Sony’s PlayStation handheld reportedly coming in November

Sony officially confirmed its new PlayStation handheld last night and now a new rumor claims the 8-inch device will arrive in November. The claim comes from Tom Henderson, the same reporter who originally detailed Sony’s Project Q handheld last month.

“Currently slated for release mid-late November 2023,” said Henderson in a tweet this morning. Sony has yet to announce pricing or an exact release overdue, only revealing that the PlayStation handheld will launch “later this year.”

Sony’s PlayStation handheld, known only as Project Q for now, will allow PS5 owners to stream games to an 8-inch LCD screen that includes controllers on either side that are very similar to the controller DualSense PS5. The games won’t run natively on the device, meaning you’ll need to install them on a PS5 and have good Wi-Fi connectivity to stream them.

Sony hasn’t mentioned whether you’ll be able to use its PlayStation handheld outside your home, but you’ll likely be able to use Sony’s remote play technology to access your PS5 games on the go.

Sony is clearly responding to the boom in handheld gaming in recent years. Nintendo’s Switch dominated modern handheld consoles, and Valve’s Steam Deck showed what’s possible for PC gaming on the go. Whether the PlayStation handheld is a success or not will depend on whether people are willing to splash the cash on a device limited to streaming PS5 games.

It’s already possible to stream PS5 games to PCs, Macs, and iOS and Android devices, so there are certainly questions about where exactly this device will go. Adaptive triggers are a nice touch, but it certainly seems like you could get the rest with many existing mobile devices and controller options.

Sony may well expand this PlayStation handheld to cloud streaming given recent job postings that hint at a new cloud gaming push, which would certainly make sense after PlayStation chief Jim Ryan , announced “pretty aggressive plans” for cloud gaming earlier this week. But even with cloud streaming options, there’s still a big question mark over whether PS5 owners will want a PlayStation handheld that can’t play games without an internet connection.

Logitech tried something similar at a hefty price tag, so Sony’s success may well hinge on its ability to stream PlayStation games to the cloud and the price of this PlayStation handheld. Some people (including Edge editor Alex Cranz) argues that a phone is terrible for cloud gaming and wants dedicated devices, so we’ll see how the market responds.

Sony says we’ll get more details on Project Q in the coming months.