Sony’s PlayStation Portal remote handheld to launch this year at $199.99

Sony has announced that its portable PlayStation 5 remote player handheld will launch later this year at a $199.99 price point. It will be known as the PlayStation Portal.

We reported earlier this year that the device, then known by its project name the “Q Lite,” was in development. Apparently the device will be able to stream PS5 games over WiFi at 1080p @60FPS.

The PlayStation Portal will feature an 8″ LCD screen sandwiched between what is essentially a DualSense controller. The PlayStation Portal will also be able to mirror the PS5 via the homescreen. It won’t be able to do any kind of playback offline, however. Strangely, the PlayStation Portal won’t feature cloud gaming support. Nor will it be compatible with PlayStation VR or VR2. From the announcement post over on the PlayStation Blog,

PS VR2 games, which require the headset, and games that are streamed through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming, are not supported.”

In this the PlayStation Portal seems oddly limited for what it is. While it is rumored to be set for a November release date, nothing more specific than “later this year” has been revealed by Sony.