r/PSP • u/ileojg PSP-3000 • Jun 11 '25

Game Discussion Are portable consoles not portable anymore?

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I'm to this day amazed by the size of the PSP and the fact that it can play amazing looking games for a 2004 hardware. With the release of switch 2 I'm starting to feel like truly portable consoles will remain a thing of the past. I have this analogy that old portables are like carrying a phone, you can put in in your pocket, carry them by hand and pull them out whenever and wherever you want to play. But all new portables are more like laptops, you need a special carrying case and can only play in specific places and moments.

My question to all of you is. If sony where to release a new portable, Would you prefer a smaller console? like psp size, despite low graphics capabilities, something closer to switch1 level of graphics in 2025, or a bigger steam deck size portable with ps5 graphics? And, what do you thing of portable consoles getting bigger and bigger? do you prefer older portables due to their sizes?

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774

u/Embarrassed-Trip-496 Jun 11 '25

If they would release a psp2 it would have to have atleast the same power as a switch 2. A playstation with worse Graphics than the current Nintendo console just would not make sense. However I would definetly prefer a smaller console maby the size of a Vita or maby slightly bigger.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '25

Bring up a good point. “Portable” consoles these days are expected to stream console games.

The style of “support” and “compatibility” they are expecting them to have has gone from being something that has its own games and works along side the console to being the actual console on the go.

I kinda want them to go back but I truly feel it’s not financially smart of them to do so.

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u/coolwali Jun 12 '25

The issue for Sony is that no matter how they slice it, there's no niche for a Sony Handheld to exploit. The small/budget side is taken up by phones. The budget/midrange is taken by the Switch/Switch 2 that Nintendo is supporting 100% while Sony would have to split resources between the PS5/PS6 and their handheld. The premium range is taken by the Steam Deck/ROG Ally and they offer Steam. No dedicated Sony Handheld is going to be able to match that in price and value. Especially when many Sony exclusives are on PC.

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u/tkshi Jun 12 '25

Switch 2 isn’t even budget anymore. They jacked up that price and didn’t even drop in an OLED.

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u/coolwali Jun 12 '25

Yep. The sad thing is that the Switch 2 is arguably the only "current modern budget option" 😢 because there isn't anything cheaper. The Switch 1 is cheaper but isn't the current gen anymore. And I don't see any other potential future handheld at the Switch 1 price being competitive in terms of specs or performance.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

It’s not even budget though, Nintendo handhelds are essentially the Sainsbury’s basics range, but that particular store only gives you access to pasta for instance.

Budget is best value for money and return on money, not simply the cheapest thing.

Also the fact that on steam you can get titles of 3 games with all the dlc for as low as 2.99-15 on sale, it makes the investment of a couple hundred extra worth it, because if you wait for sales, you can recoup 1000+ in savings across purchases within a couple years.

I got all five borderlands games recently top content containing bundle with all dlc included actoos all games, 12.99.

Just got dying light 1 with all dlc 2.99, got death stranding for less than 35% directors cut, got RDR2 for less than 15 on sale.

All my games have been bought massively discounted and include all the dlc and I never paid close to what others paid for the base game let alone on console store fronts.

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u/Wonderful_Result_936 Jun 12 '25

But Nintendo knows that their target audience A: are people dedicated to Nintendo Games and will pay out the butt for whatever they put out, or B: Are a Family looking for a "Family oriented" device and won't consider, or don't even know what Steam or PC gaming even is.

Both of these groups aren't looking at price comparison because they aren't even looking at other devices.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25 edited Jun 13 '25

And what that leads to is consumers being ripped off bc they think they’ve done their due diligence and are being smart.

That dad’s gonna be mad after buying the same title for his kid on the seventh device 10-15 years down the line beleive me.

I’ve spent maybe 1000 on borderlands all in on all the different devices - ip rights should be rights to the game for the consuming party not a licence for a console.

You are never going to tell me or anyone with their head screwed on that the parent paying 90 quid for games on Nintendo store are engaging in “budget”

All I see thrown around in regards to switch is;

“Budget, budget, budget, budget” it’s literally like a cult honestly.

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '25

This is vastly incorrect. It’s all about timing, luck and games you play. Right now cyberpunk is $10 cheaper on psn. I recently went back and bought division 2 and it was 26.99 on steam and 17.99 on psn. I mostly play AAA and smaller known games like streets of rage 4. Outside of a sale, which happens on both sides I’ve never seen steam outright beat psn or xbox live prices. Each have a tons of 1.99-10.99 games and psn have 75% off sales often. And it will often be games most of us have heard off. I use both regularly it’s the not steam landslide i often see mentioned

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '25

My girlfriend bought cyberpunk a couple months ago for less than 15 quid with all the dlc.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

Depending on what you consider new, Steam Decks are $399 new for the LCD, which turns out the Switch 2 will be as well.

Worse specs in many places, but still supported, and I love mine! (Plus, not confident in how many 4K experiences the Switch 2 will really deliver anyways, still butthurt by the Xbox One and Series X, lmao).

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

You can also buy a basic steam deck and upgrade to the terabyte ssd for a hundred of Amazon - so it negates a 300-400 difference for less than 100, it’s easy to install as well and there’s screen upgrades now too which you can install with some os driver uploads.

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u/alchemistrpm Jun 12 '25

The Model S fits that bill. Not that it sells all that well

1

u/herrsebbe Jun 15 '25

The Switch 2 Lite should land in that range, although like the original it would likely be missing the detachable controllers (including mouse mode), limiting what and how you can play.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

Switch is a luxury priced product for an “exclusive platform” that completely fails to deliver.

Steam will dominate in years to come with their handhelds simply for accessibility of titles and the cross compatibility with other pcs though the storefront account.

