The Sony PS6 Handheld IS REAL

0:00Andy the PlayStation Handheld is closer than we think, apparently. Asterix rumours and leaks, right? So loads of rumours and leaks have dropped literally like the day after we did the last podcast about PS Six. And specifically the bit that interested me was PlayStation Handheld. Of course, I'm very excited by the prospect of it from Moore's Law. Moore's Law is dead. And he was reporting on Kepler L2. Whatever the hell it. Yeah, yeah, whatever the hell are called. The leaker.

0:31Well known leaker. Yeah. The. Game is. Drummer Mario straight away. So I wanted to round up the information that we have in hand about the PlayStation handheld for us to pull it apart. Kind of look at like how realistic some of this stuff is, how exciting it could be if that is true, and how the price estimation is way way. Off the mark, what they lived in 2017. I know, I know. I'm going to start with that because the claim is that this device is going to be around $500. Retail, yeah, that's good.

1:07Is it? Which I find it impossible to believe when switch to with Nintendo and they're struggling to hit that mark despite selling like giga tons of the device and there's talk of them putting the price up so it'll go above probably above that mark. Yes exactly, I was just about to say it's going to be more like than that for the Switch too. So how they can expect APS 6 handheld to be 500? That's like people still thinking that the Steam Machine's going to be 500. It's like that.

1:42That ship sailed a long time ago. Absolutely. To be fair, like with Moore's Law's dead, they put together like the bill of materials from what they could find, what they could estimate, plastic, rubber, glass, the screen. Yeah. So I think firstly, take the price for this with a grain of salt, but it gives you an idea of kind of value point that they're kind of aiming at. Yeah, when we look at the specs, code named project Cannabis Cannis. I saw that. I thought it was cannabis.

2:26Yeah. I mean, to be fair, they must be smoking a lot of that to come up with that price point. So it makes sense. I'll, I'll read I'll read through some of the bits that we know then we can pick it apart. It's going to be a true an actual native handheld console. And that's why, firstly, I'm excited. Yeah, none of this PS Portal streaming device thing, which has its merits but is a bit long in the tooth for it to be called a handheld, be able to fully run PS-5 and PS4 games natively.

2:59Yes. So it's effectively straight away I'm going to say it's APS portal for the PS6 games. It'll be play online or stream from your PS6 and then you'll be able to play locally PS-5 or PS4 games, which I think is fine. Like I'm going to just hold my hands up and say that's fine. I I tend to agree with you. There's also this weird thing as well that will happen if the PS6 does launch as early as they are claiming, which is end of 2027 and this handheld is supposed to launch alongside it. Yes.

3:29Does that mean that we have 3 generations that are alive at the same time? Yeah, because PS4 is still pretty much and a live generation as we speak right now isn't. It yeah, I suppose. I mean, I don't think there's any first party PlayStation games go into it though, is there? So very. Recently I think they've stopped as in like in the past few months. Like last week. Yeah, we I was looking again the other night at what PS-5 exclusive titles there are as in games they haven't also launched on the PS4 and it was 20 in total. Oh, it's gone up then because we, we did a big like thing about this probably a year ago and there was like 3. But that did include Wolverine.

4:23Oh nice. Which isn't out yet, no, And Intergalactic by Naughty Dog which isn't out yet as well. But they are going to be PS-5 exclusive titles which is cool. Yes so, but in my mind PS4 will still be relatively alive at this point. So we are at very least going to have PS Five games still being launched in 2027. Oh, absolutely. And all of Sony's first party stuff will still be launched on PS-5, so if this can run PS Five games then it's going to be fine, isn't?

4:58It pretty, pretty current, yeah. Yeah. So what you're getting at is basically if you look at the launch of the PS-5, PS4 and PS-5 were like together for a long time, you know, and it was only really worth upgrading if you really wanted that like PS-5 upgrade version or whatever. So yeah, if they do launch the PS6 at late 27, I'm thinking more 28. But regardless if they do launch that and PS-5 still full underway, you're going to have that bleed over where stuff's cross-platform launched.

5:29So I suppose you will still be playing technically like PS Six games on this because they'll be launching side by side, it's just you'll be playing the PS-5 version rather than the PS6, but who cares because it's going to be on a small screen so you don't need that extra power. So yeah, it excites me actually. And then when it eventually goes to PS6 exclusive only and PS-5 gets killed off, you'll be able to stream to the thing. I pretty much am certain of it. So that it is exciting and it kind of excites me a little bit. I, I wanted to talk about this later, but I'm talking about it now.

6:01It excites me a little bit about the fact that they've kind of come out and really pissed me off by saying that they're not doing first party titles to PC anymore. It's going to be multiplayer only. We did a big podcast about it recently. So if it means I don't need to buy APS 6 and I can have APS 6 handheld instead, then then that's great because I will be able to play Wolverine and stuff like that on a, on a cheaper model. Because even though I know it's projected 500, but whatever it is, even if it's £1,000,000, the actual full cost of the big PS 6 is going to be double that, isn't it? So, so it actually excites me.

6:38It does excite that. That's what you've touched on, a really interesting point I was going to get to later, but actually we're there. It's a lot of the talk from the internal documents is that they are touting this not just to make a stake for the handheld market, which is really expanding rapidly, but also to make a more accessible console for a budget price point, which I think's accepting slight defeat that main consoles are going to be closer to 1000 dollars, 1000 lbs than they want to be and they need to offer that kind of Xbox Series SI was going.

7:14To say that, yeah, yeah, yeah, I totally agree. For all the flaws that the Series S gave the Xbox, that Xbox generation, what the one key advantage it did give us that it was an incredibly cheap way to get into Xbox games at that. Time and it and it also kind of drives the the forward March for the handhelds because it was the lower powered system. Do you know what I mean so it's like an Xbox were very strict like if you're bringing something to Xbox series X, it must play on series S2 and so they had to find a way of cutting corners and making it run on the thing and now that's just going to start getting replaced with handhelds. So like you said, yeah, the the PS6 handheld is the Series S cool.

