PSP had models wtih TV out. PSV has no TV out which was daft. Switch (or a Vita 2) should have HDMI out and some screen casting implementation in the unit, as well as whatever base station, along with wireless controller support. A flip-out stand and USB power in the bottom right corner and HDMI in the bottom/top left would be ideal for a myriad of uses. Always struck me as odd that Nintendo went half-way but not the whole hog, and could have made a notably better system for little extra.
Some surveys...I really do not get this wish for a portable
How many of you actually spent much time with the Vita? Or carry around the Switch?
Just curious
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...using_switch_as_a_handheld_rather_than_docked
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Switch is selling well but the PS4 outsold it by ~50k in NPD this month (april)
So what would be the roadmap for shrinking the PS4 APU enough that a handheld device might be plausible?
If they were to do it, you'd think they'd want to launch a year before the PS5 launch, which could be 2019, 2020 or 2021?
Can there be a portable chipset delivering PS4 performance a year before those potential launch dates?
If they were to do it, you'd think they'd want to launch a year before the PS5 launch, which could be 2019, 2020 or 2021?
Can there be a portable chipset delivering PS4 performance a year before those potential launch dates?
Mihailjones
Newcomer
Switch sells well, on some countries.
Ps4 sells well on most countries.
That is the difference.
In my country (Finland) PS4 sold out for month or two, it were hard/impossible to find.
Switch didn't sell out at all here, even on launch days evening I saw it in every store i visited in 3 towns. Never seen empty shelf of switches, still seen empty ps4 shelfs sometimes.
And meanwhile switch were sold out in US/japan for months.
Handhelds are handhelds, they dont mix well with home consoles. As in they are always compromises, mainly the power and power is main sellingpoint for many.
Maybe not most powerful, but console need to be "better" than last gen for many consumers.
Ps4 sells well on most countries.
That is the difference.
In my country (Finland) PS4 sold out for month or two, it were hard/impossible to find.
Switch didn't sell out at all here, even on launch days evening I saw it in every store i visited in 3 towns. Never seen empty shelf of switches, still seen empty ps4 shelfs sometimes.
And meanwhile switch were sold out in US/japan for months.
Handhelds are handhelds, they dont mix well with home consoles. As in they are always compromises, mainly the power and power is main sellingpoint for many.
Maybe not most powerful, but console need to be "better" than last gen for many consumers.
Is it the difference between consoles and handhelds or the difference between PS4 software lineup vs. Switch software lineup which might account for the PS4 being more popular in some countries?
Obviously PS4 has a more extensive library, including a lot of older games which are now cheap. Compared that with one Mario and one Zelda game for the Switch.
Obviously PS4 has a more extensive library, including a lot of older games which are now cheap. Compared that with one Mario and one Zelda game for the Switch.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
~70% use it docked.
~82% use it undocked.
People that play it primarily in only one mode are in a slight minority (~48% versus ~52% that play it in both modes).
Nintendo did a fantastic job in creating a device that a lot of people want to use in various ways.
They also did an extremely good job in getting a lot of indie developers on the platform without flooding it with a lot of the indie crap that you find on PS4 and Steam.
Regards,
SB
Tkumpathenurpahl
Veteran
I'd put money on a 2019 PS4 portable (and wireless PSVR2) and a 2020 PS5.
7nm has entered mass production this year, which makes it viable for a console next year. This year, on 14/16nm, AMD have already released a 1.3TF laptop APU with 11CU's, so 1.84TF with 18CU's is very doable on an improved process.
The question is memory. HBM2 and above could easily achieve the requisite bandwidth with pretty low power draw, but it's quite expensive. I recall MrFox stating that GDDR6 would be viable - it's certainly cheaper.
It would still have laptop levels of power draw, rather than mobile, so the form factor and cooling solution is still anyone's guess.
I'd love to see them release the following in 2019:
- Wireless PSVR2, with a new PlayStation camera, which connects via HDMI 2.1 and USB 3.1 type-c. Existing PS4's use a breakout box for connecting said camera.
- Move 2 controllers. Pretty much a split DualShock 4. We saw a Sony patent emerge a little while ago for something like this.
- Stress that the PSVR2, PS camera 2, and Move 2 controllers are all designed with the PS5 in mind.
- PS4Pro Slim. Slimmer, quieter, with a UHD Blu-ray drive. Dedicated HDMI and USB ports for the camera or existing PSVR breakout box.
- PS4 Micro shell. A dock with an HDD and Blu-ray drive. Same dedicated HDMI and USB ports for the camera or existing PSVR breakout box.
- PS4 Portable shell. A screen and storage, with a MicroSD card slot. HDMI out, as well as the above VR-dedicated HDMI and USB ports.
- PS4 processing cartridge. Sold in bundles with either of the above shells.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
I waited for the Switch versions of Stardew Valley and Death Road to Canada because both are the type of games that work great both in mobile mode and on a TV. Flame in the Flood slightly less so because the UI is tiny on the Switch's native screen. Lego City Undercover is another game i chosen to spend more on to play on Switch compared to PC or PS4 but it's a great game to be able to play anywhere.
And that is 100% the appeal of Switch. You don't buy games to play at home or play away from home, you just buy games that - mostly - work well everywhere and anywhere. How many people had zero interest in playing PSP/DS/3DS/Vita games on the TV or 360/PS3/PS4/Xbox games on the go without relying on some streaming solution? The everybody who wants to do those things, the Switch appeals hugely.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
I think a lot of people are forgetting there might not be a business case for a new Sony portable.