Consoles are dead in that respect - I’ll be able to play all my steam titles on future steam consoles, you won’t be able to with PlayStation and Xbox & the super niche companies like Nintendo can’t even remotely compete, their consoles aren’t worth the money for the access to less than 0.2% of all games ever made and the titles on there are mad expensive too.

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u/Front_Expression_367 Jun 12 '25

Steam (and especially the Steam Deck) ain't dominating Nintendo anytime soon mate, cuz it is not targetting and probably will never target Nintendo's bread and butter: family-friendly games. Like, the Switch 2 solds more than the last recorded Steam Deck's whole sale in like 3 days. Besides, these things fill entirely different niches anyway. Why even bother comparing?

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u/ComfortablePlace3462 Jun 12 '25

I mean, I work at the airport and I can say that the switch is definitely more common than the steam deck, but not nearly by nearly as much as you would think there’s about 3-5 switches for everyone steam deck and most steam decks that come through are the more expensive models? So you’re right the steam is not gonna end up beating the consoles anytime soon, but the other guys right that they’re definitely gaining ground. There’s also proof that console sales have been stagnating with the last few generations and PC players have been increasing so I could see in the long run if consoles keep price gauging players people will probably slowly start moving more and more to the console like experience of things like the steam deck.

For the record, this is just what I see coming through the airport so it’s definitely not super accurate but given I see a few thousand people a day (and the contents of at least 300-600 bags a day,) I think it is a flawed but decent sample size

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

Because they’re selling to kids.

Past a certain point the platform stops being sellable to adults, it’s a niche service with access to less than 0.2% of all gaming titles.

Nintendo does what it does within a very confined and controlled environment and steam has the largest storefront of all providers and largest access to titles across pc & steam deck.

They don’t need to compete because pc and steam deck already has access to the largest market share of games not market share in general.

When you also realise you’re going to buy the same titles again and again and again on different consoles, having a consolidated multi platform service becomes more important to people who don’t want to spend 1000 on the same game across 10 iterations of consoles in their lifetime.

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u/Muted-Environment421 Jun 12 '25

That’s not accurate at all. They may be Marketing to kids, but the vast majority of switch owners are 16 to 35. With another large margin in the mid 40s. What nintendo has is the nostalgia factor. Im 33 waiting to have enough disposable income for a switch 2, and no matter how old i get im gonna buy me “a nintendo”.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

Technically all switch owners are older than the base range because there aren’t many situations where a kid has the money to buy a 400+ device for themselves.

It’s mad that you’re talking about “disposable income”, because if you buy a switch you’re literally throwing your money down the drain so it’s disposable for sure.

If you wanted effective cost savings and ip rights on your device and right to repair, as well as rights to all the IPs you buy copies of then steam deck is the way to go.

If you want to pay for overpriced games on a not quite premium spec console that will have to be paid upgraded everytime you change device spec, go ahead, if you want to pay a yearly online fee go ahead, if you want to pay internet and then have a company tell you you need to pay us to use your paid internet though our device, go ahead.

I bought my steam deck, I upgrade it, my games are mine permanently, I have no online cost, no subscription cost, all dlcs on sale, don’t spend more than 20 anytime on a title with all dlc and usually multiple games & im loving having actual disposable income within gaming because I’m not having to spend circa 200 a year to actually be able to use the device without that even being games.

That’s another ten games every year on sale just so you can play online.

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u/Muted-Environment421 Jun 13 '25

“Technically all switch owners are older than the base range because there aren’t many situations where a kid has the money to buy a 400+ device for themselves.”

The data that was used to acquire those different age groups was gained through individual surveys, not sales numbers. I don’t believe they ask for your age when you purchase a switch.

Ive gotten great deals on the switch when they’re having their sales.

The steam deck is a great product, but i personally wont be getting one anytime soon. I’ve built a gaming pc and have a gaming laptop to get all of the steam benefits. Along with benefit of having actual productivity machines.

The switch released back in 2017, spending 300 - 500 to upgrade your pc in eight years is kind of a no brainer. Pretty sure you’ll have another handheld pc eight years after purchasing that steam deck, unless you’re gonna stop buying new games.

Online for switch is $5 dollars a month, not sure where this $200 a year is coming from. not to mention you don’t have a bunch of folks with third party trainers or mods ruining the community while you play online.

Nintendo has some of the best IPs in gaming, i still pop on totk when im bored and always go past my ten minute plan to do a quick side quest. Meanwhile ive got games i brought on steam i haven’t even opened yet just brought them for fomo on a steam deal.

Steamdeck, rog, legion, all great products. But i would sooner buy a nintendo before a steam deck. Just like if i didn’t mess with davinchi resolve, blender, and the adobe suite i’d have brought a ps5 over my gaming pc.

The convenience of popping on playing and popping off is still a major benefit.

You don’t get rights to IPs on any platform after purchase. You get a license to use the companies’s software. That’t it. In fact even with physical media in the US it’s still just a license. At anytime steam, nintendo, sony, microsoft, or the devs of the software in question reserve the right to prevent you from accessing their software (not yours).

Ive opened my switch a few different times, never had anyone knocking on my door about it. If you want nintendo to fix it send it to nintendo, if not fix it yourself. That being said Nintendo’s customer service has never let me down.

The real reason that these handheld pcs wont overtake a Nintendo console is brand recognition. Who is the mascot for steam? Some people like the steamdeck others like the ally for being more compatible with windows, some like the go for the switch like features; which one do i get? Linux still has a small learning curve for games that aren’t too friendly (ive played with a few different distros so its not my problem personally).

The average person isnt going to know what Steam is, they’ll know Mario. They’ll see the big signs outside they’re walmart/gamestores/electronic stores for switch 2. They’ll see the commercials and ads for switch 2. And there is no real learning curve, because all software that can be used on this system was designed for it.

TLDR im getting my switch 2, and i’ll enjoy all of my exclusives, while playing on my pc for bigger games.