7:58This, this kind of March towards handhelds has been inevitable for PlayStation for a while. There's been a lot of rumors. The Portal was kind of almost at testing the ground and it's the best selling accessory of all time. It's pretty insane for PlayStation. We see it then huge growth for the Switch to and then the PC handhelds, which is still kind of, they're still in a little bit of their own playpen, aren't they? PC handhelds are still in this kind of niche area.

8:22PlayStation would be like a mainstream play for the handheld space. They've been testing it quietly with every user of the PlayStation operating system. She's been really interesting. This isn't in this leak information, but kind of putting together stories now about I want to say it's about 3 months ago they started rolling out low power mode yes, on PlayStation operating systems and they were dressing it up as this is a way for you to save energy to be greener with your PlayStation 5. All of us kind of like nerds with a tinfoil hats and we're going.

8:59Are they testing low wattage configurations here to see if their games can still run? Yep, which is exactly what it I mean there's make no bones about it. That's exactly what it was. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Let's see how low we can the wattage we can get on this to see if the games will still be stable, if we can have lower power builds running. So it's been coming for a long time. Anyway, more on it. The big thing that really excite me straight away dockable PlayStation handheld in this leak. Yes, yes, yes.

9:37So they are like like you said, it would be big once they join because that's like the mainstream coming here because Xbox allies then they're not really an Xbox like let's just, you know, get that straight. It was a step in the right direction, but this will be an actual PlayStation, just like the PSP and V and stuff in its own you know sense. So if they go this route and then let it be dockable again, it's satisfying that series XS market. You know that that lower the cheaper tiered, the lower powered tiered you could dock the thing.

10:08You can run your PS4 PS five games stream your PS6 games, you know from their cloud service. Maybe if you own the PS6 upgrade or whatever, it might be like it is the the affordable option, but it also is a massive win for us handheld users because it's not just strictly over your handheld. They're going to give you that option to dock it with, I imagine a very expensive proprietary PlayStation branded dock. But the options there, they're not killing that out. You know, they're not like making sure that they don't have like Thunderbolt Usbs or whatever. So you can't like put video for it. But yeah.

10:43Yeah, yeah, the talk is just going to be USBC video out and of course the dock will increase the clock speeds to the higher. What would you be able to run at? Yeah. So yeah, that makes sense. Exactly how the Switch 2 works, which is it's really cool to see. I want to combine this with the rumors of the upgraded PS portal that's supposed to be coming this year, which has an O LED 144 Hertz. Is it 120 Hertz? Why are they going that high when like no games run at that? I don't know, you don't stream games at 120 FPS do you? So not from their servers at least like and even locally like APS 5.

11:22What games is that running at 100? Maybe if you. I haven't got APS 5 anymore. I sold it ages ago because they started bringing PlayStation games to PC and now they backtrack on that. That's why I'm pissed off with them. So. In the Xbox you can flip it to 1080P mode to make sure that you get like 120 FPS right? So I assume that the PlayStation 5 has that as well. So say I don't want 4K give me 1080P, but higher frame rate. Now it makes sense. You know, if you if you flick your PlayStation over and you're locally streaming on your network, then yes, you would be able to achieve high frame rate to your PlayStation portal. I don't know about streaming it from their servers, how stable that would be at such a high frame rate. I'd imagine like artifacting and bit rate issues. Bit rate issues, we think you're just getting crushing. Yeah, but it's exciting.

12:12It's. Exciting, yeah, just the OLED part I think is exciting with that if if this PlayStation handhelds OLED as well, then I think they win the kind of PR war straight away yeah. That's what everyone wants. Everyone wants it, yeah. Everyone wants OLED. If it's VRR or not, I don't think people actually fully understand the advantage of it still. People. Yeah, people still. Don't and I'm bored of talking about VRR versus OLED yes so bored of it yes yeah fully touchscreen micro SD card slot m.two SSD, what kind of stuff you you kind of have to have today yes happy feedback dual mics can.

12:49We pause that. Did you say micro SD card slot? Yeah. Let's see if they've learned their lesson from the PlayStation Vita, because they again made their own proprietary memories, yes. So if they actually go micro SD, it's going to be micro SD Express. There's no doubt about that. So we're going to be on Switch to territory and it's going to be expensive. You do make a really good point though, don't you? Because Sony, for the longest time, their business is in media, not in hardware.

13:25It's in formats, It's in CDs, it's in mini discs. Mini discs, yeah. They they're the company that make mediums, so yeah, they always want their own medium where possible. Would they use a micro SD express? Bring back the UMD, bring back the PSP discs. I want that. Yes, please. I want to be sat on a bus, go over a bump and have the game skip like that's what I want. All the movies, yeah. Yeah, that's where it's at. I want the Walkman experience please.

14:01Actually the hardware specs itself, because the rest of it is it's basically going to have the the features of a dual sense controller, haptic feedback and nice. Do you think it's going to look like a Play PlayStation Portal or are you going to try and distinctively like differentiate itself? The problem with it looking like a portal, well sorry. The advantages first of all is the portal looks really cool. It's very slick looking device. It's very thin. Yeah.

14:29And it's very thin because it doesn't have to do anything. It's basically just a screen and a batteries and let's be honest, and an antenna. The if they keep exactly the same format, the screen is going to have to be so thick to get this, this kind of what we're going to talk about with the hardware specs now. I don't think it works, and for it to be proper it'll end up looking a lot like the Xbox allies. That's where I was going with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

15:01I think it's. Just with PlayStation horns instead. And I suppose because it's APS six, they try and adapt or change the controllers every generation. So I suppose it's going to be quite obviously different if they change the Dual Sense 2 or whatever it might be at that time. But like you said, it's just going to look like a PlayStation branded Xbox ally. Yeah, Symmetrical joysticks instead, yes, Yeah, because you'll have to take up more real estate of the bits in between. You still have to.

15:33The thing that I disliked about the Xbox allies as soon as we saw them aesthetically, because it had a big old chin on it. Yeah, the bezels. Are big, yeah, but also like the chin, yeah, when you look at like, yeah, like. Boo. Yeah, I mean. Johnny Bravo jaw I've got. Got 1. There he is. Look at that chin. There it is. Look at that fat. Like it is thick, like it's not. Well, it is chunky at the top, but on the bottom it is. That's fat. Like we're talking about what is going to be a similar architecture inside to the to those that.

