I don’t think people would buy a handheld that only plays ps4 games natively, no.
And, yes, this is nothing more than a dedicated remote play device. I don’t understand why people are losing their minds over this.
[RUMOUR] Codenamed Q Lite, the next PlayStation handheld is the next piece of Sony hardware
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And, yes, this is nothing more than a dedicated remote play device. I don’t understand why people are losing their minds over this.
Sony have some great engineers, ideas and R@D ppl, I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being a pleasant surprise no matter what it ends up being. Man VITA was such good tech and premium, I loved it. Pstv on the other hand had some limitations I didn't like and didn't play all the vita games but the remote play feature worked well.
Let's hope that's the case, right now it sound like the worsts portable strategy ever.
Honestly, there is a niche of people this could appeal to, but its pretty small. Must own a PS4/5, must have time out of the house to dedicate to non-portable gaming, must be able to afford the streaming costs, or however that works, must be okay carrying a giant controller around with them, must not already be a mobile gamer.
Tbh remote play is not great outside the home, your home network will be the weakest link and the further you get away from your ps5 the worse it gets.
Stars really have to align to get remote play working well outside the home.
Maybe where you are at and I've heard this narrative for years but for years I've used remote play and it has worked good to great for me 95% of the time. I literally go beyond a 100 miles in nyc to my girls house, use remote play to play games like Hogwarts, God of War, etc and sometimes it feels like the games are even native. Is lag perceptible at times? of course but I'll even take it further, I play COD mp via remote play about 130 miles away from my house and generally land in top 3 and tht says alot.
Remote play works great and has been working great for years. Is it dependent on your type of internet, data centers, etc of course but for many it works great.
I live in a smaller town and the coverage is spotty (I play via phone/4g) and it drops connection sometimes, and the lag is annoying. It works well enough but I can't play any action games because there's like 500ms ping to the console when I'm on my work breaks.
Thinking further, there is one group that can be well served by this... it would make a fantastic lunch-break system, for people who really just have to game constantly, even if Sony's lineup isn't currently centered around pick-up, put-down games.
I'll wait for more details before having a final opinion, but so far it just sounds like a glorified Wii U controller. It's Remote Play only, and as soon as you're out of your house, it's effectively useless since it can't stream over a network via a cloud service, just your own home internet, and you still need a PS5.
Needing a PS5 isn't the issue; it's Remote Play so of course you'd need one. It just sounds really limited in what it could have been, to serve even more markets IMO. If you don't have your PS5 and you're not at your house, you have no use for this thing. It can be a neat companion device around the home for Remote Play, but so is your smartphone, and you probably have one or two of those.
If they made a portable spec with base PS4 performance on RDNA2 & Zen 2, 6nm process, 8 GB HBM2 (they would only need 4 2 GB modules at a super-low 2.8 Gbps to reach PS4 memory bandwidth), they could still provide the Remote Play feature this Q Lite device is promising, but with more actual functionality on top of that. Native PS4 games on the go. Potentially local PS1/2/PSP/Vita emulation on the go. PS3 support via Remote Play through the PS5. They could have then taken that same spec and flipped it into an Xperia phone model with a bit extra RAM (4 GB LPDDR5, 8 GB HBM2) and positioned it as a high-end smartphone, also capable of playing PS4 games natively with dual-boot Android/PS OS support, and release a fit-to-form controller module with built-in expanded cooling and battery on top of all that as an option.
So many things they could have tackled in one fell swoop, but instead we're getting this Q Lite thing. I'm gonna laugh if this Q Lite device is $199 or more because for maybe only $149 more we could have gotten that and an actual portable with native PS4 support on top. Imagine what that could have done for PlayStation in Japan in terms of getting 3P Japanese content that's normally Switch-exclusive, imagine what an actual portable could have done for them there in terms of providing a real market for Japanese PS developers to cater to with sensible cross-gen software releases.
I know Sony mainly consult with Mark Cerny on the consoles (and they are ATM with PS6), but I would have loved to see him helm a portable effort with them. Maybe it wouldn't exactly be like the hypothetical design I've suggested, but I think it'd at least seem a lot more immediately useful and attack some market segments where PlayStation could obviously stand to strengthen itself in.
It's not that it won't stream PS4 games; it very likely will just out of common sense. However, I think it should be able to natively play PS4 games, without streaming, at least at base PS4 levels.
In that sense, this definitely feels like a missed opportunity.
I don't see how. I really, really, really don't see how. The Switch 2 will have actual processing power built into it for native play of its games. The Q Lite ceases functionality as soon as you're out of the range of your home network and PS5.
The Switch 2 easily has an advantage over the Q Lite at least going by the specifications rumored thus far. Also IIRC the PS Vita actually did support Remote Play with the PS4; can't remember if it did with PS3, but if not then the PSP did. So it's not a question of the technology only being available now; it was there 10 years ago for PS4 and Vita, too.
My big deal is that this Q Lite should be able to natively play PS4 games. Doesn't seem like that is going to be the case. I think when people hear others talk about a new PlayStation portable, they immediately think Vita 2, or something that would require its own library of software the way the Vita and PSP required. But when @Nhomnhom , @ksdixon and myself bring it up, we literally just mean a handheld built to play PS4 games on the go, maybe some PS1/2/PSP/Vita on the go via emulation, Remote Play with PS5. That sort of thing.
The only new games that would get are cross-gen PS4 games, and there's still a decent number of those being made.
Needing a PS5 isn't the issue; it's Remote Play so of course you'd need one. It just sounds really limited in what it could have been, to serve even more markets IMO. If you don't have your PS5 and you're not at your house, you have no use for this thing. It can be a neat companion device around the home for Remote Play, but so is your smartphone, and you probably have one or two of those.
