PlayStation Q Lite: The new device, potentially expected in 2024, would be designed to play using the Remote Play system already working on PCs, smartphones, and tablets.
Sony seems to have finally closed the crisis that forced its latest generation console, PlayStation 5, to populate store shelves with a dropper: the recent moves of the Japanese company, which is betting decisively on the relaunch of the console thanks to large advertising campaigns and art installations in major global cities could hide a more complex plan that provides for the arrival of new versions of PS5, accessories, and peripherals, such as a new portable console.
In fact, the latest rumors speak of possible hardware designed to facilitate game streaming, but contrary to what one might imagine, this new device would not be based on the now-usual “cloud gaming.”
The third hardware mentioned by Henderson would be precisely the new portable console, codenamed PlayStation Q Lite: it is a platform equipped with an 8-inch LDC display similar in appearance to the DualSense controller, with which it would share many of the unique features such as haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. This console would be designed to offer game streaming from PlayStation 4 and PS5 in 1080p resolution and with a 60 fps frame rate using the Remote Play system.
PlayStation Q Lite should, therefore, not be a real heir to old Sony portable consoles such as PSP and PlayStation Vita, but a device that somewhat follows the philosophy of a not-too-successful experiment such as the PlayStation TV set-up box, making, moreover, the same things that, today, are possible with any smartphone or tablet via the Remote Play application.
In fact, in order to function, the console will require the purchase of a PlayStation 5 (or an old PS4) and a fairly high-performance permanent connection: at the moment, the hypothesis of functioning through the PlayStation Plus cloud gaming infrastructure would seem excluded Premium. Among other features, we speak of the presence of integrated speakers and headphone input (complete with integrated controls for volume management).
The presentation would be scheduled for this summer, presumably on the occasion of the PlayStation Showcase event in which Sony will reveal the next exclusives coming to PS5 and the hardware that will accompany this “second phase” of the console’s life cycle.