that doesn't require internet access.

Why so whiny

The fact it's good when Nintendo does it and lame when other companies do the same with their libraries should have been the clue of where the OP stands

 

[Gamerguy84]

I'm one of the people that feel Sony has their portable in portal. I use this thing every day at some point. It's not tied to my home router either. I've tested it at work using my phone as a hot spot. I have 300/300 cell service and along with connecting to my PS5 at home we have cloud gaming directly in beta.

For $200 I have it, have never bought a game for it, and use it all the time. I can deal with an occasional pixilated screen because of an internet traffic jam, which sorts itself very quickly.

 

[EverydayBeast]

We know hybrid consoles work (switch) but I’d love a traditional game boy or psp.

 

[midnightAI]

Portable PS5 is doable. It just won't be cheap. That's what the Portal is for.

How? Unless you want either a HUGE device to be able to hold the batteries, or, it will have 5 minutes worth of battery life, take your pick.

Richard at DF made no sense either, he speculated that because PSSR can upscale they they could use it to downscale... How on earth would that work, output resolution isn't the issue, it's the sheer power that is required to render the graphics (and everything else) via the GPU and CPU.

So it's not a question of price, it's a question of power draw, a handheld device would require 1/10th the power that the PS5 uses in normal use.

 

[Rodolink]

totally agree. but also some people are so counter intuitive, a friend for example was so excited about the PS5 Pro, only for him playing it through the fckn Portal...
I was a mobile game designer when the first iPhone appeared, had to take into consideration screen size font size colliders so it was easy to tap and drag things, all of this extrapolated from handheld game design like the game boy, nds, psp.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

How? Unless you want either a HUGE device to be able to hold the batteries, or, it will have 5 minutes worth of battery life, take your pick.

- Going Wide and Slow on the GPU. This is power efficient but expensive
- Using N2P. This is power efficient but expensive
- Using LPDDR6(X). Presumably this is much more power efficient than GDDR6.

Now I wouldn't expect Switch like battery life.

 

[CamHostage]

Nobody wants to make dedicated handhelds anymore, including the players. Supporting them with exclusive/dedicated content is just not feasible these days. It's all about making a single game that works on everything.

Yeah, it's a weird thing to hang an argument on since even Nintendo doesn't make games designed for a "handheld experience" anymore. Their last pocket-sized, short-session game was maybe AW1+2 ReBoot Camp, before that Brain Training in 2020? Even on 3DS, the console-style experience had pretty well taken over the library.

Games are just games now.

Also, the indie scene has entirely filled (and eaten up any viability) of the mid-scale and small-scale game that used to differentiate portable games from console games. Console makers don't need to explore the entire range of game genres and scales anymore, they can simply make the games they are good at making and let the rest of the library be there to be enjoyed.

Personally, I did like aspects of when portables had their own flavor and audience (even though the "handheld gaming ghetto" was a real thing,) but those days are gone. The only vestige of a segmented gaming library for a particular form factor existing today is in mobile and VR games, and GAF generally doesn't have much love for either of those ways to play versus "real games".

 

[midnightAI]

- Going Wide and Slow on the GPU. This is power efficient but expensive
- Using N2P. This is power efficient but expensive
- Using LPDDR6(X). Presumably this is much more power efficient than GDDR6.

Now I wouldn't expect Switch like battery life.

But that won't play PS5 games (especially first party, without major changes), which is the whole point of it (apparently).

 

[kevboard]

traditional stationary home consoles are a dying concept. and both Sony and Microsoft know that.

soon, consoles will have no real advantage over a PC, be it a windows PC or a Steam OS PC (Valve just added new verification lables for Steam OS hardware, so Steam OS PCs are coming)

 

[Pop]

Imma be real honest with you.

If/when PS adds the ability to stream your game library on the Portal, I'm getting rid of my PS5.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

But that won't play PS5 games (especially first party, without major changes), which is the whole point of it (apparently).

If it is fast enough it should be fine. Developers can't assume that the clock speed is fixed on the PS5.

 

[ExtendEmbraceExtinguish]

Would be funny if Xbox portable is just a Windows device with access to Xbox library/ series s graphics with the added msft upscaler. Or a windows os that does the same designed for other devices.

I think the ultimate troll would be to have a way to run games better than competing stores on the same device.

 

[Griffon]

Unless they can magically run PS5 games natively (never gonna happen, they can't even enhance games for the pro without purpose-made patches), any portable Playstation is doomed to the same fate as the Vita, with poor support dwindling into nothing at all.