The rumours were true. Sony really is working on the most ridiculous handheld games console in its history — which is no mean feat considering said history contains the Xperia Play phone hybrid.
Announced at the recent PlayStation showcase, the upcoming Project Q aims to up the ante in terms of pointlessness by simply letting you stream your PS5 games to its handheld form. In other words, you’ll need to be on the same Wi-Fi network to get an inferior experience of playing on the big screen.
Yes, it does mean you can play PS5 games when others are using the TV, but you can already do that with pretty much any smartphone using the Remote Play feature. The only advantage this has is that you’ll have a PS5-style pad clamped to the sites of its 8in HD LCD screen.
That might make sense if the handheld is competitively priced, but you’ve met Sony, right? The company can’t help but price things like its Apple, only without the zombie-like brand loyalty of millions of fans to make that viable.
Phone grips with PlayStation-style pads sell for NZ$190, and those don’t include either a screen or a battery. In other words, an extremely limited device that might be tempting as a curiosity for under NZ$150 will probably set you back at least NZ$300.
The good news is that it will almost certainly flop at that price, and if you are tempted for some reason, it should become a buyer’s market very quickly indeed.
But really, you’re better off getting phone grips for your phone and playing there. That way you can also use the controls for mobile games when you’re out of the house. Better still, import a Steam Deck and use that for PS5 Remote Play alongside hundreds of cheap-as-chips PC games on Steam — without the need to maintain an internet connection and stay within spitting distance of your console.
