Sony’s developing a handheld console to compete with Nintendo

It’s been a tumultuous year for Sony: its gaming division had one of the worst video game releases ever, with high-budget shooter “Concord” selling fewer than 25,000 copies; the Spidey-adjacent Marvel movie “Madame Web,” and other titles from its film division, bombed at the box office; and it oversaw multiple rounds of layoffs… all pointing to the entertainment giant needing a big commercial win in 2025.

Now, according to reporting from Bloomberg, it seems that Sony plans to get back in the game by making a handheld console to rival Nintendo’s smash-hit mobile device, the Switch. While Sony has forayed into the handheld-gaming space before with the PlayStation Portal, released last year, as well as the now discontinued PS Vita (2012) and PlayStation Portable (2005), what will supposedly separate the new device from its predecessors is allowing PS5 games to be played without an active Wi-Fi connection.

Even so, the console is in very early stages of development — likely years away from an official launch, and there’s a chance Sony could pull the plug altogether on bringing the device to market. However, with Sony’s last blockbuster video game console, the PS5, being released four years ago this month, the company needs to score another success if it’s to hike up its slumping margins: unit sales of the gadget were just 3.8 million in the most recent quarter, down 54% from its peak in Q3 FY23 (though still seeing ~1.5 million fewer units sold than the PS4’s sales peak in FY16).

Left to their own devices

Nintendo isn’t Sony’s only competition in the space, with Microsoft also rumored to be working on a portable version of an Xbox. Indeed, as gamers await the long-anticipated Switch 2, with the release date tipped to be March 2025 at present, developers are rushing to cash in on the significant demand for playing games anywhere — as mobile gaming on smartphones has boomed in recent years, despite some of the weirdest and worst ads on the internet.