Days before the Playstation Showcase, SIE CEO Jim Ryan proclaimed in a Sony business call that they were planning “some fairly interesting and quite aggressive plans” in regards to streaming and cloud-based gaming. Well, the first step of that seems to be Project Q, a handheld streaming device.
The existence of Project Q was leaked a while back, and at the time seemed to suggest Sony was working on a portable games machine designed for streaming using their existing Remote Play service. It didn’t make much sense since players can already stream from their Playstation to a tablet or phone, and there are plenty of awesome gadgets to turn your device into a controller like the official Playstation Backbone. Surely there must be something else to it.
Nope.
Project Q is indeed “a dedicated device that enables you to stream any game from your PS5 console using remote play over wi-fi”. The wording seems very specific about using remote play over wi-fi, almost seeming to imply that you can’t use the device outside of your home. That would be strange, though, because Remote Play can be used currently be used wherever you can get data, provided your Playstation console is on. However, if Project Q has no way of accessing mobile data then it would have to rely on wi-fi or a Hotspot.
It will feature an 8″ 1080p screen and has all the functionality of a Dualsense controller, which also explains why it looks like someone cut a Dualsense in half and taped a screen between the two pieces. I mean, that’s literally what it looks like. Just look at it.
No pricing or launch date was announced, making its reveal at the Showcase seem rather pointless.
To go with the handheld, Playstation also briefly showed off their new wireless earbuds that claim to provide lossless audio on PS5 and PC.
When this handheld device was first leaked I commented on how I thought it was an utterly useless device, and now that it’s official I feel exactly the same. What’s the point of it, and who is it really for? It might appeal to folk who want to kick back in bed with a Playstation game, but they can already do that with a phone and a Playstation Backbone
What am I missing? Help me out here, guys.
