When we talk about the handheld video game consolesAlmost automatically, Nintendo’s proposals come to mind, which at least for the last few decades has led this market with overwhelming dominance. Far away now are those days when PlayStationwith the PSP Y Playstation Vita, tried to gain a foothold in the players’ pockets. In the case of the first hardware, we can say that it was successful based on Sony’s aspirations; not so with the second.
The failure of the PS Vita, without a doubt, conditioned the future of the company in the portable sector. Sony never set foot in this market again, and frankly, the success of PlayStation home consoles continues to support his decision. However, the PS Vita continues to have the affection of its owners because, despite its scant library of titles -mainly in the West-, no one can deny that on a technical level it is an excellent console. Perhaps even ahead of its time.
Now, the brutal pace of sales that the Nintendo Switch has had since its launch, as well as the excellent reception of Valve’s Steam Deck, make us wonder if there is even the slightest possibility of seeing the return of PlayStation to the portable world. If Sony was waiting for the ideal moment to try again with a hypothetical second generation of the PSP or PS Vita, it is undoubtedly this. Why? I delve into it below.
The Steam Deck holds the key
In the realm of laptops, Nintendo has almost always walked alone. Even when an interesting competitor has entered the scene, Kyotons have no difficulty holding the top by a wide margin. This is due, above all, to the fact that they know their consumers very well and their market is very well defined. The company directed by Shuntaro Furukawa bets on conquering the casual gamers and is usually victorious in its objective.
The superiority of Nintendo is such that Valve, when it announced the Steam Deck, quickly distanced himself from the Switch to make it clear that they were after a completely different market. One that, curiously, is not a priority for Nintendo: that of the players hardcore. To this day, some people mistakenly insist that the two handheld consoles compete with each other, but the reality is that they are very different.
Gabe Newell himself, director of Valve, explained it to IGN. “I think Nintendo does a great job of addressing the audience that they have with the content that they have. When you take this [la Steam Deck], it feels much more ergonomically for someone who is used to playing with an expensive controller. It is bigger and bulkier than a Switch. And if we’re right, that’s the right tradeoff for the audience we’re after,” he said.
Perhaps at this point you are beginning to question: what does the Steam Deck have to do with a possible return of PlayStation to portables? A lot, in fact.
Valve is attacking, with great conviction, a market that PlayStation abandoned years ago. After the failure of the PS Vita, and without forgetting that proposals such as the Nvidia Shield Portable and Onexplayer went unnoticed, we believed that the market for portable consoles for hardcore gamer had almost completely disappeared. But we were wrong. It did not disappear, it was just waiting for the conjunction of attractive hardware, a wide catalog of games and the backing of a giant to resurface.
The Steam Deck was sold out in all regions where pre-order was active. To date, Valve has not been able to meet the demand and they do not believe they will be able to do so throughout this year. These data show that there is still a large number of consumers hardcore who are willing to open their wallets for a portable console that, although it is not perfect, meets a good part of their wants and needs.
What does PlayStation need to launch a new portable console?
Voucher, PlayStation has not had to risk to test the current state of the market because Valve already did that job, but that doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed success if it decides to come back. Even with all the weight of the brand as a support, it would not be easy.
First of all, PlayStation should apply the learning gained from its two previous experiences in the portable sector. Today, it is paramount offer a vast library of games from the start. In addition, it must be constantly updated throughout its life cycle. In this sense, the Sony platform can stand out. How?
If the company will develop hardware whose specifications are similar to those of the PlayStation 4, they could use the whole library of the aforementioned console, which is immense and continues to grow. On the other hand, it seems that the development tools of Sony’s internal studios, despite making the leap to the PS5, have no problem adapting to the previous generation. Proof of it is Horizon Forbidden West, Grand Touring 7 and soon God of War Ragnarok.
technically speaking, it is not impossible to create a portable console with similar capabilities to the PS4. The Steam Deck, in fact, performs close to Sony’s desktop hardware. So, just as Valve took advantage of Steam games, PlayStation could do the same with PS4 titles.
Also, we cannot forget the playstation plus renewal, which will be available from June. The service will now have different plans to offer access to more than 700 games – both exclusive and third-party – including some classics from PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS Vita. This is another addition that the much-desired PSP 2 can lean on.
Creating a portable console whose catalog starts from scratch would be shooting yourself in the foot. The PS Vita, precisely, failed because it did not have the backing of the big publishers, which was reflected in a scarce library. Sony would have to do everything possible not to repeat the same mistakes. Will they take the step that so many players expect? It looks complicated, but we can’t rule anything out in an industry that changes so quickly.