A New Sony Handheld Console Might be in the Works

All gamers may be getting an announcement soon about a new handheld console from Sony, as a new patent from the company has been filed in South Korea for a game cartridge that resembles the model of the Nintendo Switch. This isn’t a surprise, as Sony said a while ago, that they are not giving up on the portable console market, despite the poor sales numbers of the Playstation Vita.

Dutch site TechTastic revealed the patent, which was filed with Korean Intellectual Property Right Information Service (KIPRIS). The patent shows a game cartridge with a small port on one end and a hole on the other.

Check out the image of the patent filed in South Korea:

PlayStation CEO John Kodera gave gamers a lot of hints in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year, that the company was aiming towards the portable market, implying the company was looking to integrate some form of portability into its console lineup:

“In my opinion, rather than separating portable gaming from consoles, it’s necessary to continue thinking of it (portable gaming) as one method to deliver more gaming experiences and exploring what our customers want from portable… We want to think about many options.”

This new cartridge could be for some new kind of handheld device, maybe one that is more tied to a standalone console, it could be the Playstation 5 for all we know. If this turns to be true, we could see a new form of portable gaming experiences where gamers can have the power of a standalone next generation console in a handheld form.

The Verge said in an article on their website:

“Since this is a design patent there’s little in the way of detail about how the cartridge might function (although we know it’ll be made out of metal and synthetic resin), but it suggests that Sony is at least considering a followup to the PlayStation Vita, which was widely considered to be a failure. The handheld console sold just 16 million units, compared to the 73 million units of its competitor, Nintendo’s 3DS, and the 80 million sold by its predecessor, the PSP. The Vita is due to finally cease production in Japan next year.”

Check out the image that shows some details about the patent:

This is just speculation at this point, but it is difficult to estimate when Sony will be announcing their new handheld console. Although, there was already a patent from Sony in 2017 that was discovered for a handheld that suspiciously looked a lot like the Nintendo Switch. The controllers that were on the sides of the handheld device, seem to be based on the design of the Dualshock 4, the controller of the current PlayStation 4 console. It is important to note that not all patents eventually become a reality.

Here’s an image of the previous patent released on 2017: