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[Voost Kain]

Sony has confirmed that they will not be making another portable console after the massive global failure that was called the Vita, unless you live in Japan. Mobile gaming has fragmented the traditional portable industry, so why not give another go at a PlayStation phone?

This little baby was a pretty good idea and ahead of it's time, but Sony blundered it. Sony poorly marketed it, not many Android games supported it, PlayStation 1 games were in a separate store that only had 7 games available, the virtual analog sticks sucked, and trust me I'm being very kind here, the phones reliability was shoddy, the battery life was trash, the paint job would wear off overtime, and the display wasn't even in HD. It was always a red flag when Sony treated it as more of a budget phone instead of a flagship.

But now in 2020 a PlayStation phone could be so much better than that sorry display back in 2011.

1. 1080P, Quad HD, or 4K display
2. Interaction with other Sony products in your home
3. Better battery life
4. Thinner and lighter phone build
5. Better reliability
6. Room for flat analog sticks
7. Integrate it with the PS4's PSN store
8. Better compatibility with games downloaded from the Google Play store

When you look at all the possibilities, you can see there are many opportunities that Sony is missing out on by not giving this another try.

Most importantly, this would allow us to save our games and media on SD cards from a brand of our choice, not forcing us to use cards that are proprietary while costing consumers $40 more than the competition.

I believe that this is still a viable option for Sony and would make a good replacement for their portable lineup. Phones are more powerful than ever before, plus having access to generations of the PlayStation family catalog on the same device you call your dealer on could easily take off. The best part is Sony can give the device a similar price to their current low-midrange lineup, which means you wouldn't have to pay more than $400 to buy one. In theory, it could become the first Sony phone to sell large numbers globally instead of only to a small niche audience.

Anyone agree or disagree?

 

[Voost Kain]

Well shit.

 

[Hendrick's]

No.

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

Yes and a new vita. It's better for everyone.

 

[Bryank75]

I'd prefer if they made a new handheld but focused on not making the previous mistakes... expensive memory cards etc.
If it had mobile functionality, that would be decent but not totally necessary. It really has to be a great gaming device with great games first.

 

[Breakage]

This and the PSP Go looked awful. They both looked as if they were early prototypes that somehow made into the hands of consumers.

 

[Rightisright]

Sony has to get their normal phone situation sorted first. The Xperia line has been dying a slow death and it really shouldn't be. I have a Sony work phone, and don't mind them.
Once they get that sorted PSNow via your phone is all they would need to do.
No need for a seperate Sony PS phone.

 

[MoreJRPG]

They don’t have the resources to pour into another endeavour that isn’t guaranteed to succeed. Sony’s hands are full with making VR a thing, and now carrying PS4 momentum to PS5. There’s no chance they have enough to spread to a handheld which is why they killed off the Vita and their handheld future.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

No

 

[Erdrick]

Pfft... They barely even sell actual phones anymore outside of some places in Europe and Asia these days. I say this as a huge fan of them, and I'm very unhappy with the fact that outside of paying over 1000 bucks and ordering off of Ebay or whatnot, I have no local options for any of their phones.

That phone in the OP though, my father inexplicably had one even though he barely plays games these days. It was novel but not so practical as an actual phone.

Just give me some more Xperia models that I can actually purchase in store, please, Sony?

 

[bitbydeath]

Nah, streaming will be all they offer on the portable front. Less risk as it’s BYO hardware.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

No, I had that phone. It was shit. It was a mediocre phone and a bad handheld console.

Modern touch screen controls aren’t as terrible as they once were. And with how thin phones are nobody is going to double that thickness to have a game controller.

 

[diffusionx]

How do you integrate the PS4 PSN into a mobile device? A mobile device ain't playing PS4, or even PS3, games. The mobile market is pretty much set at this point. It's all free to play gacha garbage. Lil Zoom isn't going to be buying full price Sony games for their phone.

Not to mention their mobile business has been a total disaster and money pit for years.

 

[Sota4077]

They don’t have the resources to pour into another endeavour that isn’t guaranteed to succeed. Sony’s hands are full with making VR a thing, and now carrying PS4 momentum to PS5. There’s no chance they have enough to spread to a handheld which is why they killed off the Vita and their handheld future.

