PlayStation handheld is expected in November

Sony officially affirmed its new PlayStation handheld last night and presently a new talk guarantees the 8-inch gadget will show up in November. Tom Henderson, the same reporter who first wrote about Sony's Project Q handheld last month, makes the claim.

“Currently scheduled to release mid-late November 2023,” said Henderson in a tweet this morning. Sony hasn’t announced pricing or an exact release late just yet, only revealing that the PlayStation handheld will launch “later this year.”

Sony's PlayStation handheld, referred to just as Project Q at the present time, will permit PS5 proprietors to stream games to a 8-inch LCD screen that includes controllers for either side that are basically the same as the DualSense PS5 controller. Games won't run locally on the gadget, importance you'll have to have them introduced on a PS5 and have great Wi-Fi connectivity to stream them.

Although Sony hasn't said if you can use its PlayStation handheld outside of your home, you should be able to use Sony's Remote Play technology to play PS5 games while you're on the go.

Sony is obviously answering the ascent in handheld gaming in recent years. Valve's Steam Deck has demonstrated what is possible for PC gaming on the go, and Nintendo's Switch has dominated modern handheld consoles. People's willingness to pay for a device that can only stream PS5 games will determine whether the PlayStation handheld succeeds or fails.

Since PS5 games can already be streamed to PCs, Macs, iOS, and Android devices, the device's intended audience is undoubtedly unknown. The adaptive triggers are a nice touch, but it looks like you could get the rest from a lot of existing controller and mobile device options.

Given recent job listings that suggest a new push toward cloud gaming, Sony may well extend this PlayStation handheld to cloud streaming. This would make sense after PlayStation chief Jim Ryan teased “quite aggressive plans” for cloud gaming earlier this week. Yet, even with cloud streaming options there's as yet a big question mark over whether PS5 owners will need a PlayStation handheld that can't mess around without an internet connection.

Logitech has taken a stab at something almost identical at a hefty price tag, so Sony's success might very much come down to whether it's prepared to stream PlayStation games over the cloud and the cost of this PlayStation handheld. We'll see how the market reacts because some people, like managing editor Alex Cranz of Verge, argue that a phone is terrible for cloud gaming and want dedicated devices.

Project Q, according to Sony, will receive additional information in the coming months.