16:14Yeah. So size wise, that's kind of like Acers haven't made that thick on purpose. They've tried to make it as thin as possible, keeping weight distribution and heat right. Yes, and they are effective. They're APC company Acers, so they have extreme experience with building laptops and portable high-powered systems. So they know how to balance that. Like they chose the perfect place for the battery so that it balanced right. They cocked the screen at an angle so when it's held in your hands it's a natural viewing angle. Sony, I'd argue, don't have that experience. Like I suppose you you do get Sony laptops and stuff, don't you?

16:51Do they still make Vios or whatever they were called? The thing where you saw like Orlando Bloom like using in the like 2000s and stuff like that? Do you know what I mean? Like they all they. I've just seen one, I've not seen one in the wild for the longest. Time. Yeah, I was going to say I might be dating myself here, but. But they did make them. Whether they actually made them or not is the other thing. True. That is true. So maybe they did so, but yeah, they they don't have the same experiences like Lenovo or Asus do in in laptop manufacturing.

17:22Yeah, I wouldn't have thought so, no. And when we start talking about the actual like specs that are rumoured here, then you start getting an idea of how big this thing might be as well, which makes it an interesting aesthetic. Fours and 6C cores, 8 threads in total. RDNA 512 to 20 compute units clocked up to two gigahertz when docked. Yeah, yeah, RDNA 5's the actual interesting part there. That's the exciting bit because we know AMD have come out and said we're sticking with RDNA 3.5 and we're skipping RDNA 4 and like RDNA 3.5 is listed to be up until 2029.

18:10So that might give you an indication of what's going on here, but. But. The the GPUs and stuff, they are saying that they will launch sooner. It's just the Socs that are going to sit on our DNA 3.5 until 2029. So there is a chance that they have like a backhanded like agreement with Sony because Sony and AMD are, you know. Yeah, the Project Amethyst thing that they do together. So it would make sense that it would be our DNA. 5 It would have to be. It couldn't be our DNA 3.5 because it would be way too out of date.

18:43Well yeah, it'd be out of date from day one minute and it would quickly fall behind as well. 24 gig of DDR5X RAM, claiming it could be up to 9600 megatransfers a second. Nice. I mean, if that's the case, it's fast 20. 4 gig, yeah, in the current market, that's worth about 10 grand, isn't it? I'm really torn. Right because the the advantage of having the headroom you have with the higher configuration is is massive isn't it? 24 gig feels like the bare minimum that he'd get away with as we move forward. I don't, I don't know.

19:23I actually think this is a good move. So you think you're thinking, you're thinking PC land. Yeah. This ain't running Windows. Of course it's not. No, this will be running. Bloat stripped out. Yeah, this will be what the Xbox Ally wished it was where it would actually have PlayStation OS on it, which is nothing like you know, like so 24 gig actually sounds amazing because the system probably takes 4 gig like you know, so you got 20 gig for VRAM, you know so so maybe let's just say 8 gig to system because it's still going to have, you know, ACPU part of it, but the operating system itself will be way under what Windows demands.

20:08So to me, like it sounds like you've got a crap load of RAM to put into VRAM for textures and everything else for like pop in issues, you know, like texture loading. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all that kind of stuff. Just like sidestepping the recent will it run video I did on Samsung. It tanked on the OG Ally which is only 16 gig. Tanked on the Xbox ally 16 gig. It tanked on the Xbox Ally X with 24 gig of ram but 10 gig assigned. But on the legion go to where I had 16 gig of VRAM assigned to VRAM.

20:42It was smooth with no stuttering. So to me, like, it actually sounds like that's a perfect move purely based on the fact that this will be running PlayStation OS, if you want to call it that, and it will be like really efficient. So I do think that's good. It's so funny when you start when you're looking at the specs written as they are, your head's always in PC space with it. But of course, you're so right. This is super console efficiency. This is like more efficient than Steam OS because it is just there it's.

21:13Just to console, yeah. Can't play the games. The bit that I've got a big question mark on is that they've, they claim that it's 15 Watt TDP. Yeah, they obviously mean we're in handheld mode, hopefully 15 watts that that I, I'm just going to say I'm going to call bullshit on that. I don't think that's high enough for what they're claiming. Yeah, I'm with you on that, that front, even though this is going to be our DNA 5 and we don't know how efficient that is, but 15 watts is Steam Deck, 15 watts is top end Steam Deck. You think the Xbox ally the the the little 1, you know, the white 1 tops out 20 watts.

21:56Again, it's totally different, like hardware that's going to be in it. But I'm hoping there's more power headroom there. Maybe it's like a it's standardized, like games are designed to run at 15. But maybe if you don't care about your battery life you can pump it up to 25 or something and get some more frame rate. How much control over all this being a console you'll have is another story. I reckon it would be very switched to like where it will just be in the game.

22:21You'll have performance or quality mode and then that dictates how it will automatically ramp and then hopefully once docked it like kicks it up to 30 watts or something. I just a question like 15 watts and they're claiming that you get like 1.6 to 2 gigahertz like clock speeds at 15 watts. I just, I don't see that being realistically possible. And I mean, they could do some magic, like you say they work really closely with AMD. They could do some magic and if they do they unlock a huge amount of magic for everyone else, which is great.

22:58Yeah, yeah, I, I think when you look. Just don't think it's realistic. But but that might just be us with our minds in the current affairs of like like our DNA 3. When we look at the like Z1 Extreme, for example, which is our DNA free, and then we look at Z2 Extreme, our DNA 3.5, everyone was like, well, the top end performance sucks. It's only like less than 10% better and it's like, yeah, but that's not where it excels. Where it excels is at 17 to 20 watts, like not 35 watts, 17 to 20 watts.

23:31And now we're getting like 30% increase in performance. So it's actually like way more efficient. Even just going from 3.3 point O to 3.5 S, jumping all the way up to RDNA 5. It might be that we're just not ready yet for that future, you know, like when we get there, it might be like, wow, look what we can do with 15 watts, you know, because it is still new stuff. All of this is still very new, very true, a few years old and stuff. So I'm with you. It doesn't seem possible right now, but maybe in in like a couple of years we might be blown away. Yeah, I hope so, because it means everything else is super efficient as well at that point.