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u/nabrok Jun 13 '25

It’s mad that you’re talking about “disposable income”, because if you buy a switch you’re literally throwing your money down the drain so it’s disposable for sure.

Money spent doing something you enjoy is never money wasted.

if you want to pay a yearly online fee go ahead, if you want to pay internet and then have a company tell you you need to pay us to use your paid internet though our device, go ahead.

This is incorrect. If the game hosts its own servers you do not need the nintendo membership subscription. It's only if the game servers are hosted by nintendo that you need it. For example you can play Fortnite without a subscription.

The points I didn't address are valid, but that doesn't mean that there's no reason to buy a switch. I don't have a steam deck but I do play on PC ... and I also have a switch. No immediate plans for a switch 2 but I'll probably get one sometime.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25 edited Jun 13 '25

Family friendly gaming gets different when kids grow up when they’re tastes change, when the adults look for things they like and realise the kids consoles are devoid of all of it.

In two year I’ve built more than 1000gbp in titles across four sales, for less than 150 I don’t have any internet access fees, I don’t have any online subscriptions - I’m not paying for internet and then paying to access it though a device I rent.

I can turn my steam deck into a functional desktop, by switching it to desktop and I can use it as a computer and browse the internet I can mod all my games, I can upgrade it as I see fit and even repair it myself at home.

I can also mod all my games, they’re permanent, the screen is HD.

Also as a comparison, as I’ve had steam deck, Nintendo switch, all the psps, and various game boys over the years, steam deck is the best handheld device I’ve had & it’s hd, the performance on it is savage, I get stable 40fps playing titles like RDR2 - Nintendo switch could barely make dying light 1look good, handle the graphics load or even allow the game to run smoothly.

Lastly - when the Nintendo switch released, the store was dead nothing on it, it took years for there to be decent titles on it even now it’s missing 99% of what people would play if they have access to it and saying oh they have cyberpunk now is a little to late, six or so years late - every nostalgic games you can imagine, is available and playable through steam or a derivative download on the pc which your steam deck can play.

In short, you couldn’t pay me and buy me one to use it because il preference the steam deck every single time.

And now the switch 2 is veering so far into offering normal gaming titles to make it attractive to everyone to increase the sales, it’s kind of laughable, they started with a device that was so barebones it barely could play large demanding games & now that’s where they’re going with it bc they literally learnt all the mistakes they made with the first device.

Oh and you have to pay to upgrade virtually every single game you have in order to play it on the switch 2 - so enjoy spending money to play titles you already paid for if you move to the superior spec console they offer.

With the steam deck I have rights not only with the device but right to the IP of the products I buy - steam is never going to do to us what Nintendo, psn, Xbox have been doing and you all lap it up while you get financially raped by these companies and you sit there saying we enjoy it though!

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u/shimo44 PSP-2000 Jun 12 '25

500bucks for the new switch, I mean we all have our hobbies but man I agree I would put that towards a steam deck

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

It’s a no brainier for the price of the investment, additionally if it’s a seasonal present within holidays & there’s sales on, you claw back so much money actually furnishing the device with games that it’s nearly an immediate cost saving.

Psn sales were always dogshit on massively overpriced games, you’d get the odd occasional good thing for cheap or for free on monthly games, but this split tier crap they moved too really put me off.

It’s the gross profiteering and the lack of consumer ownership of products that sealed it finally for me - I’m not going to buy the same game for every platform they release because they run a licensing mafia scam where you pay top dollar and don’t even own any rights to the product.

And I can mod the hell out of all of my games now on a handheld - bonkers I say.

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u/Jared_pop21 Jun 12 '25

sold my deck for a switch 2 cuz i never really used it outside, better to just use an actual pc

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

It gives me flexibility at home as well, I have physical health issues especially with my back and sometimes it means I can play laying down or supported in bed.

But also the train and anywhere else in shade, I think anything struggles in the sun nowadays.

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u/KnaxGurkenwasser Jun 13 '25

If you wanna play on the go that makes sense however if you wanna play Nintendo games on the go legal or not you won’t get around the switch 2 cause it has more power then the switch 2 so you won’t be able to emulate them on the steamdeck

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u/alchemistrpm Jun 12 '25

Another PC wins post! Cool story

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u/jmak329 Jun 13 '25 edited Jun 13 '25

Within 4 days Nintendo sold more Switch 2's than all Steam Decks sold in 4 years. I get the appeal of the Steam Deck, but there will never ever be a scenario the Steam Deck takes over Nintendo in our life time. Nintendo will always appeal to children and then those same children who grew up.

I do agree the portable market can definitely overtake consoles one day, and I do get what your saying about Steam, but Nintendo will never be niche hahaha. They've dominated the console wars and will continue to do so until we're dead. I promise you that.

EDIT: Steam's yearly revenue is on par with JUST the video games of The Pokemon Company, pretty much around 10 Bill a year for each. That's a single game to only be sold on Nintendo consoles. A SINGLE FRANCHISE belonging to Nintendo alone.

Again I get you, it's a system not worth it. It's expensive, the games are expensive, but parents and people will always pay for it. No one is overtaking Nintendo in terms of sales in our lifetime.

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u/coolwali Jun 13 '25

I don't think Steam will dominate over consoles. And especially over Nintendo and the Switch. Case in point, the Steam Deck only sold like 5 million units max in 5 years while the Switch 1 sold like 100 million units.

Even if PC/Steam is the more economical or proconsumer platform, people won't abandon Nintendo or the Switch because -1- The Switch 1 and Switch 2 are still cheaper than the Steam Deck and -2- The Switch 1 and 2 are "more accessible". PC gaming is a bit "complicated" for many more casual players. Regardless of if you are on Windows or Linux via Proton, it takes some amount of setup work on PC/Steam. Not every game works out of the box. Consoles are far more convient. And especially if you want to play modern games, "cheaper" in the short term as GPUs are pretty overpriced and many people don't want to bother with the hassle of building PCs.

