Did Sony just hint at a 5G PlayStation Portable?

A new 5G PSP handheld console makes perfect sense. Here's why

 

 Sony just made an interesting and potentially very revealing comment which suggests that the company is planning to release a new portable PlayStation, perhaps alongside the upcoming PS5.

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On April 27 Sony Corporation released its FY2017 financial results and, while overall these were good, in terms of its smartphone business, numbers were disappointingly poor. So poor in fact that Sony felt it needed to explain why it is staying in the phone business at all. The reason supplied by Sony? 5G technology.

Here's the report's key quote:

"By enabling high-speed communication, low-latency and simultaneous connectivity, 5G, which is expected to be commercialized in the near future, is a technology which we view as having immense potential, since it can connect all portable devices to the cloud. In order to fully utilize this leading-edge technology, we need to retain in-house our fundamental research capability and capability to create related applications. By continuing to work on 5G in our smartphone business, we are aiming to develop 5G technology as a competency that can be used across the Sony Group."

 So Sony is staying in the smartphone business "to develop 5G technology as a competency that can be used across the Sony Group.”

Now, if you look across the Sony Group, at its divisions and technology markets, the most obvious and – considering the Nintendo Switch's insane popularity – potentially profitable area for 5G technology is in portable gaming, specifically portable gaming streamed from the cloud.

 As T3 has reported over the past few years, both at the Tokyo Game Show and at E3, the current Xbox One X versus PS4 Pro-style internal hardware war each console generation seems to be becoming less relevant, with both Microsoft and Sony investing heavily in streaming technology and services (just look at last year's big play by Microsoft with its Xbox Game Pass subscription service) to help them transition seamlessly into a cloud-based future gaming landscape.

 When you partner this with the insanely positive reaction by gamers to the portable Nintendo Switch console, which shows full-fat portable gaming experiences are very, very much in demand, it leads to the obvious conclusion that a new 5G-equipped PSP, a console that in its original incarnation was both much-loved and financially successful, is a very real possibility that could be realised far sooner than anyone thinks.

If Sony's 5G plans don't include a new PSP, the tech could also be heading to the company's cameras and laptops, but it's the prospect of a 5G PSP that excites us the most.