• Reports from anonymous sources within Sony told Bloomberg a portable PlayStation console is in development.
• The development is still in the early stages and it could be years before we see a product if it isn’t scrapped before then.
• The portable console would allow gamers to take their PlayStation 5 games on the move.

We sure do miss the PlayStation Portable and later the PlayStation Vita of the early 2000s and 2010s. It boggles the mind that Sony hasn’t revisited the format in well over a decade and no, this thing doesn’t count.

Now, there is hope for the travelling PlayStation gamer from Bloomberg. The publication reports that Sony is in the early stages of developing a portable console that would allow gamers to play their PlayStation 5 games on the move.

This is, as Bloomberg suggests, a salvo fired in the direction of Nintendo which has admittedly dominated the handheld market since 2017’s Switch, but has also rested on its laurels since then. It would also be a move that would further secure Sony’s foothold in the war against Microsoft’s Xbox. While Microsoft is also working on a handheld console, its Xbox Cloud game streaming product is a way to turn any tablet or smartphone into a handheld console of sorts.

There is, however, some bad news.

The folks who told Bloomberg this handheld console was in development also said that the device is years away from a launch and Sony could just decided to scrap the project altogether. And that is a possibility if we’re honest.

Reasonably one would need something more akin to a handheld PC than a Switch to bring PlayStation 5 games to life on the go. Those little PCs tend to retail for around the same price as a full fat PlayStation 5 so we’re not convinced that a handheld Sony console would be competitive in the pricing department. Of course, anything could happen, deals could be made but realistically, we don’t see the value here unless this portable console is incredibly affordable.

Then again, a portable console may appeal to a younger generation who has cut their teeth in mobile gaming and that could expose more gamers to PlayStation’s buffet of stellar titles further strengthening Sony’s bottom line. It also gives Sony a way into the massive mobile gaming market which Microsoft already has thanks to its Activision Blizzard acquisition.

Between now and the potential release of this product though, Nintendo will be releasing a successor to the Switch and given the lifespan of the last model, we suspect the new model is going to be a force to be reckoned with.

Despite the odds being against this, we continue to live in hope for a modern PSP.