Why the PS6 Handheld Will Matter More Than the PS6

A PlayStation 5 Pro will cost $900 starting tomorrow, April 2. As bad as that sounds for console gamers who want the latest and greatest, the next PlayStation—let’s call it the PS6—could cost even more. Instead of lamenting those obscene prices, the silver lining may be a supposedly less powerful and less costly PS6 handheld. Many gaming industry analysts anticipate Sony could try to push a $1,000 PlayStation 6 console—finally making consoles a luxury product fewer people can afford. What’s left for traditional console gamers may be Sony’s first handheld since the PlayStation Vita. Based on the supposed next-gen specs suggested by leakers like Moore’s Law is Dead, we could expect the PS6 handheld to cost less than the full console. Even a $700 gaming device will suddenly seem affordable compared to the supposed blowout price of the next-gen Xbox, currently dubbed Project Helix. Sony’s rumored handheld may offer a better deal overall, too. KeplerL2, a mostly reliable leaker of AMD hardware, claimed on the Neogaf forums this week that the PlayStation 6 handheld—reportedly dubbed Project Canis internally—will offer better in-game performance than today’s Xbox Series S console. While o