#Sony’s Venture Q is the incorrect handheld for the incorrect time – Destructoid
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Sony’s Venture Q is the incorrect handheld for the incorrect time – Destructoid
A match made in Hell
The DualSense is my favourite current-generation default controller. I’m an enormous fan of handheld gaming. By rights, Sony’s just-announced Venture Q, a handheld console that seems to have all the identical options because the DualSense, must be proper on the prime of my {hardware} wishlist. And but I really feel no heat in the direction of that little machine in any respect.
That’s as a result of Venture Q shouldn’t be really a handheld console. It’s the most recent and worst in a protracted line of “kinda handhelds,” a development that I really feel fairly lukewarm in the direction of that began with the Nintendo Change. These are “handheld consoles” that primarily or completely exist to play residence console video games. They’re neat. I really like my Nintendo Change. I’m positive I’d love my Steam Deck if I owned one. However they don’t fill the identical area as actual handhelds in my thoughts. And Venture Q is the worst offender but.
Transportable, kinda
Venture Q is a streaming-only handheld. Out of the field, it’s going to use the PS5’s distant play function to stream video games. In case you haven’t caught on to the issue but, it’s this: the Venture Q is being developed not as a console however as an adjunct for the PS5. And it’s not even an particularly helpful accent.
As a result of PS5 distant play requires a relentless web connection, its away-from-home purposes are fairly restricted. Certain, you possibly can bust it out on the espresso store for some fast Returnal periods, however should you’re on the lookout for one thing to depart in your bag and seize everytime you’ve obtained some downtime in your day, you’re in all probability out of luck. Additionally, you will appear to be a large dork utilizing it wherever exterior of your personal residence due to its garish and gamerly DualSense handles (I like them, however they don’t scream “issues I would like different folks to see me utilizing”). Past that, there’s additionally the obvious 8-inch display, which is a full inch bigger than the Nintendo Change OLED and Steam Deck. These units are each already stretching the definition of “moveable” significantly, so Venture Q could as effectively have left it behind completely.
The biggest elephant within the room right here is {that a} PS5 distant play handheld already exists. A complete bunch of them exist, really, and there’s a non-zero likelihood that you just’re studying this on one in all them proper now. Sure, after all smartphones have already got PS5 distant play. And it’s fairly good! There are additionally already a ton of mobile-ready controllers – as a matter of reality, the DualSense is suitable with iOS and Android units. It’s exhausting to determine who the target market for Venture Q really is, even earlier than contemplating the still-secret worth level.
Why ought to I care?
To be clear, I’m not a Sony shareholder. The great people at Sony could make no matter unhealthy enterprise choices they need. However I am somebody who desperately misses the halcyon days of moveable handhelds. If Sony insists on dedicating tons of sources to merchandise that normal shoppers aren’t actually clamoring for, then I’d actually favor in the event that they made a brand new Vita.
Frankly, I simply miss actual handheld video games. Consoles that really slot in pockets and video games which are designed to be performed on the go. I do know these video games are nonetheless on the market – within the time since I final wrote on the subject, I’ve come to understand that there actually are fairly a couple of 3DS-ish video games on the Change and Change Lite, and that the App Retailer shouldn’t be as a lot of a wasteland as I had assumed. However at this level, handhelds that exist to place residence video games in your “pocket” (or, extra realistically, your purse or backpack) are so widespread that even the worst model of that idea takes precedence over a brand new devoted handheld. It bums me out!
I don’t actually like the thought of Venture Q. I don’t see the purpose of it. However greater than that, I don’t like what it represents. {Hardware} corporations have been hammering residence the concept that the devoted handheld is lifeless for greater than half a decade, and it appears like Sony is lastly placing the final nail in that coffin. Within the place of the PSP or PS Vita, we now have a pill for no one designed to play the precise video games you’ll be able to already play at residence, however worse. As a substitute of honing handheld design philosophy, it feels just like the business at giant simply desires to eliminate it.
I’m into the PlayStation earbuds although. I’ll put on these.
Extra Tales by Sorrel Kerr-Jung
