Slick PlayStation Portable concept ahead of Sony's Showcase event

Sony is doing another of those "look at our pretty games, that might be out in a few years" events tomorrow. You can watch the show or catch up here. However they spin it, PlayStation has a massive first-world problem even as it rakes in cash from PS5 with stock issues easing. 

The show will only highlight how desperate Sony is, relying on remakes and reimaginings (and indie devs) to paper over the massive gaps in its AAA schedule and the crippling lack of Japanese first-party titles, having closed Studio Japan. 

Anyway, designers love to have fun with coulda, woulda, shoulda ideas about what Sony could really do if it tried. Among the most impressive is a new set of renders sent to ZoneofTech that show off a fresh PSP concept. 

Now Sony isn't making a third handheld, otherwise it would have leaked, or been previewed (or its execs are all pretty good liars). And if it was, it wouldn't be called the PSP, but other than that - these images look pretty good for a sleek PS5 5G remote play device that could support some backward compatibility...

I'd certainly go for one if it existed, but given the lack of "DRAFT - Do not distribute" watermarks this is clearly just someone playing around. And the attribution line at the bottom doesn't seem to mention (C) PlayStation anywhere.  

The details look cool, apart from the "cupholder" recesses around the edge of the d-pad, which look like a disfigured thumb class-action lawsuit waiting to happen. 

I have one of those cludgy remote play holders that connects a DualSense to an iPhone (or Android) and its a pretty terrible experience. Yet, Sony seems obsessed with only getting games played on big screens, ignoring our ever-more portable world, especially post-lockdown. 

Anyway, always nice to dream what could have been... and reminds me of some of other cool concepts that suspiciously turn up from time to time.