OPINION: The handheld gaming market has boomed following the launch of the Nintendo Switch.
As a result, countless companies have tried to jump on the bandwagon with portable gaming systems of their own. We’ve seen the release of the Steam Deck, Ayaneo 2, Playdate, Razer Edge and the recent announcement of the Asus ROG Ally.
But noticeably absent from the bandwagon is Sony and Microsoft, and I’ve heard many people suggest it’s a missed opportunity for the PlayStation and Xbox brands. I’ve nodded along with such suggestions in recent years, but I’m starting to change my mind.
Firstly, let’s focus on PlayStation. Sony is no stranger to the portable market, having launched both the PSP and PS Vita. So it’s understandably a little confusing why Sony hasn’t continued this trend when handheld systems are now more popular than ever.
This is likely due to how bad the sales figures were for the PS Vita, with Polygon suggesting it sold between 10-15 million units worldwide. In comparison, the Nintendo Switch has reportedly (via Nintendo Life) sold a whopping 122.55 million units.
While the PS Vita did have a loyal following and impressive specs that included an OLED screen, it just didn’t have a large enough game library to justify the purchase. I struggle to see how Sony could remedy this issue with another portable.
The PS4’s popularity boiled down to the quantity of excellent exclusive games in its library. We had the likes of God of War, The Last of Us Part II, Marvel’s Spider-Man and Horizon Zero Dawn all making the home console a worthwhile investment.
The PS Vita lacked that treasure trove of exclusive games, with the likes of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Killzone: Mercenary and Wipeout 2048 failing to generate the same level of pulling power. Ensuring a high level of support for both the PS5 and a future portable would be a difficult task for Sony – even Nintendo decided to merge its home console with its handheld system to avoid this issue.
The likes of the Steam Deck have shown that it’s possible to create portables that can run modern games, but only with pared-down graphics settings. And ensuring that every PlayStation exclusive is available on both handheld and console would inevitably place technological limitations on future PS5 games, putting the speedy SSD and ray tracing capabilities to waste.
Recent rumours have suggested that Sony may release a portable after all, but it will be a Wii U-style device that streams games through the PS5 console rather than running games natively. This makes far more sense to me.
Gamers have very different reasons for craving an Xbox portable. Microsoft has never created a handheld gaming system before, but fans have pointed out that it’s the perfect time to do so due to the ever-growing popularity of Xbox Game Pass.
This Netflix-style subscription allows you to access a large library of games via the cloud, so you can play the likes of Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 on your smartphone or tablet, as long as you’ve got a fast enough internet connection.
That means that if Xbox launched a portable, it wouldn’t necessarily require powerful specs to run AAA games. It would just need a portable design, vibrant screen and a Wi-Fi chip – a 5G antenna would be appreciated even more for those who want to game on the go.
Such a device would also remove the need to have two separate game libraries for handheld devices and consoles, therefore eliminating the fatal flaw that downed the PS Vita. As a result, a portable Xbox device makes far more sense to me than a handheld PlaySation system.
Then again, we’re already seeing numerous manufacturers launch portables that have access to Xbox Game Pass. The Razer Edge and the Logitech G Cloud are the most notable examples, and I’m sure more will come to market in the near future. And let’s not forget that our Android phones and iPhones already have access to Game Pass too.
It’s well known that the likes of PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo actually subsidise the cost of gaming hardware, and therefore aren’t guaranteed to make a huge profit. They instead make most of the money by earning a cut of each game sale on their platform.
By releasing the cloud-powered Game Pass, Microsoft has effectively cut out the middleman. Other companies can produce the hardware, either as a dedicated gaming system or another portable device entirely, and yet Microsoft will still make a profit from its games through the subscription fees of Game Pass. It’s a very clever model. As a result, Microsoft has no real need to take a risk in launching an Xbox portable.
With all of this in mind, I can’t really see a compelling reason why either PlayStation or Xbox need to release their own portable. Yes, the Nintendo Switch is a massive success, but that only works because Nintendo isn’t trying to push the boundaries with photo-realistic visuals and cutting-edge performance with its hardware. Mario, Zelda and Pokemon all make sense on a portable, but would The Last of Us and Halo? I’m doubtful.
That’s not to say portables won’t continue to be popular. I just think it’s clear that cloud-powered apps are the way forward, allowing you to play games on a smartphone or tablet instead of a dedicated handheld gaming system. It makes more financial sense for PlayStation and Xbox to continue working on their cloud apps. We don’t need a PS Vita anymore, we just need a smartphone with access to Game Pass.
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