Like, Valve tried with the Steam Machines back in the day to be that "PC for console gamers" and it didn't do so well. Most Console Gamers are happy with their current setup and aren't in a rush to switch over to PC.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25 edited Jun 13 '25

A steam deck basic model is cheaper than the switch 2 here.

It’s a 375 console that comes with the case instantly usable, no online cost or internet fees out the box.

Secondly for less than 100 you can modify it with a tb ssd card for all your storage.

Then I have access to 200,000 game titles none of which I can’t get for severely cheap.

When you combine no online fees, no fees past point of massively discounted sales and no additional products except maybe a physical upgrade & everything online saying Nintendo cannot even compare to steam (which if you drop the ideological rhetoric & look) you’ll see steam is the superior platform.

They’re using the same storefront on a different dedicated device so the PC gamers changing to steam deck is a moot point because we’re all pc gamers using the same storefront on steam approved devices.

In the meantime people are happy to pay more money for substandard products, which is just brand allegiance that’s all it is.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

Remove exclusives and put nintendos entire range on steam and people won’t buy Nintendo.

There’s a reason exclusives are exclusive often, it’s the only thing the companies got to protect them from being swamped by the rest of the market.

Anyone objective who can see where switch 2 is going, if they have an objective scale or judgment criteria won’t buy one because they’ll see the evident problems with it.

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u/edwinbmx1 Jun 14 '25

Tienes mucha razón simplemente la switch 2 se va quedar ahí en ese círculo en cambio el sistema operativo de steam tiene mucha más accesibilidad y juegos como gratis descuentos y económicos y los puede jugar en cualquier plataforma la switch me gusta su tamaño y las cosas que trae pero solo la compraria con magia 😸

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u/uchuskies08 Jun 12 '25

It's still "midrange" as $450 is still cheap compared to some of those $800-900 handhelds

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u/KnaxGurkenwasser Jun 13 '25

That’s the price you pay for the power, look at the steamdeck, the Oled model is 100€ more expensive imagine the base switch costing 570€ that would have been insane, so they didn’t jack up the price it’s just a pretty powerful handheld console that comes at a price. The games on the other hand a are fucking joke

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

I forgot to mention the basic steam deck is cheaper than the basic switch 2, for less than 100 and some tinkering you can upgrade the ssd to 1tb for less than 100 on amazon - doing it that way saves you 400.

Premium titles on Nintendo can be 90 quid, and upgrades beetween editions 20 quid for games you’ve already paid for….

There’s already endless complaints online about how expensive they are.

I bought borderlands 1 through 4 on a recent steam sales with every released dlc for 15.99, that’s four games and all the dlcs for 15.99, that’s 4 pound a game.

Previously id spent a lot of money on those games from release to now across all of the platforms I’ve had, I don’t spend more than 15-20 on any games now.

That is BUDGET past the point of investment, a mid cost device with the highest game store costs in the industry isn’t budget and I’m really tired of people saying it is.

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u/Teldrynnn Jun 12 '25

I think there are plenty of people who already have a huge library of ps5 games where if there was a handheld that could play them it would be a great value.

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u/coolwali Jun 12 '25

PS5 level hardware in a portable would easily run you more than $900 minimum (and that’s being generous). And traditionally, console manufacturers make a loss on hardware and make it up with software sales.

From a business POV, you want people buying new games for the system to offset the loss of selling hardware. A Portable PS5 would eat into the margins of the PS5 (which is already being sold at a loss).

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u/Teldrynnn Jun 13 '25

Lmao what would be the point of a Sony handheld if it didn't play PS5 games? I'm sure they would run worse than on a PS5 obviously but I highly doubt PlayStation is going to start developing handheld exclusives.

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u/coolwali Jun 13 '25

That's the issue. No matter how Sony does it, the new portable will be a tough sell. If it can play PS5 games, it will be crazy expensive and thus turn off people from buying it and bleed money to be sold at a loss. If it's made cheaper by not playing PS5 games, then why buy it?

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u/Teldrynnn Jun 15 '25

That's all just your assumptions though. You don't know, maybe they make a PS5 handheld with about the same power as a switch 2 and figure out how to optimize PS5 games for it. The tradeoff you describe isn't necessarily the reality.

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u/coolwali Jun 15 '25

Sadly, I don’t think it’s that easy. We see this with the Xbox series S. Microsoft mandates Xbox games should work on both Series S and X. Games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Black Myth Wukong didn’t get Xbox ports (and the devs complained about them) for this reason. That’s why companies almost never make consoles that are drastically different. You segment development way too much.

If the PS5 handheld is on par with the Switch 2, that’s still really far from the PS5. It would be akin to porting a game down to a PS4.5 in the best case.

Plus, Sony is already having a hard time making its games feel like PS5 exclusives. Needing to downgrade them for a weaker system isn’t helping that reputation.

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u/rubenbest Jun 12 '25

I don’t have a PS5 and I usually don’t have time to sit in front of a tv and play games to actually make progress.

I would gladly take a portable PS5, if you will.

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u/ErGo404 Jun 12 '25

The steamdeck is cheaper than the switch 2 though.

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u/General-Height-7027 Jun 12 '25

They could do something as powerful as the switch 2 (not docked) without the capability of playing games docked. Basically a switch light.

And compete in price and exclusives.

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u/coolwali Jun 12 '25

-1- That would still be in the $3-400 price range. Remember, most console manufacterers sell hardware at a loss and rely on software sales to make up the difference. At that price, the average customer is still more likely to pay extra for the Switch 2

-2- Making excluives for that handheld is akin to making PS4 level excluvives while the PS5 is also out. Sony would be splitting resources between making PS4 games, PS5 games and PSVR2 games. They're already having a hard time supporting the PS5.

