Sony has been dominating the game console market in recent years, but it seems to be punching the air: Microsoft has begun to turn to all platforms to promote its own services, while Nintendo has no intention of arguing and has not launched a new device in many years.
Even so, as Xbox was rumored to be launching a new handheld device, Sony quickly followed up and said that it would also launch a new handheld device. Admittedly, this is more likely to see the success of SteamDeck, or the "hot sales" of PS Portal, which made Sony want to try the water again after the failure of PSV.
However, according to analysts from Shumaosha.com, Sony’s long window period may cause the new console to suffer a bit, because Sony currently lacks experience in low-end console hardware like Microsoft’s Xbox Series S.
According to data agency, Sony's handheld console is likely to be unable to run PS5 games smoothly, and the Xbox handheld console may perform better, because Xbox Series S can now run games at different resolutions of 720p/1080p according to the hardware requirements of the game, which is already similar to a handheld device.
Therefore, game developers already need to consider the weaker-performance SeriesS console for optimization when developing Xbox versions of games. On the other hand, PS5 and PS5Pro do not have these concerns. This is naturally its benefit. Many games can be launched on PS5 for the first time, but are forced to be postponed due to SeriesS requirements, such as "Baldur's Gate 3"; but at the same time, this may also lead to Microsoft having a slight advantage in the future handheld device market.
Analysts said that if Sony launches a new handheld console, it may encounter many performance problems like PSVR2. He further said that like the PS5 Pro, the handheld device may receive a special game version through updates after release, making it a new low-end PS5, but it will not have complete backward compatibility.
What Shumaoshe didn’t mention is that Sony was the one that really had experience in developing handheld consoles in the past. Even if PSV encounters difficulties, it is still caused by Sony's old problems: limited interfaces, restrictions on the use of its own storage media, and poor launch and subsequent game releases.
I also miss some games developed specifically for handheld consoles, such as "Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker" and "Third Birthday" on PSP, "Uncharted: Golden Abyss" on PSV, and "Gravity Fantasy" which was originally released on PSV.
In addition, it remains to be seen whether handheld consoles are really such a big market. The success of Valve's SteamDeck has not really been reflected in all handheld PC devices. Devices from other manufacturers have not reached the same level as SteamDeck, let alone on par with the PSP or Switch.