24:06Yes, which is exciting. The performance claims that the the pure rasterization is is slightly better than the Xbox Series S is what they're claiming. Obviously you're going to be taking full advantage of the SSR three I would imagine. Yes. So, but just on pure rasterization at an Xbox Series S level, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. Xbox Series S came out and what, 2020, Yeah. So yeah, I would say that's possible. I mean, I imagine they wouldn't include that in their marketing material. I hope so you could get this, the series airs or this which is more powerful.

24:53That would be a good step from them. Go back to the like Sega, like days of the 90s where they would like directly take shots at Nintendo and stuff. I want that. Come on PlayStation putting Mario in a bin and stuff like yeah, they've it's they've just got Phil Spencer. They've just for hiring on Sony. Yeah. Or they got tied up. Yeah. In the background. Phil Spencer The other comparisons being made is that it's similar to switch to in terms of performance for native gaming. I I think again that both of those feel like they're under egging.

25:30It's like. That should. Be by that point. Yeah, I mean, the the more slightly ahead of a a Series S in rasterization makes sense because like pure rasterization, like no upscaling, nothing, just like falls to the wall, Yeah. And then with pisser on top PSSR, then it's going to be like leagues ahead. But then coming down and saying that it's going to be on power Switch 2, that makes it hang on a minute because Switch 2 is already underpowered technically, you know, like there was already a dated chip, blah, blah, blah.

26:02So if they're coming out, this is PlayStation, they've always been ahead. Look at the PlayStation portal and the Vita versus what Nintendo are doing. Even the the home consoles, they've always been ahead with like power and performance. So to then come down and say, oh, it's basically a Switch 2. It's like, oh, that that didn't sound right. So what is it? And is it more powerful than a Series S or is it the same as a Switch 2? And this is exactly, and the only reason Switch to is Magic. Well, there's two things.

26:29There's DLSS at play, which obviously they won't have. And there is the fact that it's a closed system and everyone's developing specifically for it. Yeah, Are they? Is the same going to be true for the PlayStation handheld? It our Microsoft, the publisher, going to be specifically building for the PlayStation handheld in the same ways that people build for the Switch 2. Yeah, I mean, because it's going to just basically be the same architecture, I imagine, as a PS6. I guess Xbox are probably the ones that would, because they've got this whole Series X&S problem and they've got their own handheld, which they're doing a lot of work for. So they'll pretty much be transferable, I'm sure, like, Oh well, we've got the Xbox Ally X and it's probably more powerful than that, you know, so they can just throw over whatever they've done on that.

27:27Do you think we start to see a, a landscape? You know, when you were playing, you were doing the will it run for Darwin's Paradox? And when you were in Steam OS operating system, there was a, a mode that said Steam Deck mode, but it wasn't there when you're on Windows. Do you think we we quite soon see a world in which there's a default for every game that's handheld mode? Yeah, yeah, I reckon so, yeah. If it feels like like so just a kind of basic set of low settings that you don't need to tinker with, you don't need to min Max.

28:02Yes, lower than low the game just runs and then if you want to piss around you can like yeah, yeah it. Feels, it feels like the direction of travel it should be that we start to see. Yes. But do they aim at the lowest possible configuration for that? As in like the common denominator, which would be at this point, the Steam Deck, like the lowest kind of performance. Christ, I hope not, because everything's just going to look like a potato. Everything's going to be like 240P and. That Picasso painting effect, yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I hope not.

28:39I mean, this is PlayStation. So I think first party titles hopefully will still have a performance and quality mode and they'll be really tailored to the the power of that device. And then maybe that transfers if PlayStation ever want to push any like multiplayer games or other games onto switch to or Xbox, you know, but yeah, I, I don't know about third party companies. I, I feel like we're getting more and more into the territory of them, like accepting these handhelds. There's a game later we'll talk about that's just done just that.

29:13But even with Crimson Desert, they, they, they said, you know, runs on Xbox Ally and whatever. And then there's talks that they're actually trying to get it to run on Switch 2. Yeah, that story developed even more this week. Very active development. There. Oh, there we go. So come 2028, by the time there's PS6 handheld leaks like launches, I mean yeah, I imagine there will be decent support from third party companies, but I just hope it's like you said, not aiming at the lowest denominator and then just putting it across the board.

29:47Obviously we're going to get the next Gen. PSSR 3 with this, it kind of goes without saying which what was what's going to be the PC equivalent of that by the time this comes out? FSR. It will either be FSR 4.54. Yeah, like because RDNA 4 is where FSR 4 came about. And if they're jumping to RDNA 5, is that going to be FSR 5 or is that going to be FSR FSR 4.5? Do you know what I mean? Like I don't know how incrementally they're going to step up the like the FSR.

30:26So it is exciting because our DNA 5 should allow full hardware based upscaling and frame Gen. and stuff that we're seeing on the current our DNA 4 like 9070 XT like I've got or the 9070 and lower. So it is exciting because that's where stuff gets real. You know, when stuff starts getting like handheld wise, like hardware upscaling, then we're going to start seeing some decent performance. And that's when you start going back to the kind of low power claims you start going maybe it is feasible.

30:59Yeah, these lower clock speeds and stuff like maybe it does become feasible. Yeah. It'd be one thing for sure when Sony is stepping in and doing this work is that in the wake of it, is that the doors that it opens for the other manufacturers to step in, like the kind of that hard technology works done with AMD and now it starts becoming available in its wake. It's exciting. The big thing they're designed to feel like a proper next Gen. portable PlayStation, not a watered down device. I think that's an impossible claim to make it it. It will feel like a if you've got PS6, it will feel like a watered down PS6.

31:43Yeah, I get you. Yeah, I think what they're trying to say is it's going to they're going to try to aim to feel like APS PO or APS VO where it felt like a sudden thing. But again, if it's just playing PS4, PS Five, PS Six games, it's just going to feel like a watered down one, like it is just a Series S like equivalent, you know? But it's cool. I really hope they stick with the PlayStation Portal, like not Portal PlayStation Portable branding. I want PSP back.