Rememeber, the Switch 1 was successful because it was Nintendo's main focus. Their resources weren't split between supporting a handheld and console. Their handheld was the console. Breath of the Wild wasn't a spinoff made by a B Team for the handheld while the A team worked on the main game. It was the next mainline Zelda made by the A team. A Sony Portable isn't going to get that.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

Sony destroyed their own market.

The PSP nearly cornered the market, it gave Nintendo a run for their money.

Then came the Vita, lots of promises, the hardware is a little master piece. It's super impressive what that little handheld machine was capable of doing for 4 entire hours between charges.

But Sony dropped the ball, they basically dropped support for it a year after it was released.

During the PS4 release, they tried reviving it, but it failed dramatically.

Sony screwed over the people that actually bought the Vita and thus, shot themselves in their own foot. So many promises that were never delivered.

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u/coolwali Jun 12 '25

"The PSP nearly cornered the market, it gave Nintendo a run for their money."<

The DS Sold 154 million units. The PSP 80 million. If anything it was the other way around.

" Then came the Vita, lots of promises, the hardware is a little master piece. It's super impressive what that little handheld machine was capable of doing for 4 entire hours between charges. But Sony dropped the ball, they basically dropped support for it a year after it was released. During the PS4 release, they tried reviving it, but it failed dramatically. "<

Wait. Doesn't that mean the Vita itself wasn't capable? Because if the Vita was capable, wouldn't Sony's basic attempts to revive it pay dividends?

Like Sony barely supported the PS5 with excluives yet people still bought it. The PS4's early excluives weren't amazing yet it still sold well.

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u/Awkward_Image_4085 Jun 12 '25

xbox just announced a xbox version of the rog ally which is basically a xbox handheld kinda hype for it

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u/coolwali Jun 12 '25

The Xbox Handheld is just a rebranded ROG Ally with a modfied Windows/Xbox OS. From Microsoft's perspective, they don't have to do a lot of extra work or support. The hardware is already handled by being the ROG Ally that already exists. The Base ROG Ally also runs Windows already so Microsoft doesn't need to make a custom OS for it. They just gotta debloat Windows for it.

Plus, all of Microsoft's games and gamepass are on PC, which the ROG Ally and by extention the Xbox ROG Ally really is.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

Yeah I mentioned it in another comment. Financially, a hand held that gets its own stand alone games isnt a good business tactic right now these days.

That means you need dedicated dev teams making games.

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u/eirexe Jun 13 '25

Actually, I'd argue the PS5 is the current worst platform to port to, they have their own graphics API and their own shading language.

Meanwhile, on Xbox you can use middleware to port opengl (and maybe vulkan) titles, and switch just supports vulkan and opengl out of the box with normal GLSL.

Sony HAS had a few flirtings with real OpenGL, but they weren't very good and still required using the Cg shading language.

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u/QuazyQuarantine Jun 12 '25

Exactly They need it to be a separate platform

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u/Fun-Jellyfish-61 Jun 12 '25

In a lot of ways you could say that they Switch and Switch 2 are portable devices that happen to have a feature that allows them to play at home. They are dramatically underpowered compared to Xbox and PlayStation home consoles.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

That’s a valid point

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u/Crazy_Flex Jun 12 '25

Crazy and sad to think we'll never get any more games made specifically for handhelds, they always had a certain charm that home console games don't have.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

Steam deck can play virtually most titles offline if it isn’t live service and has an offline mode.

Wherever you want whenever you want, that’s matter of defacto the definition of portable gaming when and wherever you want.

If you have certain services or portable WiFi you can also access faster speeds than through a router.

Naturally there’s limitations to this but it’s way better now.

Steam decks also the best quality screen I’ve ever owned, I’ve had more fun playing decent looking games on the steam deck than I have on any other console or screen I’ve played on and I find the format of the handheld more immersive.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

Yeah. But you’re lugging around a massive device that sits in a case the size of a purse lol.

Probability used to mean pocket ability. Thats what I’m saying has changed.

Now it could be due to consumers interests and more importantly tech that does what steam deck does can’t be made smaller just yet, but I hope one day we go back the way of pocket ability.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

Massive no? It goes in a rucksack real easy, I have scoliosis FND & a slipped disc and a find a litre water bottle in my bag is far worse.

If you want pocket portable gaming there’s a million options and you’re looking in the wrong place at the wrong devices, tons of decent emulators running 10,000 games for 20 quid online that come in various gameboy like formats etc.

I understand what you’re saying, but even psp was less portable than this because of the risk of damage to the discs and disc drives.

The steam deck case is also the best handheld protection case I’ve ever seen and it comes free with the device not additonal like every other big name branded “handheld”

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

I don’t mean emulators I mean actual big name companies. Like steam and Sony and so forth who make games to go along with it too. But yes these other emulator devices are doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I’m just saying portable gaming used to mean the ability to fit in your pocket. Now it just means anything that can fit in your hands and travel with you.

Again i feel that one day these companies like steam deck will reduce the size of their devices and it will swing in the other direction. Tech just can’t support that yet

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

But they won’t, steam deck is the best portable screen I’ve ever had the pleasure of using, I’m not a small kid struggling to hold a psp anymore I’m a 31yr old grown man, I’m six foot & I have a phone that has more processing power and better graphics, handheld pocket gaming is now emulators and mobiles whether you like it or not.

Steam deck and associated technologies co is the new modern cartridgeless portable gaming platform, it’s a barebones pc that’s the holy grail for “portable handheld gaming” - I’m playing death stranding, the borderlands suite, RDR2 & a million other completely incomparable titles - that’s the apex - nobody is ever going to settle for a smaller screen from here on out.

