For Q the Bell Tolls: PS5 dependent handheld announced

This seems like an obvious mistake... Nintendo's riding high with the Switch, and Sony decides to respond to it with a throwback to the Wii U. People didn't want to be chained to an ugly, unwieldly game pad in 2012, and I doubt they've changed their minds eleven years later.

Hey now! The Wii U gamepad wasn't this ugly.

Like I was saying before, if this ends up being a streaming device the same way the Logitech G Cloud is (ie it's an Android Handheld under the hood) I would be interested dependent on price and specs. That said the design doesn't scream portable...

You'd scream if you tried to stick it in your jeans pocket.

If it fails hard and sells for twenty dollars like the Playstation TV did, I'd bite. You're right; there's a fair chance that this pseudo-system will be hacked and become more useful as a result. It just may not be powerful enough to run all the nifty games a similarly priced (or lower priced!) Anbernic or PowKiddy could run.

ArugulaZ said:

This seems like an obvious mistake... Nintendo's riding high with the Switch, and Sony decides to respond to it with a throwback to the Wii U. People didn't want to be chained to an ugly, unwieldly game pad in 2012, and I doubt they've changed their minds eleven years later.

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Why is this a mistake? This isn't like the WiiU, you don't need one in order to play PS5. If you want to ignore its existence, you can. Seems like a nice optional peripheral for people who would find value in such a thing. Maybe that won't be many people, but w/e. People should welcome having options like this.

I think this is a totally fine product, in theory, but in practice it'll mostly come down to price. You're basically giving people a way to play slightly-degraded PS5 games in bed, which is laudable! But the fact that they didn't immediately put a $99 price tag on this during the event yesterday says that it'll be more than that, at which point it's certainly not something I need in my life. If they ever add proper cloud streaming to it, it'll make a little more sense, even if the price is higher. But for now, it's no skin off my back if people out there want to buy it so they can play games while the TV is occupied or what have you.

we are living in an era of an embarrassment of riches for streaming handhelds. this is for nobody.

muteKi said:

we are living in an era of an embarrassment of riches for streaming handhelds. this is for nobody.

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You can stream your PS5 to lots of other devices at this point, but the ease of use isn’t there just yet. We’re all tech heads and usually underestimate how little patience most people have for their devices. Pairing controllers with your phone and back with your ps5 is a headache most people can’t or won’t do. Streaming my PS5 to my PC is an annoying task and I’m pretty good at this stuff. Having a dedicated and integrated device that you can just turn on and it’ll work will be for some people. It won’t be for me because I don’t have to compete with anyone for TV use at the moment. But if I had to share my TV with a hypothetical S.O. I could see something like this becoming instantly appealing depending on the quality of the screen and the ease of use.

MCBanjoMike said:

But the fact that they didn't immediately put a $99 price tag on this during the event yesterday says that it'll be more than that, at which point it's certainly not something I need in my life.

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$100 seems wildly optimistic. A standard DualSense controller already costs $70. Adding an 8” high quality screen on top of that is gonna cost a lot more than $30.

I already have a Steam Deck which can do PS5 remote play, so I do not foresee any reason I want to get this.

i'll buy this on clearance for like $50 two years from now. i'm good.

Nintendo's old failed gimmick is Sony's new genius move.