32:11I want to see the PSP. It just makes so much sense. And they it's been so long since the PSP because that died in like 2010 or whatever. It was like 2005 to 2010. I think PS Vita was 2011 maybe 20/12/13 I can't remember. It's a long time ago now most people forgot about it. Unless you're older you know especially the newer generations they won't have a clue what PSP is. So bring back PSP. Don't do an Xbox with the random ass names and the the aces Republic of gamers Xbox ally like X like whatever you know I don't need a title like you know I don't want a paragraph as the name I just want something nice and short. PSP.

32:56PlayStation Portable Three makes sense, but they could. Even drop the number, this could be 1. Just go back to. PSP again, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I mean because it's been so long like and it's so obviously not a 2005 handheld running on. Discs do. You know what I mean? Like like they could just start again. PSP Bam. Yeah, yeah, it'd be cool. It will. If you've got a PS6 and you're not into handheld gaming, your criticism of this will be it's a ward down PS6. You can't avoid that.

33:31But you're right what you're saying. The the thing that's exciting with this is that it's beyond being a portable PlayStation, which I'm there for. Really excited to see handheld PlayStation. It's also going to be like we said right at the start, a more accessible entry point into PlayStation for us normal people perhaps that that aren't that can't afford $900.00 for APS 6 when it drops, it's going to be a way more accessible entry point. And if it can dock and can play on ATV and can still play your PS-5 games, then do you know what? I think that'll be enough for most people. Yeah, yeah.

34:14I'd be inclined to get one of these. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Expected price point, I'll just remind you from the start, $500 yeah like you've put in brackets lol. Yes, yeah, absolutely. Because right now, like in the current market, there's just no way like at all. But again, if they're aiming, I know that they keep saying like late 27, I don't see that happening. I'm thinking 28 like like earliest then maybe the world sorted itself out by then. I mean it could be worse, judging by how the world is right now, probably was, but it could be OK. I mean, there is some talk of things starting to stabilize out and like the the RAM shortages isn't going to be as bad as they thought.

34:59AI have stepped back from buying half the world's supply of memory. Maybe, maybe there's more efficiencies that happen in AI. Maybe the bubble bursts entirely on AI as well. And it, you know, chills out a little bit. We don't need another deep fake of Donald Trump. Thanks. Whatever it is you use it for, 90% of the uses I've seen for AI is just crap. Like rubbish. Like fake influences on. Instagram and stuff like that. Come on. Yeah, I do. I don't understand. And that's why I can't buy RAM.

35:35Is that really it? Yeah, because someone's put up like a random video of like Harry Potter that's ripped or whatever it's like. What? Yeah, right. I want to say welcome back to the 128 Podcast. Once again due to lack of popular demand. And if you're wondering, I am the laughing maniac that does nothing. It's true. It just sits in his room, waits for Fridays for the podcast. Open the door. Is it time to laugh manically? Again, he's just calling me every day. Is it podcast yet?

36:09Is it podcast yet? I'm like, no, AJ, just go sit in your corner. Of course, making reference to one of my favorite comments of the week, Which made me laugh, which basically said, does the is the guy with tattoos the only one who does anything? And does the other guy just turn up to the podcast and laugh manically? And I'm like, do you know what? It's a fair criticism. That's not the case at all. Though no, it's totally. Fair. No, no, it's not like for because people don't understand like I was raging at you like, you know, and. Raging at me.

36:41Yeah, yeah, I was raging at you. Like fuck saying AJ get off your ass do some work. It was funny though, it was like that guy had also commented on a video from like Saturday, which was like a couple of days before that I had done, which was also the same day that a podcast had also got published. There was 2 videos that day that I had been in. One was just me. I was like when you commented on that and then you turn up in the week and. Then be like, where's the other guy?

37:11Yeah. What's the other guy look at? Anyway, that's my community rant over with. Yeah, yeah. You know, it frustrates me. AJ does a lot of work like, you know, building relations with companies, sorting out all the adverts and stuff which makes us be able to do this, you know, like. Basically I go to like champagne parties. Yeah, yeah, he's, he's out there with, you know, going to, you know, all these like, hot tub events, sending me pictures with all the babes. That's why he went to Dubai like, you know, a few. Weeks back.

37:42Yeah, he was just cruising in a Lambo and. Me and Andrew Tate, yeah, that's. That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. With Louis Faroux. They cut you out, though. You paid him enough to like. Cut you out of that. But yeah, so it does, yeah. It annoys me when I see stuff like. That it's fine, it's what it is. OK, next topic of the day. And now I've chilled out gaming I've been looking forward to for the longest time. There's actually 2 that are launching this week.

38:13I think it both this week that I've been really looking forward to for ages. Oh, very. Yeah, there's, there's actually 33. Games this week this yes, two that I'm particularly looking forward to and I know the third one you're particularly looking forward to as well. First one though, Mouse Pi for hire. Oh yeah. They've released their console specifications, they have. And in a kind of continuing trend is what's happening now, they've included the key handhelds.

38:45Yeah, in the console specifications they have, Yeah. I think it's really cool to see. I think it's excellent, I really do. And the fact that the old pensioners still listed at the bottom as well. I know the senior statesman, the Steam Deck. Yeah. Check it out, Steam Deck will be able to play this game at 800 P at 40 FPS. Nice. Do you know what that's great? If that's for real and that's stable, have a great time. Yes. Yeah, it will be brilliant 40 FPS yeah, I wish I wish it was 45 just for the Steams Eck OLED users, because that's got a 90 Hertz panel and like 45 FPS being half the refresh rate would have been like perfect, but whatever. I mean, they could have dropped the resolution to 720 and done that.

39:32Yeah, yeah, it shows a slight lack of understanding. But anyway, I think if you've got a Steam Deck now, you're probably an OLED. I think the ones that have held onto it, it's probably for the OLED. But yeah, it's cool to see these handhelds there. Switch twos. Obviously, this is a day one release for Switch 2 as well. Xbox Ally is listed. Xbox Ally is listed. Nice. Xbox Ally 7/20 at 60 FPS. Yeah, it's acceptable. So what's weird there is it's clearly, it's clearly almost identically in line with the Steam Deck, because we know it is. Yes.