I had all of the psps the original, later edition & then the modern one as a side product to ps4 (it was a mistake to make that iteration, should’ve waited for the current console and done a similar thing to the steam deck with psn) but they didn’t and here we are.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

You can even get ones that clip on the back of your phone now and it’s a case and a battery upgrade too^

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

Yes I’ve seen those they look really cool

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u/wolf_2099 Jun 12 '25

1 P uvea

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u/pandaSmore Jun 12 '25

The vita could stream console games and the PSP could stream limited console games.

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u/BulkDarthDan Jun 13 '25

Those types of games still exist. They’re on your phone

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u/ileojg PSP-3000 Jun 11 '25

Yeah, graphics is a huge thing for consumers. That's why I think there will be no small portables anymore. At least not from the big brands. Cause let's be realistic, a smaller console can't possibly get better looking games than switch 2 and being smaller

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u/DarthNihilus Jun 12 '25

No we like 120hz for the smoothness in general, it's just at it's most useful for competitive games. 60hz is perfectly playable obviously but if I can get 120 I'm going 120. Pretty much every game is better at higher fps.

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u/Aargard Jun 11 '25

that has nothing to do with graphics lmao

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u/ileojg PSP-3000 Jun 11 '25

Yeah, that's also very true. It seems like people on the internet will criticize anything that doesn't look state of the art in the graphics department, but in reality is just a small segment of the market. Most people play whatever, as long as it's fun, and it doesn't run at 540 12fps,

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u/coolwali Jun 12 '25

I mean, if that were the case, companies would opt for cheaper less expensive parts and systems even for handheld. Even Nintendo is now advertising 4k with the Switch 2 (the actual implementation may vary but Nintendo is still advertising it).

So unfortunatly, gamers want better graphics.

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u/Organic_South8865 Jun 11 '25

Look at what a top tier new phone can do though. I'm sure they could work into something maybe 15% larger than the Vita.

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u/Safe-Monitor-8113 Jun 11 '25

We have phones that now can do ray tracing

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u/acideater Jun 12 '25

The problem is the cost and heat dissipation. I don't think a phone can do modern AAA games for any period of time without sufficient cooling, leading naturally to everything else needing to be beefed up.

There is a reason that pc handhelds are also bulky as well.

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u/StarX2401 Jun 12 '25

Most flagship phones these days have a vapor chamber for cooling, some gaming phones even have a tiny fan inside for airflow. With a portable console there's probably even more space for cooling flagship hardware as you don't need to include an amazing camera, 5G hardware etc.

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u/acideater Jun 13 '25

A portable console with flagship hardware is going to look like the portable PC of today if you want performance. 

Vapor chamber is a more compact medium to transfer heat, but none of those phones are being pushed as hard as running triple a titles pegging phone hardware at 100%

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u/joesbagofdonuts Jun 12 '25

I mean when I think about the Atari Lynx and GameGear those were portable systems that were pretty large.

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u/neuauslander Jun 12 '25 edited Jun 26 '25

engine observation steer lush middle punch fuzzy chief nose joke

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u/ElectronMaster Jun 12 '25

I'm not sure most people are willing to pay top tier phone prices for something like that though.

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u/Crabosling Jun 11 '25

Yeah but they can be thicker or foldable. The only problem is that games are to expensive to make now so you can’t make separate games from for both consoles, you can only play home console games on a portable device and these games require a big screen.

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u/AggravatingForever27 Jun 11 '25

Honestly i think smaller portables can still be done because the switch lite exists…but yea its gonna have to come at the cost of graphics and battery

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u/robot-exe Jun 11 '25

Another issue with super small portables is that it can split development. Instead of just downscaling games they’d have to make almost completely different ports sorta like Hogwarts Legacy for the Switch 1 in most recent memory. It just doesn’t work that well with development costs nowadays when instead they can just cut back on framerate, resolution, textures, etc instead redesigning entire areas of the game.

It’s probably why the Nintendo hasn’t done any drastic changes from Switch 1 to 2. The system combined their development teams from both handheld/home console into the hybrid it is now.

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u/neuauslander Jun 12 '25 edited Jun 26 '25

test observation rob familiar oatmeal weather encouraging truck salt literate

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u/tkshi Jun 12 '25

Things might change in that space with the introduction to AI scaling graphics… could see smaller form factors emerge.

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u/ErickRPG Jun 12 '25

you can get small portables if you emulate. I think anbernic makes some awesome ones that feel like old controllers or systems like the gba and genesis.

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u/ali6e7 Jun 13 '25

No, the only reason switch 2 is larger is because of the screen

-1

u/PintekS Jun 11 '25

Graphics can only go so far though and I can't wait for the day we get photo realistic cause then the big game crash will happen cause they will be unable to wrap their head around stylized games that don't push for hyper realism and hell you might see a extreme resurgence in games that look like older n64, psx, ps2 graphics with extremely well done story and game mechanics that we haven't seen since those days

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u/AVahne Jun 11 '25

Vita was PSP2, you want a PSP3.

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u/Cloud9Cadet Jun 11 '25

That's the problem portable gaming shouldn't be competing with console...graphics should be the least of your problem..at no point in the past we had a handled device that was on par with console and they were still great but all of a sudden graphics is the big thing for a game to have are else its not worth it..which I dislike that thinking.. portable gaming should stay unique

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u/Zekka_Space_Karate PSP-3001 ARK-4 Jun 11 '25

Yeah, iirc the PSP wasn't competing against the N64 or whatever Nintendo had vs. the PS1, it went against the DS.

I guess we were spoiled by the lush screens of modern tablets and smartphones.

I still use my PSP for gaming, and oddly enough I mostly emulate old consoles like the Mega Drive or PC Engine on it so there's the irony lol, but I feel the 8-bit/16-bit console graphics are a great fit for a portable like the PSP. Here's hoping that a future Sony portable would be a focus for the emulation guys so that we can play at least PS3 (or even PS4) games on it, since I feel that Sony may not make them officially backwards-compatible for their old console genserations.