The reason switch works is because Nintendo has to produce only one device, Devs have to target only one device and consumers only have to buy one device/game.
Sony will definitely release a ps5 so a portable is going to cut in to PS4/ps5. I don't see tens of millions of people suddenly buying a Sony portable that wouldn't have bought a PS4/5.
So why would Sony and devs invest so much money into something that probably isn't going to gain them that many additional customers?
The reason switch works is because Nintendo has to produce only one device, Devs have to target only one device and consumers only have to buy one device/game.
Sony will definitely release a ps5 so a portable is going to cut in to PS4/ps5. I don't see tens of millions of people suddenly buying a Sony portable that wouldn't have bought a PS4/5.
So why would Sony and devs invest so much money into something that probably isn't going to gain them that many additional customers?
After their experiences with the Vita and the PSP, they may not be interested.
If it's going to work, it's going to have to be timing, somewhere in between when PS4 sales really tale off but before they're ready to launch the PS5.
Also would have to be at a time when Switch sales have leveled off.
So maybe they can draft on the success of the Switch, if there is a big enough market for people who want to play PS4 franchises, some of which are getting very good reviews, on a portable device.
Or maybe the Switch has absorbed all the people willing to buy a portable gaming device and there is no market and those people won't be enticed by a more state of the art product which can offer access to some of the best games of the past 5 years or so.
Tkumpathenurpahl
Veteran
That's why the general consensus here is that a portable PS4 would be the best approach: it takes nothing away from PS4 development, which can continue unabated for a few years yet if the PS5 is backwards compatible.
The Switch has made it clear that there's a market for portables, so why wouldn't Sony and Microsoft make portable versions of their consoles when it's technically viable?
A 10" tablet with active cooling and HDMI out is all it would take to easily scratch the portable itch of anyone already involved in their ecosystems. I can't see either of them just flatly ceding that ground to Nintendo.
I saw a headline recently that mobile gaming revenues recently passed console gaming revenues.
Of course mobile is all freemium games mostly.
In any event, there is an appetite for gaming on devices which is easy to have with you in more places.
Console games, which offer more depth and tend to demand longer gaming sessions, may be a niche of mobile gaming. But the niche may be large enough to be a good business. Clearly that's the case for the Switch.
Maybe there's room for another, maybe there isn't. But towards the end of next year, the Switch will seem stale -- though no doubt there will have been more major first-party releases for the Switch which will sell millions or tens of millions.
Of course mobile is all freemium games mostly.
In any event, there is an appetite for gaming on devices which is easy to have with you in more places.
Console games, which offer more depth and tend to demand longer gaming sessions, may be a niche of mobile gaming. But the niche may be large enough to be a good business. Clearly that's the case for the Switch.
Maybe there's room for another, maybe there isn't. But towards the end of next year, the Switch will seem stale -- though no doubt there will have been more major first-party releases for the Switch which will sell millions or tens of millions.
If it's as trivial to do as you make it sound, yes, they should and would. However, realistically there's a significant cost. How many units could you expect to shift? Would you make money on the hardware or just the software? If just the software, and you sell to existing console owners who'll use their existing library for no extra money, you make zero dollars per unit.
For Nintendo, it's their only console and the only place to play Nintendo's key franchises, so they could be confident of a few tens of millions of sales minimum with lots of software sales. A portable XB1 or PS4 could have anything from 5 million to 50 million sales and who-knows-what software sales per unit. It's one hell of a gamble for some hundreds of millions minimum investment to create and launch the product.
Maybe they need to hit up Kickstarter?
Being able to play PS4 games which would just have a minor patch would be ideal for consumers.
But for Sony and the publishers, they would probably want a unique format which they could monetize again, rather than letting people buy PS4 games off the bargain bin or used and then being able to install and play those for minimal or no cost.
If the porting to support the built-in screen and the handheld console's unique features (like being able to suspend anywhere in the game and resume instantly from wake on sleep might require some new coding to use suspend/wake APIs) requires enough work, sure, they should be paid for it. But it would be great if God of War or Horizon Zero Dawn are priced like the PS4 remixes of PS3 games are, like no more than $40 at launch. That's assuming the levels and other content are pretty much the same.
Ideally, Sony's tools will just allow them to click a flag for PS4 and this PS4 portable as targets and 95% or more of the code would be the same. Essentially the Switch allows the same code to work in portable or docked mode, the latter with greater details or performance or both.
But for Sony and the publishers, they would probably want a unique format which they could monetize again, rather than letting people buy PS4 games off the bargain bin or used and then being able to install and play those for minimal or no cost.
If the porting to support the built-in screen and the handheld console's unique features (like being able to suspend anywhere in the game and resume instantly from wake on sleep might require some new coding to use suspend/wake APIs) requires enough work, sure, they should be paid for it. But it would be great if God of War or Horizon Zero Dawn are priced like the PS4 remixes of PS3 games are, like no more than $40 at launch. That's assuming the levels and other content are pretty much the same.
Ideally, Sony's tools will just allow them to click a flag for PS4 and this PS4 portable as targets and 95% or more of the code would be the same. Essentially the Switch allows the same code to work in portable or docked mode, the latter with greater details or performance or both.