40:13Why they felt the need to to differentiate? It is what it is. Yeah, well, the Xbox. Ally. Yeah, the Xbox Ally is more powerful than the Steam Deck, but just only slightly. And it is running at slightly lower native resolution at 7:20. You know, they've, they've kept it at 800 P for the Steam Deck for the 16 by 10 aspect ratio so that you're not black barring. So that makes sense a little bit more to render there. So the frame rate's a little bit less.

40:43Xbox Ally 16 by 9 screen 720P I they haven't said whether this is upscaling or not because I imagine it will be. Yeah, when you look at the Ally X, OK, I I think there's there's things at play here. 900, P 9. 100P and 120FPS. Nice. I mean, yeah, the numbers will say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is is this with FSR and frame Gen. on? Yes. I, I tend to think so because when you flick over to like the switch to, I think we start to get some more kind of indicative performance there.

41:26Switch to handheld quality mode. 1260 at 30 FPS, 900 at 60 FPS before performance mode. Yeah, I mean, why? Why is it 1260 P AT30FPS when it's a 1080P screen? Yeah, I don't understand so. Why are they like up resing it? Like what? Down sample? Yeah, that's what I mean. Like then drop it to 1080P and do 40FPS. Like what? Why is it that's got to be a typo. Someone's keyboard bashed 4K which is 2160 and just jumble the numbers up and put 1260P and I I think that's meant to say 1080P but then equally 900P on the switch to in performance mode for 60 FPS OK like that's basically 1080P like it's only just a small step down so if. That said, 720 I'd understand.

42:28Yeah, like it's just, it just seems a bit weird. The the thing throwing me out is switch to handheld mode AT1260P. Yeah, I'm totally with you. It doesn't make sense. Doesn't make any sense. Yeah, I only just clock that as we're looking at it now. Weird. And I guess this is kind of goes to a bigger thing as we start to see more and more games specified for handhelds. Yes. We're going to see more and more mistakes, I think because there's so many different variants. Maybe it's just a lot to keep on top of, yes. But anyway, the fact that it's their school, it's a game that I'm looking forward to playing.

43:08Me too. I'm going to get it on Switch 2. Nice. The same, Yeah, it's going to get it on Switch 2. So you can run it at 1260. Pi want to see what 1260 P looks like on the 1080P one? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, our press down. Sampled. I want to see some down sampling. Yes, that'd be great. Also coming this week there we've got is it replaced? Is coming on the 18th I think. Before this one. Is it? Before, yeah, so replaces on the 14th Mouse Pi for hire is 16th, yeah.

43:40And then on the 18th we've got Pragmata. So 3 big games in six days? Yeah. Can you complete them all? No way. Yeah, no. No, definitely not. But yeah, so it's a big, it's a big week for games. That's really exciting, yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah. There's something coming for from Steam, which I'm actually quite low key happy about, which I think is quite cool. And it goes in line with what we're saying about more and more people specifying for different devices. The Steam is working on a system to provide like estimated frame rate data for a game based on the hardware you're using. So expanding on like it's compatible thing like and but beyond that going how compatible is it with your hardware configuration?

44:35What performance could you expect? Yes, so this is going to be like really good. If you've got a Steam Deck and a Steam Machine, that kind of thing, it's going to go, OK, you're you're on a Steam Machine, you're going to expect this one. It's kind of like what Xbox have done where you click on it and it says we'll play really well or not very well or whatever. And that will give you like a sorry, give you like an indication of the frame rate. And then it also sets them up for like Steam Deck 2 and stuff like that if they've got this system in place. Yeah, it's, it's, it's cool to see. I think it's a, it's probably a necessary evil for them that they have to use, as you say, as their hardware library starts to really expand, they're going to need to. And they're, when they step into the TV space with a Steam machine, the hope is they invite more people into the Steam ecosystem.

45:31So they need to make it easier and easier because like the legacy of Steam is that it's for like the hyper enthusiasts, it's for the PC gamers who know what they're doing, know how to min Max and like get the best out of games. Regardless, as they go into more and more these console like devices, they need to make it more and more layman friendly. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think it's, like you said, it's an exciting thing because it just makes it easier for people that aren't as into it, you know, pick up and play. The easier it gets to that, the better, and the more adopted it will be as well.

46:11Yeah, totally. So it's a cool thing to see Switch 2 land. Yeah. For Mitsu, the kind of people that do like the financial stuff for games over in Japan, confirm that Switch 2 has already sold 5 million units in Japan alone. Wow. It's pretty amazing. I know. It's pretty nuts. It continues to sell about 40 to 50,000 units every week. Yeah. Yeah, it's nuts. It's insane. And that's just in Japan, isn't it? Just in Japan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Crazy to see. But what's even crazier to see is Alden Ring. Oh, they've actually finally said. Because this has been like ghost town. For ages there is an an Amazon listing OK Amazon US listing. Nice.

47:12So it's not been published on the Nintendo USA site, but has been published on Amazon.com. From brand from Bandai Namco. Yes. In the US it is $80. Wow. Yes, now if you open it from UK you it will show you the UK price book from the Amazon.com site. So it won't be the same. So an $80 game, obviously it does include the DLC, doesn't it? So it's the full version. It's the Tarnished edition, but $80.00 and it's a game key card. I know how people feel about that already.

47:58The other one that's weird about it is, I don't know if I slept on this but when was when did you think it was being released? They they didn't say yeah because it kept getting delayed and stuff. Kept getting delayed. Delayed. Well, the Amazon listing has it. It will be released on December the 31st, 2026 and you'll get it in January 2027. That late, another year, that's ridiculous. I think that's a placeholder because we're waiting on a Nintendo Direct.

48:29Like there we don't, there's not really any games we're waiting on from Nintendo for the Switch 2. So they need to pull their finger out any minute now to do a Direct. I mean, it's the right time. It's April, It's the time. This is the one that I think has disappointed the most people because it was such a shock to see it. Bear in mind it was it was shown in the Switch to announcement. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So when they officially announced the Switch to, they showed it running on Switch to. We've not seen anything it has been available to play at. It was games.com last year and.