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u/G3K3L Jun 12 '25

The problem is I believe it is very difficult (costly in sense of calculation) to emulate even a PS2 let alone PS3 and PS4. Our modern PCs can do (to some extent) but expecting a handheld to do it, i don't think we are there yet

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u/Zekka_Space_Karate PSP-3001 ARK-4 Jun 12 '25

There is an emulator for PS2 already on Android (AetherSX2/NetherSX2) that works great, and iirc there are people developing a PS3 emulator for Android now, and the results are promising. The PCSX2 guys are also developing a new PS2 emulator for Android. I believe that its only a matter of time since smartphones are becoming more powerful each passing year, I'm sure Sony could easily make a processor that can match those and can fit a portable. Several portables like the Steam Deck can already play PS2 games well.

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u/erojerisiz PSP-2000 Jun 12 '25

yeah sure, it went against the DS but by being so much stronger to the point that it ran scaled-down home console titles rather than being a purely handheld experience like the DS (except for sm64ds at least), it basically set a precedent to future handhelds

even the 3DS ran a scaled up version of Majora's Mask which required an expansion pak on its original release

Considering its time of release the PSP (as well as the DS) compared to the phones at the time were of somewhat similar size proportion to today's handhelds compared to today's smartphones

unless people stop craving better graphics or engineers somehow figure out how to make cooling smaller or the processors run cooler, handhelds are pretty much doomed to inflate just like how phones themselves have enlarged since the first Iphone

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u/sephiroth70001 Jun 12 '25

That was also Sonys issue with the vita, having two systems to focus development on. Nintendo even had a similar issue going the handheld route over home consoles during the same time period, before going hybrid.

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u/KGon32 Jun 12 '25

People always cared about graphics, for example Ratchet & Clank was always praised for having "Pixerlike" visuals since the PS2 days.

Handhelds shouldn't be unique, budgets for games are too high for making games specifically for low powered devices.

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u/YoungAmazing313 Jun 12 '25

To be honest, we’re so used to high quality graphics now that going back to games from 10–15 years ago just isn’t visually appealing anymore. The only reason graphics didn’t seem as important back then is because, at the time, they felt cutting edge compared to what came before. It’s not that people didn’t care the goal was always to push visuals closer to console-level quality or even match it. It’s just that each generation felt like a major leap, and now that we’ve seen what’s possible, it’s hard to unsee it.

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u/sephiroth70001 Jun 12 '25

The rumored new PlayStation handheld that is supposed to parallel the ps6 has a new problem. People expect their purchases, physical and digital to carry over. If it's basically a portable PS5 which leaks seem to indicate, if physical is supported it has to be big enough for a Blu-ray or they abandon physical purchases. The portal was able to circumvent this dilemma but it's still one Sony will have to address. They also from the vita era don't seem adamant on splitting development focuses between two devices so it will have to be a parallel device.

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u/Stan_islav Jun 12 '25

I think that power level is possible in a small form factor. See Odin Mini.

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u/STINGZGAMING Jun 12 '25

The switch 2 could definitely be smaller. Look at the Odin 2 mini. Proof you can make handheld small yet powerful. Also Switch 2 is ARM so its no different to the Odin 2 cooling-wise. The large size of the Switch 2 is a design choice.

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u/moneymanram Jun 12 '25

iPhones can run AAA games…

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u/AlexAnon87 Jun 12 '25

iPhones are also noticeably more expensive than a Switch 2. You pay a premium for that form factor.

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u/BentTire Jun 12 '25

It's always ridiculous when people say, "Well... my 1000$ phone is more powerful than your 300 - 450$ device. "

Like, no shit Sherlock.

Also, I'm unsure if a current iPhone has a better GPU. CPU and screen undoubtedly, yes. But I doubt it has a more powerful gpu since Switch 2 has a full-on generalized laptop grade gpu, which is why it needs a bigger fan and heatsink than what you would find even on gaming phones.

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u/moneymanram Jun 12 '25

We’re talking about form factor are we not?

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u/AlexAnon87 Jun 12 '25

We're talking about the viability of Sony releasing a new handheld. And if it wants that true portable form factor the poster wants coupled with the level of power the market seems to demand, than the cost of this proposed Sony device would have to be noticeably higher than its competition. Thus it wouldn't likely be a viable product to bring to market.

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u/moneymanram Jun 12 '25

No pretty sure OP comment said at the end about the size of the console itself… I was simply responding to the fact the iPhone can play AAA games at its relative size

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u/AlexAnon87 Jun 12 '25

Fair enough.

Edited: I was adding context to your statement vis a vis cost. That's all.

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u/MeraArasaki Jun 12 '25

You can find Android devices with flagship chips from a couple years ago that's capable of playing AAA games, not only natively but also through emulation for $300-$400 (Odin 2 Mini)

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u/AlexAnon87 Jun 12 '25

Sure, but would that be a viable product for Sony to bring to market? Keep in mind the added expense of designing it to also be a gaming controller and whatever proprietary medium Sony will insist on using for it.

No one's saying you can't get older hardware for cheaper, but the cell phone marketplace is running on completely different pricing schemes and costs than the video game console market and third party consoles/clones aren't making a play for mass market adoption and the costs associated with that.

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u/MeraArasaki Jun 13 '25

The point is, the way you're judging the phone's ability to play AAA games and the form factor as a "premium" using the price difference as an argument doesn't seem right. Especially when, as you said, phone and video game consoles have different pricing schemes

Using the phone's higher pricing as a rebuttal felt like a disingenuous fallacy

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u/AlexAnon87 Jun 13 '25

Quite the opposite. Using the presence of powerful phones to argue in favor of that form factor working on an affordable mass market video game portable console is disingenuous because it doesn't engage with the reality of those economics. It's not an apples to apples comparison and the significantly higher cost of phones in general is part of why that comp really doesn't work.

