Video games: with Project Q, Sony is launching a mobile extension for the PlayStation 5

2023-05-26 17:16:07

Take your PlayStation 5 (PS5) video games outside your home and play with them without having to move your bulky console. This is the meaning of the announcement made by Sony on the night of Wednesday to this Thursday with Project Q.

Behind this name is the formalization of a rumor that had been less and less one for a few months. The Japanese manufacturer, several years after the end of production of the PS Vita, is making a new foray into the mobile gaming market.

A bit like the basic Nintendo Switch allows, the goal of Project Q, a provisional name, will be to facilitate nomadic play. This PS5 expansion will be a kind of enhanced DualSense, the PS5 controller. Project Q will consist of a screen that will replace the central part of the controller.

Jim Ryan, president of Sony interactive entertainment, describes the object as a “dedicated accessory that will allow streaming of any PlayStation 5 game”. It will be “launched later this year”. The screen will be 8 inches, or about twenty centimeters, in HD quality, he added during an event called PlayStation showcase.

Project Q will be based on the remote play function. This option allows you to control a PS5 or PS4 remotely using a phone or computer. Project Q will therefore be the accessory dedicated to this way of playing.

Several conditions before playing

But it is not strictly speaking a real portable console. Several limits confine it to the role of accessory and prevent it from being a truly independent device. Already you must have a PlayStation 5 console because Project Q uses the games that are installed on it. Purchasing a Project Q alone will not be enough to play. Then, as this device uses the remote play function, it requires a wifi connection to remotely access the content of the PS5.

Finally, the home console must not be off, but at least in a standby state allowing it to connect to the Internet. Thus Project Q and the console will be able to communicate with each other, making streaming game possible on the portable device.

Having a PS5, buying Project Q, leaving the PS5 on standby and connected, having wifi with your Project Q: the conditions for using your PS5 toy library on the move are cumulative. And there is one last uncertainty to remove: the price, which has not yet been revealed.