I think it's crazy how productive the platform business group has been yet gets zero credit.
They launched the PS5 in the middle of a pandemic in 2020.
February 2023 they launched PSVR2
November 2023 they launched PS5 Slim and PS Portal
By the end of 2024 they'll have launched the PS5 Pro
Basically every year since Q4 2022 they've launched new hardware. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if the PS handheld launched by the end of 2025 (though we're more likely looking at 2026). All of this while making improvements to the PS5 like incorporating Discord and releasing a PC overlay for first party games and releasing PS Link.
I won't be surprised if by the end of the year or next year the PS Portal gets streaming support. They finally added wifi splash screens support to it and they added a PC adapter for PSVR2.
Nishino is absolutely cooking.
It'll be very interesting to see what price a PS handheld launches at compared to the Switch 2 and if PSSR is a great equalizer in terms of power vs price. And in conjunction with the Studio business group, it'll be interesting to see whether their family oriented push will align with an affordable handheld. Which is especially notable for a couple reasons. Astrobot isn't on Switch and Lego Horizon isn't on PS4.
Obviously, that could mean absolutely nothing, or it could mean that this PS Handheld will in fact play scaled down PS5 games. If they were releasing a handheld that could only do native PS4 games, you'd think lego horizon would release on PS4 and clearly Astrobot is going to need full dual sense control schemes, which would work on the portal, for which the PS handheld is probably designed after. They'd rather patch lego horizon for ps5 to work on handheld than to release a ps4 version that would play natively on said handheld.
We'll have a pretty decent understanding of how capable PSSR is with the PS5 Pro and what it could do on a PS Handheld.
It's crazy with all the hate Sony gets recently clear and massive the leap they're about to make as company. We loved it when they released the PSP and Vita, but neither system could survive with the software support they received. Now Sony will release a legit handheld for the first time that doesn't have any serious drawbacks and plays the same games as the home console.
We're about to enter Sony's golden age as a hardware producer and software producer, yet the vitriol from "fans" you would think they're in massive decline.
I'm convinced these people don't actually play games otherwise, they'd be stuck on praising Returnal, GT7, and Astrobot. I can't remember a time when Sony was successfully delivering so many unique games in unique genres either through 1st, 2nd, or 3rd party published/exclusive titles.
Gran Turismo 7 is a series return to form. Gran Turismo 6 came out nearly a decade earlier on PS3... GT7 has full VR support, and will almost certainly be one of the first patched games on PS5 Pro.