Rumors of an upcoming PS6 handheld have been making the rounds for a while. This handheld is said to be PlayStation’s answer to the Nintendo Switch, marking Sony’s long-awaited return to handheld gaming following the disappointing failure of the PS Vita.
Recently, the gaming giant also implemented a ‘low-power mode’ for the PS5, potentially hinting at the existence of this handheld. According to a new report, Sony is now pushing its developers to make use of this mode as it makes preparations for the upcoming PlayStation handheld.
This report comes from Moore’s Law is Dead, who states that an anonymous developer recently informed him about Sony’s current position with the PS5’s low-power mode. It is said that the gaming giant is actively asking studios to use this mode, but this is not all.
Sony reportedly wants studios to offer 60FPS gameplay while using this mode, asking them to sacrifice resolution primarily. Also, Sony seems to be instructing studios to find CPU bottlenecks and lower CPU usage in an effort to achieve 60FPS more consistently when using low-power mode.
The source suggests Sony is using low-power mode as a testing ground for its upcoming PlayStation handheld. It is even said that Sony is not too happy with the current support for this PS5 mode being limited to a few studios, since it could potentially limit its testing ahead of the handheld’s upcoming launch.
Although little is known about the upcoming handheld itself, past leaks from Moore’s Law is Dead suggest it will sport a CPU with 4 Zen 6c cores and an RDNA5 GPU with 12-20 CUs. The PlayStation handheld is also expected to be backward compatible with PS5 and PS4 titles, so it does not come as a surprise that Sony is already testing potential support for the hardware.
The leaker believes that PlayStation’s focus on eliminating CPU bottlenecks and lower-resolution support is a dead giveaway that low-power mode was designed specifically for the purpose of testing handheld support. Therefore, it will be very interesting to see how quickly more and more studios adopt low-power mode in their games.
