The Nintendo Switch 2 is one of the most hotly anticipated handheld gaming consoles to date, but that may be a title it soon has to share as information has emerged that Sony is reportedly working on a new portable PlayStation device of its own following the success of the PlayStation Portal.
News of a new PlayStation handheld game console comes by way of reputable hardware leaker and YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead, who claims that Sony are in active development of the console, dubbed the PS Vita 2, in partnership with AMD.
PlayStation Vita 2: Sony's handheld hopes
The leak points to the PS Vita 2 being an incredibly powerful handheld device making use of a custom AMD APU with 18 compute units (CUs). That's a similar level to the PlayStation 4, and for good reason. Moore's Law is Dead claims that this is to ensure backwards compatibility with all PS4 digital titles.
While that number of CUs is half of that found in the current PS5, it doesn't rule out the potential of native support for PS5 titles — especially when you consider Sony's mid-generation upgrade pattern. This has resulted in graphical scaling across PlayStation games already, meaning the new PS Vita 2 would potentially be able to run select PS5 games with reduced graphical performance.
According to the leak, Sony and AMD are currently in the high-level design stage, meaning that no final design or plan for release has yet been decided upon.
This makes it entirely plausible that Sony could still pull the plug on this project before it ever sees the light of day. However, should this stage of development result in something the blue-brand feel confident in, then you could be laying hands upon the PS Vita 2 by 2026 at the earliest.
That being said, Moore's Law is Dead also mentions that the Vita 2 may be a part of the "PlayStation 6 family." Meaning, should Sony give the final project the green light, it could arrive alongside the PlayStation 6, which, given Sony's seven-year console generation lifespan, would likely arrive in 2027.
Outlook
While this leaves the market free for Nintendo dominate over the next few years with its upcoming Switch 2 console, Sony's PS Vita 2 is part of a wider push by the gaming hardware industry to target handheld consoles and portable gaming PCs.
Last year saw the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go emerge as successful portable PC gaming options, and 2024 is set to continue this trend with the release of the MSI Claw, and potentially a rapid-fire release of a second generation ROG Ally.
Even Microsoft are reportedly exploring the possibility of launching a handheld Xbox device of its own, with Windows Centrals' Jez Corden pointing to sources familiar with Microsoft's plans and leaked court documents that highlight an Xbox handheld as one of the many potential directions for the green-brand to head in.
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