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G2ThaUNiT said:

Will be nice to get official frame gen capability in Starfield without needing to install an unofficial FSR 3 or DLSS 3 mod. I believe AMD stated that FSR 3 is compatible with 9th gen consoles, I wonder if that means that Starfield on Series X could eventually get an FSR 3 option so that we can run at 60 fps finally thanks to frame gen and AMD anti-lag.



G2ThaUNiT said:
EpicRandy said:

Exactly, Sony would need to require a Series S-like port for all their PS5 titles for them to work in a handheld form factor. 

This is not impossible but Sony would only be able to require such from 1st party for existing titles. And it's not even clear how they could add such a requirement for 3rd party going forward as they would have to renegotiate past contracts with everyone which does not seem feasible.

So this pretty much leave the possibility of a handheld being a completely separate hardware like it was for the Vita. But creating a Vita 2 that cannot defacto live off of the success of the PS5 seems like a no-go to me. The investment would be too large, and risky and cannibalize support for their main system.  

Theirs also the possibility of Sony doing a PlayStation-branded PC handheld, their PC support has increased and I expect them to fully support PCs in the short term. This is unlikely but it still appears as the likeliest path for Soy to do a handheld now IMO.

That would certainly get all the Series S haters to be silenced  

I agree though that not only would the investment be too great, but the dev power would be too great to support a separate ecosystem. We're already at the point where we'll get 1, maybe 2 games from a developer in a single console gen, Insomniac being a major exception, and pulling even more first party resources to support the separate handheld ecosystem would push timelines even further, unless Sony outsources like crazy. A big knock on the Vita was how quickly Sony first party abandoned the platform. There were certainly some notable titles for sure, but after the first year, they became scarce to nonexistent and the Vita was quickly a focus from third parties. 

A portable PS5 with Series S, if not a little greater than the Series S, level capabilities would certainly be much more doable from a dev perspective and would an enticing offer in a post-world Switch and handheld PC market.

A PS branded handheld PC I don't think would make much sense. Sony has always run proprietary software on their hardware, and to go from that to potentially running Windows, I imagine would upset a large portion of the playerbase. Not to mention, Sony's CEO specified that the console would be their primary focus and all hardware released up to this point has been dedicated to the PS5. So outside of console, software will most likely be how Sony handles mobile and PC. Whether Sony is actively working on a dedicated PC launcher though....continues to be a big question. 

Literally minutes after my post LOL:

A portable PS5 with Series S, if not a little greater than the Series S, level capabilities would certainly be much more doable from a dev perspective and would an enticing offer in a post-world Switch and handheld PC market.

Yes, the problem is that Sony cannot force all 3rd parties to port their existing titles PS5 to such a system and they likely cannot just add a clause, like MS has with their dev kit license regarding series S, mid-way through the gen. So the device would be enticing spec-wise but support would be in the same situation as the Vita was, they literally cannot make it so it lives off of the PS5 success in a binding way for the devs.  

And for such devices, Sony would want the same usual licensing policies with sold-at-a-loss hardware that require mass markets to turn a profit which would require high support which they cannot guarantee. Things just do not add up to me.  

but who knows, maybe Sony would also create a program enticing porting titles to the device in a non-binding way and are willing to throw in enough money that they believe would get them enough support.

A PS branded handheld PC I don't think would make much sense. Sony has always run proprietary software on their hardware, and to go from that to potentially running Windows, I imagine would upset a large portion of the playerbase. Not to mention, Sony's CEO specified that the console would be their primary focus and all hardware released up to this point has been dedicated to the PS5. So outside of console, software will most likely be how Sony handles mobile and PC. Whether Sony is actively working on a dedicated PC launcher though....continues to be a big question. 

You're most likely right but a few things.

  • I think documents have been leaked showing Sony has identified many aspects of their business that need to be brought up to today's standards (or something like it). So yes it would not be standard for Sony to do so but in the context of Sony reviewing their standards, who knows?
  • Sony tends to dip its toes in a few markets with limited risk especially when they are not required to support extensively (PS move, VR headsets).
  • The PC handheld market is relatively new and risks are limited considering these do not and simply cannot use a sold-at-a-loss strategy. Making it a good candidate for dipping toes and see what happens strategy.
  • The Playstation branding is strong and Sony using it with a PC handheld would give them and great edge over pretty much every other option, even the Steam deck IMO, for as long as Sony makes a decent product (I'm confident they would not screw this up).
  • Sony PC support has been increasing and, IMO, the writing is on the wall that it will eventually fully support the platform with every title especially since they want to drastically increase their revenue.

With that in mind, if I place myself in the shoes of a Sony stakeholder. I see a new market emerging with a relatively low barrier/low risk of entry, already owning a very strong brand that is compatible to some degree with it, already boasting a catalog of titles compatible with it, and which we already want to increase focus on anyway. I also see a way to diversify our hardware from being strictly in a sold-at-a-loss strategy with one subdivision that is not and a compatibility with our current increasing revenue focus.
Why would I not push for it? What would hold me back?



shikamaru317 said:
Dulfite said:

I don't get the rumors about PS handheld being able to play PS5 level games. Unless the device is like 3-4 years away from release, it would be insanely expensive to cram that much power into a handheld. Who is going to buy a $700+ handheld device? That's too expensive for the typical handheld gamer.

