UPDATE: Who would have believed it, this rumour turned out to be true and we are getting a DualSense Remote Player out of Sony sometime this year.
Original piece: Since the formal end of the Vita, I've consistently port(able) begged Sony for a remote player for the PS5. A proper one, not some creaky little scrap of plastic you bolt a phone too. But that's as far as I thought it would go after Sony screwed up portable gaming so spectacularly, there seemed no way back - and given Nintendo's Switch dominance.
Now a few things are coming together:
They even came up with a natty little render of their own for what apparently is internally called the Q Lite...
The Q-Lite is likely about as much as we can expect from Sony. I mean I'd love another dedicated, powerful handheld, but:
- Third-party developers aren't going to risk coding for another niche platform or bespoke features like rear-touch.
- First-party devs lack the resources to pull teams from their PS5 projects.
- Sony won't put up an Android or Steam-like store to "dilute their experience."
- The knives are still out from the industry after the Vita fiasco (despite its extended run as an indie/VN/JRPG hit-machine).
Therefore, allowing us to enjoy PS5 games anywhere, presumably with a 5G and WiFi 6 stack plus HD screen, and the guts of a DualSense is about as good as things will get.
For clarity, I'm sure something like that exists in a Sony lab somewhere, next to a Vita 4000 and the melted slag of a dozen mobile chipsets. But, getting a global release? That might be a bit hopeful even though today's Sony's finances are in better shape than the corporate corpse of the Vita era.
While I had hoped for Vita/PSP backward compatibility, Sony's move to bolster the PS+ classics roster suggests that's all we'll be getting. And fair enough, they need to cater to the mass audience, not portable-loving laggards.
As for an actual product name, the "PS5 Go" stands out, but the maniacs in Sony's marketing team are a strange breed! Who knows, "PS5 RPG (remote play gizmo)" could happen, or the "PS5 Vitesse", but I'm guessing it'll be something very vanilla, if it ever hits the streets.
Anyway, since there is still next to no hope for a new portable from Sony, if this project does get a gree light, I'll be pleasantly surprised.
News will drop in the summer if at all according to the report, so don't get too excited.