Man thankful for this community we have you to tell us whats up. Someone who is obviously a Sony employee and knows what their resource bandwidth is and is not...

 

[DESTROYA]

Simple answer, no.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

No.

Digitize the PS platform, get out of hardware.

 

[VAVA Mk2]

No. Sony phones already sit and collect dust.

 

[A.Romero]

I love Sony phones but they don't seem to be competitive somehow.

Playstation branding won't make a difference.

 

[FranXico]

Vita, yes.
Branded phones, no.

 

[TheWanderingOgre]

No god no.

 

[CJY]

5G is going to change the game. Just wait.

There's a reason why they haven't left the phone market yet, when they've divested of TVs and Computers. It's because of 5G. I think it's going to play a major role in Sony's plans going forward.

 

[Elektro Demon]

No.

 

[I'm nobody]

Xperia 1 and 5 are amazing phones
Tall screen is great

Game boost app works

Remote play is fast and will be even better on next Xperia (see conference end of Feb 2020)


I would love to see a vita come back with a vr glasses plug
Or make it so it can slot onto a vr headset like the switch slots into it's base

 

[Wolfgang Jr]

Don't shouldn't have another shot of making another PHONE period.

 

[existensmaximum]

Nope. Considering how badly their actual phones sell. The market doesn't seem to care about gaming phones?

They could however release a Playstation controller attachment they works with any Android Phone, and allow remote play with PS4/PS5, that would be cool.

Sure, there are solutions for that today, but they could do it better. Does remote play even work with a non-Sony phone?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Asus ROG phone and Razer phone are proof that a "gaming" phone isn't going to sell well enough to justify it's existence. No one is playing Destiny on a phone. Furthermore high-end smartphones are already "gaming" phones, you can easily pair a Bluetooth controller with an iPhone and use it for gaming and it will work just fine with games that support controllers. Almost all high-end smartphones are engineered well enough to not overheat anymore either while gaming, which was a problem a few years ago but is largely solved.

Sony Mobile is nearly dead outside of Japan either way, making a super-niche "gaming" phone would only hasten the end.

 

[Kagey K]

If they can’t leverage it over a better phone they are better off making apps and accessories.

This seems like an easy question that should have never been asked.

 

[xrnzaaas]

New PS handheld - V
New PS phone - X

 

[fran.fernandez]

no

 

[sunnysideup]

No more handheld junk. All focus on ps4/ps5

 

[Spukc]

Fuck no.

 

[Lupin3]

Fuck yes! Would buy it in a heartbeat. The mobile market needs something different.

 

[Paasei]

I want a new Vita. It's an amazing handheld even today. Too bad that a lot of people didn't see that.

 

[Damien Crowley]

I had the Xperia Play. It was an ok phone and, for its time, an awesome way to play retrostuff on the go (had it before my first real handheld). It had its fair share of problems...and I bricked mine unrecoverably, trying to unlock its full potential. But, I would look twice on the prospect of a new "gaming phone" with an integrated controller. Away from the stupid analog touchpads, it was an awesome idea!

 

[Gormless Noodle]

I still have my Xperia Play and it works too! I hope they give it another try yeah. I don't understand how Razer, Asus and others are succeeding with this just fine and the actual gaming companies are just ignoring the opportunities here. Sony especially can use this angle to finally claw into the US market as opposed to doing relatively okay in Europe and Japan.

 

[Pallas]

Didn’t one of the heads at Sony a while back(but after the Vita failure) say that they are still interesting/will look at another handheld in the future potentially? If I find the article I’ll post it.

 

[Ryu Kaiba]

Just a PS4 portable and nothing short of it. anything else would be trash.

 

[Pallas]

Just a PS4 portable and nothing short of it. anything else would be trash.

I wonder how feasible that would be at an affordable price.

 

[lock2k]

Sony has confirmed that they will not be making another portable console after the massive global failure that was called the Vita, unless you live in Japan. Mobile gaming has fragmented the traditional portable industry, so why not give another go at a PlayStation phone?