49:09It was rubbish. It was awful and they wouldn't allow filming in the booth. It was a private booth, which is always a bit weird, yes, but Nintendo do do that sometimes when it's an over 18 game. Yeah, yeah. They'll make it like private. She makes it feel like you're going into one of those naughty like cinemas in the old video stores, like the adult section at the back. Uh oh, it's in there. It's a passport machine, that's all that was. All right, OK.

49:37I've seen in the Lion Kings, like, what's that dark space? You must never go there. That's it. Until you're over 18, yeah. But yeah, inside the private booth, they wouldn't allow anyone to film the game running. So you had like an attendant with you and you weren't allowed to film anything. And that reportedly was because it was running so badly. Yes, the the people that covered it afterwards was like it run really awfully, but I took that. Sorry I took you with like a little pinch because I also heard that Star Wars Outlaws was a train wreck when people were playing it. That's true to the point where I cancelled my pre-order of it. What a shame, yeah?

50:19And then it launched. It actually turned out to be working really well. So I thought the same was going to be true of Elden Ring. Well Elden Ring even now runs like crap on the handhelds, even on the leads you go to, and the Xbox Ally X like just runs like ass. Like it really does. It's not great. So I'd be really surprised if they've managed to tweak it enough for Switch 2. I mean, maybe that's why they need another year. That's why it's coming out in December. But yeah, I don't know.

50:45It's got to come soon because like you said, it was an announcement game. We are waiting right now, any minute now, for a new Direct, a Nintendo Direct, and it better be in that with coming next week or whatever, you know? But the price seems a bit steep for me. $80 full price game, no thanks for something that's it's fairly old now. It is, yeah. That, and that's the problem. It's the problem when we looked at the justification of PlayStation games on PC, the the bit that was always hard to swallow with that is that people don't want to pay full price for a game that's three years old. There's a psychological thing at play there. You're like, I've already waited. I don't want to pay full price.

51:29Yeah, exactly. So I'll wait again. I'll wait again if that was announced and it was $50. 50 lbs. I was just about to say 50 then. Then it's all good, everyone's happy. Absolutely everyone's happy. I think they made a massive faux pas by announcing it at the switch to drop showing it. Yes, well, they had to because it was a big wow. Look how powerful the switch to is. So I I think it was a good move showing all this stuff like cyberpunk. It was like, Oh my God, Oh my God, you know, like all this. I know.

52:05This was our reaction, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I, I think it was a good move putting it there. It's just real shame with whatever's happened that has caused it to be delayed so much. I'd say this is on Bandai. Like totally their fault, not, not Nintendo's. They probably just can't get the game to run well because like I said, it runs like crap on everything so. I quite want to. I'm quite tempted at some point I might do it this weekend as a a board kind of exercise is to go back through the place the switch to announcement and.

52:36See what's actually. Come out, see, see what's there and see what's actually come out. See if there's anything else that's hiding. Not much, yeah. Dust bloods, another one we've had nothing of. There's there's a bunch of stuff like that. Dust bloods are a big one for me like. Because I, I, I do remember there've been a few things that I've not seen. Yeah, not a lot, but there's like there. Was a most most of it has come out like Star Wars Outlaws was shown, Cyberpunk shown, Prime 4 was shown.

53:03I think bonanza like Pokémon like those kind of things. I'm just literally looking at like game covers or something. Yeah. Talking, yeah. Dust Bloods was definitely one that we've. Dust bloods is the big one and it's kind of annoying because it's going to be like some weird multiplayer thing. So let's just wait and see what that's about. But I really hope they like say about it soon. They're they're basically, I'm really eager on the next direct because we we're waiting on one and there's there's nothing we're really waiting on other than like when's the release date for elder ring? You know what's happening with Dust Bloods and what's the next big Nintendo game we're waiting on because we don't have one currently, you know, do.

53:46You think it's going to be? Do you think it's going to be the Ocarina of Time remake that we see? According to Nate the hate, I think it is, it's Star Fox that's going to be like announced this month. So, so that means there's going to be a direct this month. There should be anyway, because it's every quarter, isn't it? And we're in April now. So it makes sense. It'll be this month, then we'll have another direct in June and so on and so forth. So I don't know.

54:14I don't know. So we'll have to wait and see. Yeah, they were the two big rumours, weren't they? A couple of weeks ago it was Ocarina Time remake and a new Star Fox game. I think we talked about it last week. We did, yeah. But yeah, there has to, something has to happen. Is the Zelda anniversary year as well? The 40th anniversary? So some big things do need to come, yes. How would you feel about the Ocarina of Time remake? Would you buy it? Yeah, Yeah, I would. Yeah, I, I would if, if it's a complete ground up, like re redone thing, not just like a, an HD remaster thing where you can turn on and off it.

54:54Like I wouldn't care for that because I've played it. But if it's a brand new, like Switch 2 only made ground up for Switch 2, not made for Switch one and then port in and whatever, like yeah, yeah, I'd I'd get that. Yeah, definitely, because it'd be really exciting to see what the Switch two could do. Yeah. With that, like I, I, I think it'd be really cool if they have reimagined the game but kept like the core things intact. I definitely would get that, yeah.

55:20A bit like the Final Fantasy 7 remake, like absolutely a complete reimagining of the story and stuff, yes yeah, I'm with that. And it for me, it's been long enough since playing that game that it would it would feel fresh again. Yes, Like I, I remember playing it, enjoyed it, but it's not. I wasn't obsessed. Yes, me too. Yeah. I wasn't an obsessive like because I I didn't play it right at the beginning. I played it later on and I played it before it was great. But that was as far as it was like when I didn't play it like 18,000 times like most people, you know, like so, but what I want is the same thing but for Star Wars event, Star Wars, Star Fox Adventures.

56:01Give me like a reimagining of that, like a new switch to version of that that that that would be. You're so in the minority on that. It's like. I know. I don't care. I love it. Make it just for me. Nintendo, Yeah. Just make it for him. If not, I'm going to play the ROM. Sure. I own the disk. I own the disk, that's fine. Did you make the ROM yourself? Yeah, yeah, I definitely. Yeah. Why not Disk drive in my PC in 2026? Yeah. No, you definitely do. Yeah.

