The PS Vita Is Not Returning But Sony Might Launch Another Handheld Game Console
While they've never been the market success in the US that they were in their native Japan, Sony's handhelds definitely had their fans around the world. That's why any news about a next-generation portable is like meat to a starving man—the PS Vita came out in 2012, and Sony gave up on the machine just three years later in 2015.
Well, a new rumor says that Sony will release another handheld gaming device, but don't leap out of your seat just yet. The rumor originates with Insider Gaming—the source of that divisive PS5 Pro rumor from awhile back—and it says that the next Sony handheld is codenamed the "Q Lite," and it will be a streaming-exclusive system like Logitech's G Cloud.
The difference between the Q Lite and the G Cloud is that the latter is intended for playing games using services like NVIDIA's GeForce NOW and Microsoft's XCloud—services that run the game on their servers and then send you a video feed of the game's output while capturing your inputs and sending them over the internet back to the game. These services can be impressive if you live geographically close to the servers, but if you don't, throwing an extra 100-200ms of network latency behind your input device doesn't feel great.
Remote Play has existed since the PlayStation 3 and the original PSP, and even back then it worked very well. Insider Gaming says that the "Q Lite" will support "adaptive streaming up to 1080p and 60 FPS," and that it will come with an 8" LCD touchscreen, as well as the usual handheld gaming system niceties: volume control, speakers, audio jacks both out and in, and so on.
Insider Gaming says that its sources tell it that the device is currently in the QA phase, and that it will release after the PS5 system with the detachable disc drive, but before the PS5 Pro's purported holiday 2024 launch. The site also says that a set of wireless earbuds and a wireless headset for the PS5 are also on the way, and should release around the same time.