If they made a portable spec with base PS4 performance on RDNA2 & Zen 2, 6nm process, 8 GB HBM2 (they would only need 4 2 GB modules at a super-low 2.8 Gbps to reach PS4 memory bandwidth), they could still provide the Remote Play feature this Q Lite device is promising, but with more actual functionality on top of that. Native PS4 games on the go. Potentially local PS1/2/PSP/Vita emulation on the go. PS3 support via Remote Play through the PS5. They could have then taken that same spec and flipped it into an Xperia phone model with a bit extra RAM (4 GB LPDDR5, 8 GB HBM2) and positioned it as a high-end smartphone, also capable of playing PS4 games natively with dual-boot Android/PS OS support, and release a fit-to-form controller module with built-in expanded cooling and battery on top of all that as an option.
So many things they could have tackled in one fell swoop, but instead we're getting this Q Lite thing. I'm gonna laugh if this Q Lite device is $199 or more because for maybe only $149 more we could have gotten that and an actual portable with native PS4 support on top. Imagine what that could have done for PlayStation in Japan in terms of getting 3P Japanese content that's normally Switch-exclusive, imagine what an actual portable could have done for them there in terms of providing a real market for Japanese PS developers to cater to with sensible cross-gen software releases.
I know Sony mainly consult with Mark Cerny on the consoles (and they are ATM with PS6), but I would have loved to see him helm a portable effort with them. Maybe it wouldn't exactly be like the hypothetical design I've suggested, but I think it'd at least seem a lot more immediately useful and attack some market segments where PlayStation could obviously stand to strengthen itself in.
It's not that it won't stream PS4 games; it very likely will just out of common sense. However, I think it should be able to natively play PS4 games, without streaming, at least at base PS4 levels.
In that sense, this definitely feels like a missed opportunity.
I don't see how. I really, really, really don't see how. The Switch 2 will have actual processing power built into it for native play of its games. The Q Lite ceases functionality as soon as you're out of the range of your home network and PS5.
The Switch 2 easily has an advantage over the Q Lite at least going by the specifications rumored thus far. Also IIRC the PS Vita actually did support Remote Play with the PS4; can't remember if it did with PS3, but if not then the PSP did. So it's not a question of the technology only being available now; it was there 10 years ago for PS4 and Vita, too.
My big deal is that this Q Lite should be able to natively play PS4 games. Doesn't seem like that is going to be the case. I think when people hear others talk about a new PlayStation portable, they immediately think Vita 2, or something that would require its own library of software the way the Vita and PSP required. But when @Nhomnhom , @ksdixon and myself bring it up, we literally just mean a handheld built to play PS4 games on the go, maybe some PS1/2/PSP/Vita on the go via emulation, Remote Play with PS5. That sort of thing.
The only new games that would get are cross-gen PS4 games, and there's still a decent number of those being made.
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I know the first and wasn't aware of the second. I've been in western and Eastern Europe and Eastern Europe has more free WiFi than anywhere else, just not everywhere you go like in Korea
If this thing is a remote play only thing, I think it's another "streaming fan" product. So close to being what some of us have screamed for since VitaTV was a step in the wrong direction, and then we've seen Switch and Deck appear out of the woods later.
I've stopped using Vita 2, or PSP2, or PSP4 (counting PSP, PSP Go, PS Vita, Our theoretical device) in recent discussions. I've been saying PS4 Portable instead. I would change to re-using Sony's Vita codename NGP/Next Gen Portable, but I'm not sure if that would only muddy discussions involving Vita and it's development/reception etc.
Guess I'll be using "PS4P/NGP" to differentiate this product from this would be "PSP Remote Play" device.
That's exactly right in my case.
I've stopped using Vita 2, or PSP2, or PSP4 (counting PSP, PSP Go, PS Vita, Our theoretical device) in recent discussions. I've been saying PS4 Portable instead. I would change to re-using Sony's Vita codename NGP/Next Gen Portable, but I'm not sure if that would only muddy discussions involving Vita and it's development/reception etc.
Guess I'll be using "PS4P/NGP" to differentiate this product from this would be "PSP Remote Play" device.
Reasonable scenario: I am traveling and feel like playing a game. I get my PS4P out and I can play any PS4 game I have on my library, no need to buy them again on Steam and I can use it even without internet.
Nightmare scenario: I am traveling and feel like playing a game. I get my Q-Lite out an try to connect to my PlayStation at home using the hotel wifi or if that is not an option I try it on my garbage 4G mobile internet that I only pay because I have to for communication and that will run out of data in no time.
Between a Steam Deck and a PS4P, for the same price, I would still rather have a PS4P because of the simplicity of just running console games and the fact I would have access to PS+ games.
Nightmare scenario: I am traveling and feel like playing a game. I get my Q-Lite out an try to connect to my PlayStation at home using the hotel wifi or if that is not an option I try it on my garbage 4G mobile internet that I only pay because I have to for communication and that will run out of data in no time.
Between a Steam Deck and a PS4P, for the same price, I would still rather have a PS4P because of the simplicity of just running console games and the fact I would have access to PS+ games.
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Would not want a new ps4 powered device in any way shape or form. Devs would be stuck to the lowest common denominator yet again into the future.
A remote device for a ps5 is the way to move forward without anchoring oneself into underpowered tech.
Don’t see a tech reason it would not be able to stream from psextra.
My 2c.
It’s also a breath mint AND a birth-control pill!
It’s a possible PS6 controller it’s just a model/idea it means nothing.
They already working on the next generation.
I'm reading stuff like this will actually be a DualSense controller, focused on streaming via WiFi in the house, not unlike the Wii U. Pretty niche if you ask me, but it might be for some people.