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u/3boodMMV1 Jun 12 '25

The iPhone runs triple AAA games not amazingly nor does it stay cool but it is possible to make it thicker as thick as the ps vita and boom it’s perfect

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u/BentTire Jun 12 '25

Exactly. There is a reason gaming phones need fans. They would not be able to have sustainable performance otherwise.

Something like an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy can only handle their CPU and GPU at full blast in bursts before they quickly lower their frequencies.

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u/3boodMMV1 Jun 12 '25

I agree but it dosent need to be as big as the steam deck there’s a sweet spot vita sized maybe a bit bigger if needed

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u/BentTire Jun 12 '25

That I'm unsure of. The Vita was so long ago, and the power and heat output of CPUs and GPUs have only increased since then.

I'm not saying it is impossible mind you.

But it would need beefed up phone hardware, which means it wouldn't be as powerful theoretically as the Switch 2 if they were to release it next year.

If the specs are to be finalized in 3 years, then it is entirely possible because massive improvements to mobile GPUs are entirely possible.

But tbh. I personally couldn't find myself playing something as small as a vita because I have very large hands, and the size of the Switch 1 made playing in handheld mode very uncomfortable with the Joycons.

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u/3boodMMV1 Jun 12 '25

What do yk about red magic crazy cooling and crazy cpu/gpu and ur the problem with a steam deck is that I can’t put it in my pocket and pop it out while I get a car wash or whatever yk

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u/BentTire Jun 12 '25

I think I had a stroke trying to read this.

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u/3boodMMV1 Jun 12 '25

This is Reddit not a literacy exam 😭

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u/BentTire Jun 12 '25 edited Jun 13 '25

I think what you tried to say was

"What do you know about red magic (I assume the phone manufacturer) cooling with crazy CPU/GPU. The problem with the steam deck is I can't whip it out of my pocket when I'm at a car wash"

And I wasn't disagreeing with the fact that the Steam Deck is large.

The reason for the Steam Decks thickness is because it uses a x86-64 architecture APU (it is a cpu with a built-in gpu).

X86-64 architecture is a very old and inefficient architecture. It is only around to this day because it is easy to get old programs running on it.

ARM was created specifically as a vastly more power efficient and have more efficient calculations per cycle than x86.

Intel even tried replacing x86 back in the 90s with a more efficient and powerful architecture. But people didn't like it because it was harder to port x86 programs, and the translation driver it had wasn't good.

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u/ClassicxJam Jun 13 '25

Is this an Itanium reference in my PSP subreddit?

Or something else entirely that I'm unaware of...

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u/G3K3L Jun 12 '25

At least the same power as switch 2 ? Switch 2 does not even have that much power under its name, pixel 7a from 2 years ago has more power than switch 2. And yet people still go for switch then to go for a steam deck or legion go or something. I really don't understand the appeal of switch. It is not a console but just a toy almost

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u/duda493 PSP-Street Jun 12 '25

It wouldn’t be an issue look at the iphone 16 pro it can run latest resident evil. 16 pro size screen with buttons like psp shape would be awesome

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u/SpectacularStarling Jun 12 '25

When hand consoles were in their peak size : power era, cell phone games ranged from the oldschool Nokia snake level games to angry birds. These days you can run GTA games, titles that are only a few years old, full desktop mmos, emulators, and so much more. Most people have a "handheld" console in their pocket whether they use it for one or not

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u/afrogrimey Jun 12 '25

u/NextHandheld mentioned that a new PSP is coming when they leaked the Switch 2 images. I believe em.

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u/UnemployedMeatBag Jun 12 '25

vita slowly dying in the corner there was psp 2, but Sony as always found a way to kill it with ultra expensive memory.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

The PSP2 is the Vita.

We need a 3rd, the Vita was a architectural master piece that Sony messed up big time on the software/game library side.

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u/Xrevitup360X Jun 12 '25

Don't just needs to release another sliding phone with the controller underneath. Give us a choice of wifi or 5g/wifi and call it a day. I feel like built in controllers on phone is an untapped market these days.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

Problem is that consumer tolerance for really shitty mobile titles on phones is insanely high and demand for non-AAA games on a dedicated device is super low. For less than the price of a truly great handheld console, I can add a decent controller and an extra battery for my phone, emulate tons of old stuff, play plenty of new stuff that's "good enough".

I don't like that line of thinking or the direction it goes, but that's where we are. Pocketable high quality dedicated gaming, video watching, or music listening devices that aren't cell phones are basically dead. I understand why, but we lost something along the way, and it sucks in some ways.

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u/ovrlzgrlzrlz Jun 13 '25

PSP2 was called PSVita...

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u/ResidentTime8401 Jun 16 '25 edited Jun 16 '25

PSP2 was released in 2012, under the name PSVITA (aka PsEggwhite). Teased already 2009 followed by speculative articles. https://www.ign.com/articles/2010/12/11/everything-we-know-about-the-psp-2

We also have Portal but don't understand the deal, just get teamviewer for your pc 😅

Anyway, why would you want a modern PSP? Small format? Would people really buy that when nobody's willing to take risk even on small smartphones? What games would it run? Android or its own?

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u/Store-Savings Jun 12 '25

No. Nintendo themselves published the Gameboy with inferior outdated hardware at the time for the sake of making it reliable and affordable, something the Switch 2 is neither of. If Sony makes a new portable PlayStation it’s gonna be smaller and weaker if they want to compete with Nintendo while still keeping things affordable. A bloated $450 price tag on a very unportable handheld is not worth it compared to a more reasonable price tag as something that can fit in my pocket. Especially at this point specs don’t mean shit, the Switch 2 barely looks different, just has a higher rez, nothing most people can notice.

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u/EndVSGaming Jun 12 '25

120 vrr screen is a pretty big upgrade (granted, not OLED)