It doesn't have to have the specs of PS5 itself to play PS5 games, games are highly scalable these days. They only need AMD hardware for compatibility purposes and specs high enough to play games that run at say 1440-1800p on PS5 at 720p or so on the handheld (or even 540p and then use AMD's FSR to improve the look of the resolution), and then devs will be able to port PS5 games to the handheld with minimal effort (full PS4 back compat should be achievable as well as long as the specs are high enough, Series S for instance has full Xbox One BC minus the graphics improvements of Xbox One X).

The specs necessary to pull that off should be doable within a year or two most likely for the same $400 that Switch 2 is rumored to be launching at later this year. 

If it's that easy to cram that much tech into a handheld at an affordable price, then why are people convinced NS won't be around the same power level and that it will instead be at more of a PS4 level?



Dulfite said:
shikamaru317 said:

It doesn't have to have the specs of PS5 itself to play PS5 games, games are highly scalable these days. They only need AMD hardware for compatibility purposes and specs high enough to play games that run at say 1440-1800p on PS5 at 720p or so on the handheld (or even 540p and then use AMD's FSR to improve the look of the resolution), and then devs will be able to port PS5 games to the handheld with minimal effort (full PS4 back compat should be achievable as well as long as the specs are high enough, Series S for instance has full Xbox One BC minus the graphics improvements of Xbox One X).

The specs necessary to pull that off should be doable within a year or two most likely for the same $400 that Switch 2 is rumored to be launching at later this year. 

If it's that easy to cram that much tech into a handheld at an affordable price, then why are people convinced NS won't be around the same power level and that it will instead be at more of a PS4 level?

Latest rumors I saw suggest Switch 2 is somewhere between PS4 and Xbox Series S (so somewhere between Steam Deck and the more powerful Asus ROG Ally compared to PC handhelds), but I think the main reason some people aren't hopeful for Switch 2's specs, is that Nintendo seems to always choose a higher profit margin over using cutting edge tech and losing money per console or only breaking even. Look at Switch 1 for instance, it is a handheld/console hybrid released in 2017, but powered by a chipset consisting of a CPU from 2012 and a GPU from 2015, so it wasn't exactly cutting edge tech for 2017. Hopefully Nintendo is planning to push further tech wise on Switch 2 than they did on Switch 1, especially considering the rumored $400 price tag, but we'll have to wait and see. 



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...to avoid getting banned for inactivity, I may have to resort to comments that are of a lower overall quality and or beneath my moral standards.



Another Xbox play time update.

My last update was from August '23.

1.Assassin's Creed Odyssey103 hours
2.Persona 5 Royal98 hours
3.Dragon Age Inquisition96 hours
4.Assassin's Creed Valhalla87 hours
5.Gems of War85 hours
6.Kingdom Come: Deliverance76 hours
7.Battle Islands75 hours
8.Project Spark72 hours
9.The Witcher 371 hours
10.Fallout Shelter71 hours
11.Immortals: Fenyx Rising69 hours
12.Marvel's Midnight Suns68 hours (+ 68h)
13.Yakuza: Like A Dragon68 hours
14.Lies of Asteroth60 hours
15.Assassin's Creed Origins60 hours
16.Starfield55 hours (+ 55h)
17.Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition53 hours
18.Persona 4 Golden53 hours
19.Minecraft (X1 + Bedrock Edition)52 hours
20.Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy51 hours
21.Divinity: Original Sin 249 hours
22.Valkyria Chronicles 447 hours
23.Forza Horizon 346 hours
24.Octopath Traveler46 hours
25.Dragon Quest XI S46 hours

Marvel's Midnight Suns and Starfield join the list at #12 and #16 respectively.
Judgment and Battle Ages (thank god lol) got kicked out of the top 25.

Just started Persona 3 Reload so assuming it's similar in length as Persona 4, it might make the list in a couple of weeks.

Also finished Persona 5 Tactica around two months ago. Took me 39 hours to finish so it didn't quite made the list.
Yakuza Ishin took me 29 hours to finish, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name 25 hours.



Oh boy. I just started AC Odyssey last week. 20 hours in. 103 hours huh? Guess I'll be playing this for the rest of Feb.



Zippy6 said:

Oh boy. I just started AC Odyssey last week. 20 hours in. 103 hours huh? Guess I'll be playing this for the rest of Feb.

I'm also playing right now, lol.  I'm 58 hours in and barely a level 25.  I always stop to smell the roses so my play through will likely be above 200 hours.  I'm in no hurry.  I don't get too many hours to game so I'm predicting April to 100%.



...to avoid getting banned for inactivity, I may have to resort to comments that are of a lower overall quality and or beneath my moral standards.