This little baby was a pretty good idea and ahead of it's time, but Sony blundered it. Sony poorly marketed it, not many Android games supported it, PlayStation 1 games were in a separate store that only had 7 games available, the virtual analog sticks sucked, and trust me I'm being very kind here, the phones reliability was shoddy, the battery life was trash, the paint job would wear off overtime, and the display wasn't even in HD. It was always a red flag when Sony treated it as more of a budget phone instead of a flagship.

But now in 2020 a PlayStation phone could be so much better than that sorry display back in 2011.

1. 1080P, Quad HD, or 4K display
2. Interaction with other Sony products in your home
3. Better battery life
4. Thinner and lighter phone build
5. Better reliability
6. Room for flat analog sticks
7. Integrate it with the PS4's PSN store
8. Better compatibility with games downloaded from the Google Play store

When you look at all the possibilities, you can see there are many opportunities that Sony is missing out on by not giving this another try.

Most importantly, this would allow us to save our games and media on SD cards from a brand of our choice, not forcing us to use cards that are proprietary while costing consumers $40 more than the competition.

I believe that this is still a viable option for Sony and would make a good replacement for their portable lineup. Phones are more powerful than ever before, plus having access to generations of the PlayStation family catalog on the same device you call your dealer on could easily take off. The best part is Sony can give the device a similar price to their current low-midrange lineup, which means you wouldn't have to pay more than $400 to buy one. In theory, it could become the first Sony phone to sell large numbers globally instead of only to a small niche audience.

Anyone agree or disagree?

No. Too much distraction and some massive players to go against. They should keep focusing on Playstation consoles because it's working out really well.

 

[Okami Haundo]

Naw. Just give us an app that lets us play games on the devices we already own. Phones move too quickly and even the minority wouldn't want to swap from their iPhone/Galaxy/Android devices for this thing. Even fewer would be willing to keep it around as a primary device for more than a few years.

 

[The Shepard]

Sony should just copy the switch and make it as powerful as a ps4, have all ps4 games work on it plus vita and psp games. I'd definitely get one. Handheld or TV.

PS5 would be it's own thing still.

Or I'd settle for a dedicated streaming device which works on ps4 and 5 plus psnow.

Something is better than nothing.

 

[HeresJohnny]

They already seem to be having trouble keeping focused, and some of their ideas seem stupid (the back button just released, for example). They need to focus like they have in the past and keep away from trivial, risky distractions. The entire market is dependent on their doing so.

 

[lock2k]

Sony should just copy the switch and make it as powerful as a ps4, have all ps4 games work on it plus vita and psp games. I'd definitely get one. Handheld or TV.

PS5 would be it's own thing still.

Or I'd settle for a dedicated streaming device which works on ps4 and 5 plus psnow.

Something is better than nothing.

A Switch style PS would be dope!

 

[Northeastmonk]

As much as I love the Vita, a PS phone would be awesome for me. How profitable would it be? You see things like the PS Classic come out. Awesome game(s), not exactly their greatest hits, but you get a good selection. Everyone complained about it. Even when you could get 3/4 of those games on PS3 digitally. It was marked at a reduced price way sooner than the SNES and NES mini.

I’d be worried it wouldn’t sell. It would be awesome to have that integration, but I feel like it needs to succeed financially.

 

[DonF]

Please no. Dont spread the resources even thinner.

Almost every Vita exclusive that was worth a damn ended up in the ps4. Just skip that step and develop more AA games for the ps4.

 

[Voost Kain]

Sony should just copy the switch and make it as powerful as a ps4,

I don't think you understand how this works. Unless you want a device that overheats and has 13 minute battery life.

 

[HaveButOneLife]

I think Sony should do another handheld, without the priciness.

The phone thing would be profitable but not respectable, I personally would prefer to have actual buttons.

Is the notion that they're never making another handheld console again even confirmed?

 

[*Nightwing]

Remote Play is why. No need for dedicated phone, and not enough users used it when it was limited to Xperia only, so opening up remote play to all android phones makes another gaming based phone way too niche.

 

[Damigos]

No thx, i d like a new vita though

 

[Valonquar]

You're having a laugh. Sony can't even keep the best handheld hardware ever going and you think they won't fuck up a phone?