The PlayStation 5 has been around for half a decade now, and it’s still one of the strongest consoles on the market. But now that it’s hit the five-year mark, is Sony slowly turning its gaze toward the next mainline PlayStation?
Rumors are starting to swirl, and this time, many believe the next PlayStation might come with a portable version. Wait—what? How? Why?
It Started a Year Ago
Talk of a portable PlayStation 6 first began about a year ago, sparked by hardware leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead (MLID). But with Sony’s notoriously tight internal security, PS6 rumors have basically become an annual tradition for leakers and tech enthusiasts—despite a consistent lack of solid evidence.
According to MLID, a handheld that resembles a “Vita 2” is currently in development. Unlike the PlayStation Portal, which relies entirely on streaming over Wi-Fi, this new portable device reportedly wouldn’t need a constant connection to function.
Even better, MLID claims it could play games natively. In one of his YouTube videos, he mentions that the “Vita 2” could feature an 18 Compute Unit (CU) GPU configuration. It's slower, but it can run games consistently.
But Is It Real?
Kepler, another trusted hardware insider, has chimed in on the PS6 Portable. He’s had a series of conversations around this rumored development.
To spare you the nitty-gritty technical details, Kepler says it could also allow for native backward compatibility with all digital PlayStation 4 titles. As for PlayStation 5 games, they could potentially run too—with “Pro-like patches”—though that would require developers to get involved in optimizing each title individually.
This hints that Sony might be toying with the idea of catering to two types of players: those who want a powerful home console setup, and those who prefer something portable. But don’t expect a hybrid system like the Nintendo Switch 2—so far, it sounds more like two distinct consoles, with the portable being a supplemental option. Personally, I’m betting on the dual-console route.
What Now?
Whether the PlayStation 6 Portable is real or not doesn’t change much right now—it’s still years away, either way. But let’s face it: the PS5 is nearing the end of its cycle. With the PS5 Pro now out in the wilds, Sony’s next big step is almost certainly in PlayStation 6 territory.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about these rumors, no matter how reliable some of the sources seem. Everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt. And even if real, don’t expect to see anything solid until at least 2027 or 2028 according to a Microsoft court document.
READ: PlayStation 6 - Release Date, Tech Specs, Pricing, and Everything We Know