Rumor: New PlayStation Handheld to Use Remote Play With PS5 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 05 April 2023 / 6,336 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment is rumored to be developing a new PlayStation handheld, according to Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson.
The handheld is codenamed Q Lite and rather than being a dedicated gaming device or cloud-streaming device, it will instead use Remote Play with the PlayStation 5.
The Q Lite handheld is reported to use adaptive streaming up to 1080p and 60 frames per second, and require a persistent internet connection.
Early prototypes are said to look similar to the PlayStation 5 DualSense controller, but with an 8-inch touchscreen in the middle. It includes adaptive triggers for haptic feedback, volume buttons, speakers, an audio jack, and more.
The Q Lite handheld is in the quality assurance phase and is scheduled to launch after the rumored PS5 with detachable disc drive and before the rumored PlayStation 5 Pro.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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This rumor is false, it has to be. Sony wouldn't be so dumb as to release a handheld that: 1. Needs constant internet connection. 2. Needs another console to work to begin with.
Assuming it is what they are describing it's not a handheld. It's a peripheral for the PS5.
How many people would genuinely be interested in playing their PS5 (not the cloud, their own PS5) away? You would need to: 1. Leave your PS5 on when you are away, even during long travels. 2. Need to have a decent internet connection at home. 3. Need to have a decent internet connection wherever you are playing. 4. Deal with the inevitable lag (if cloud gaming has lag, this would be tenfold). And this is without counting things such as battery life...
It has a very low sales ceiling. No more than 2 million units I'd imagine. You wouldn't need to leave the ps5 turned on though PS4 could be turned on remotely with remote play. It would also not just be for using outside the home but different rooms in your house etc. Similar to how the WiiU gamepad could be used to play at home without the TV, but better range.
Needs a consistent Internet connection, this isn't going to end well.
Price is Key. If they can make this $99-150 this can work.
This would bomb even harder than the Vita did. Someone high up at Sony needs to quash this idea.
I dunno. It is hard for me believe this is an accurate report. It just doesn't add up. Either there are some details missing that would significantly change the device I'm picturing here, or this just isn't true.
In order for a remote play only device to sell well, it would have to be super cheap. But, the reason the hardware companies sell accessories is because the accessories are high margin items. That ain't gonna be the case with this device unless it sells for $200 at the very least, and I'm not even sure if can be a high profit sale at that number.
At $200, how many of these can they possibly sell? Not many, I'd think. At $100 it would sell great. But, there is no way for Sony to make money on it at $100.
I don't see a scenario where they make a Remote Play only device that doesn't also stream from their cloud service, they're basicly equivalent on the recieving end. So they might be hoping it can increase PS+ Premium subscribers, but I still agree it would make no sense for them to sell a device that they can't sell dedicated software for at no profit.
Requiring a persistent internet connection for a handheld kinds defeats its purpose... How am I supposed to use it outside? You know, like in commutes, in parks, in places where I'd NEED a handheld to play games.
No kidding. If I'm at home, my Switch is in its dock when I'm using it. I like the Switch because I can take it with me if I want it to and play games natively on it.
So its not a new system its just a handheld streaming device for the PS5. So if I have this right its just an accessory to the PS5 that has to have an internet connection to basically turn your PS5 into a cloud gaming repository and then it streams from the system to allow you to play remotely. Or worse maybe you can only play on the same wifi network so you're limited to just playing handheld at home.
Meh. I mean I guess cool for people who want to spend a ton of money on top of all their normal PS5 expenses in order to have a portable cloud-only experience. I don't see this being that big though. Maybe it'll sell a few million, though I suppose for an expensive accessory that's pretty decent.
I don't think they've even announced the price.
latency would be an issue I think
Would either have to be a Streaming or Remote play device. Any tech that small with PS5 type hardware would cost more than an actual PS5
Remember, internet connection have some issue of its nature :)
Interesting concept. There are plenty of times I play my switch undocked in the same room with the dock because I want to watch TV or something.
So if I could remote play my PS5 to a dedicated handheld it would in essence be the same thing.
For example I'm debating which system to get octopath traveler 2. The full performance of the PS5 + remote play to a handheld is as interesting as docked vs undocked.
I guess, but you're still gonna be paying a lot extra for the feature when you can just do Remote Play from your smartphone.
The Switch comes with the dock already at $350 at the max if you're getting the OLED model. You will have already paid at least $400 if you have the digital PS5 and you'll then add to it for what will be, I'm assuming, $200. For something you can't leave the house with. Unless Sony adds a 5G model that somehow is able to connect to your PS5 at home.
Could also hotspot onto your phone. Something like this is great for when you have lunch at work and you just want to play a few games or if it's slow at work at all. Depends on your job of course but even with my steam deck allowing offline play I hardly use it like that. I still want the feature to play offline but it's not as necessary for me as I once thought.
But this rises the question why anybody would buy another handheld streaming device instead of just adding a foldable game pad accessory to their phone and use the Playstation remote play app.
I don't like using my phone for stuff like that. Drains it so fast. Plus the screen is a lot smaller. The rumor has it at almost double the screen size.
I'd have to look up the foldable game pad accessory though.
I personally hate using my phone to game. I have to many work emails and textmessages coming in. On top of that I get the smallest Iphone they make (SE) so the screen is small. I hate big phones.
Got to get control & button placement right.
The Switch is an awful handheld mostly because the controls are so bad.
Switch has bad analog sticks that don’t give fine control, and placing the face buttons directly above/below an analog stick simply doesn’t work and never will work. Any designer just looking at that Switch Set up knows it’s an immediate design flaw.
Nintendo, deliberately sacrificed good controls on the Switch, just to have a more narrow width console. A bit more width in the Switch, and you could’ve had a typical gamepad set up for the switch face controls.
I recognise this before I even played the switch and having a switch since launch was proven 100% correct.
And most still, after all this time, don’t recognise this design flaw.
