Strong PlayStation Portal sales bode well for Sony's PS5 Pro and PSP 2
Sony PS5 Pro is rumored to launch in September, while PSP 2 may come next year
💸 PlayStation Portal continues to sell well despite initial doubts by fans
🎮 Sony is said to be working on PS5 Pro, likely to launch in September
🙌 A true PSP 2 handheld is also rumored to arrive as soon as next year
📈 Continued console and accessories sales bode well for both devices
Sony’s PlayStation Portal remote player is the best-selling gaming accessory of 2024 so far, according to an executive at a top video game analysis firm. That bodes well for the upcoming PS5 Pro this fall and next year’s PSP 2 handheld.
“The PlayStation Portal was the best-selling accessory in dollar sales for both May and 2024 year-to-date,” said Mat Piscatella, the executive director at NPD. This is good news for Sony, given the PlayStation Portal restock chaos early in its launch.
Sony’s PSP 2 to rival PC gaming handhelds
When Sony first announced the PlayStation Portal as an accessory last year, long-time PlayStation fans doubted it. It can’t play games on its own, requiring a PS5 console and a strong WiFi connection. Those PlayStation Portal drawbacks should be remedied by the PSP 2 next year, but until then, the current PlayStation Portal remains a viable second-screen device for remotely playing PS5 games.
As I said last month, PlayStation Portal feels like a prelude to PSP 2. As it gets firmware updates, it seems as if Sony is fine-tuning the UI for a much larger rollout of a handheld console. In other words, the PlayStation Portal is almost a referee device for what Sony plans to build with the PSP 2.
The prospect of a PSP 2 is exciting. We’ve written about several different PC gaming handhelds in the last year-and-a-half on The Shortcut. The Asus ROG Ally X, Steam Deck OLED, MSI Claw 8 AI+, Lenovo Legion Go and Zotac Zone. Except maybe for Valve’s Steam Deck, Sony PlayStation is the only brand with exclusive games to generate extra interest in a modern-day handheld console.
PS5 Pro could launch in weeks
News that the PS5 Pro launch may be in September means that Sony will refresh its PS5 and PS5 Slim consoles with newer, more powerful hardware before PSP 2 arrives. The actual release date is likely to be closer to November.
Again, some fans The Shortcut spoke to expressed doubts about needing a brand-new Sony console when they fought so hard to buy a PS5 restock so late after launch. The strongest sentiment is, “I feel like I just got this thing!”
But the surprising PlayStation Portal sales show that there’s an audience for new PlayStation hardware – as long as there are convincing features and the upcoming PS5 games list continues to grow and segue into our best PS5 games list.
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