56:32I ripped up 10 years ago when PCs had discs. That's correct. You did, yes. I'm talking of ROMs. So she really could segue to the final part. There's been a lot of movement in the kind of Android space for handhelds recently. Yeah, Bob Wolf's been doing a lot of videos about it and it's been a lot more and, and typically it's all for emulation. And so it's made, no bones about it. They're emulating devices. Do you think they're going to make a play for being more mainstream? I don't know, because they're all just phone attachment things and I hate that.

57:12Like, I'm just not down for that. If you want to stream your PlayStation to your phone because you're like in a pinch or whatever, fine. Touch screen controls. I'd rather chop my thumbs off than than actually put my thumbs on a screen and be like spreading dorito fingers all over it. Like Nah. Yeah, there's some handhelds though that are running Android operating. Yeah. No, no, I get you. Yeah. Yeah. I I don't know. I don't know. But they are just emulators. They are just emulators, nothing else. And they're kind of a pain in the ass because they are just phones.

57:43Like like when you're using them, it thinks it's a phone. It's a Phinx is a yeah, it's Phinx is a phone. I've played around with some in the past and I was like, this is hideous. Like I don't like this at all. Like all of those emulator things just feel like so niche that there's a lot of headaches going on with them. There's like bugs everywhere. Like some of them granted are, are quite good and we've got, but some of them are playing PC games now. You know, there's, there's whatever the hell that app is that's letting you basically run like PC games natively on an Android device.

58:15Like it's interesting and I like to watch from afar to see how it develops, but I am not interested in in being the person that's tinkering around with that stuff. Tinkering is the problem. You spend as much time tinkering as you do playing, but apparently OnePlus is stepping into the Android space. Android handhelds. Yeah. OnePlus, Yeah. There's a leaked image of the back of a OnePlus Android handheld. So that's a big manufacturer, a big phone manufacturer stepping in.

58:53And I kind of think like if a phone manufacturer is stepping into the gaming space and making a handheld constant of some kind, it's either going to be just for streaming is their intention, or it has to be for legitimate gaming. There's no way OnePlus would step in to make an emulator streaming because because it's so borderline grey area legally, isn't it? Yeah. I can't imagine a big brand taking the risk. It's it's going to be a streaming device, I swear.

59:28Like, well, I'm looking at the image right now. It's a phone with a grip on it. It's got. It's got cameras on it. Yeah, I know it's the camera as well. What, like it's just an attachment that goes around your phone, like, or it will be their gaming phone. They'll be trying to do the Asus thing where they have like, look at this gaming phone because it's got an RGB light on it. Like, yeah, OK. Like this one's going to be like has grips and you can hold it up to your head like a Game Boy. Like maybe it's built in.

59:57It's the the gaming phone, like cool, if that's what you're into. Like, I don't know. I don't know. I'm I'm like the old man in the corner. Like give me, give me the Game Boy. I mean, yeah, I'm with you on that. Like the the emulating space, we don't really touch a huge amount and it's mainly because it's just not right yet. It's still not right yet. No, it's it's not there more hassle than it's worth. Like unless, unless you're a super tinkerer and you love it and you want to crack like getting stuff working, that's fine. I'm all down for that.

1:00:37PCs a little bit less of that in some respects. Like there's a lot of faff, but there's also a lot of play time and everything's going to work. You know, like on the emulating side or like just like those kind of handhelds, you're just sat there like problem solving and that's basically it. And then once you've got a game running, you're like, cool, let's do another one. Like you don't actually play the thing. It's just like how many ROMs can I get to work? That's the game.

1:01:02Do I need to download? Yeah, a different driver. Oh, this is the second one today that's been. Why do I have Limewire on it? Why is my camera light on? Why does my handheld have a camera? That's the. Question Why does my handheld have a camera? Yeah, but do you know what? I keep an eye on it all because I'm like this part of me that's like, well, this is interesting. No, I'm glad you're doing because I turn away from it and one day it will be exciting and there'll probably be stuff to discuss about it, but for me that day's not come yet. But I, I don't know what it is though, but when I see stuff like the like the efficate Nexus that's coming, yes, I see that and I get way more excited.

1:01:51Yes, yes, because that is a handheld. Like there's no faffery. You buy the game you want to play and you play the game and it's going to. Work. You plug the cartridge in and it works. I'm there for. It that's way more exciting to me, yes. And I get more excited with like I pretty get shut down for this. But when I see like I don't like a Game Boy Advance that's been like super modded and it's got a new IPS screen in it and something like. That looks cool.

1:02:15Exactly that I'll get the cartridges and plug them in because I'll just get the games I want to play and I'll pay them natively. Have a great time. Yeah, I want to really like it. This is the problem I want to really like the emulator is I don't have the time or energy to be spending tinkering and with doing the channel as well I get a bit nervous with like the the grey area part. Of it yeah and to me I mean I've got a way nicer handheld with a way better screen way more power if I'm kind of emulate I'm going to do it on that yeah yeah I'm not going to do it on a OnePlus phone with a. Like a griffon, like get a Steam Deck and just do it on that. You know?

1:03:00Well, exactly. Yeah. It's kind of like perfect for it. It's right there. Especially the OLED. Yeah, yeah, 100% yeah. So any. But yeah. Anyway, that's the final stories that apparently OnePlus are making some kind of handheld, but it's sketchy as hell and it's got a camera on the back. So it's basically a yeah. Yeah, it's kind of. It's basically they've got a grip like a backbone and they just glued it to A1. There you go. I'll do. That's what it looks like.

1:03:33Yeah, I'd love to know what you guys think about it. Although let's think down in the comments down below. If you think also I'm the lazy manic that just laughs, double down on it. Comments. That'd be great. Once you're down there, make sure you like the video. Subscribe for more handheld gaming content. What else can I do, Andy? Become a member to see all the Will it run videos of all those games we discussed earlier like Replaced Mouse, Pi for Hire, Pragmata, I remember the name for once wow.

1:04:04And also become a member and you get to chat to us over on our private Discord as well. Yeah, I love it. All right, so until the next time, have a nice day, Yeah?