October 16 Will Be a Battle Between Two Handhelds

There was a period during the early PS4 era when handheld consoles almost felt like they were on the verge of death. The two biggest handheld console manufacturers of the time, Sony and Nintendo, were both struggling to find new audiences, as smartphone games were gradually encroaching on their market share. Even though it cultivated a passionate fan base later on, Sony's PSP successor, the PlayStation Vita, launched with a thud back then, selling less than 15 million units in its entire lifetime. Nintendo's 3DS system fared a lot better commercially, but it, too, suffered from a rough launch and sold considerably worse than its predecessor, the Nintendo DS.Fortunately, after Nintendo struck gold with the release of the Nintendo Switch, the handheld market began to experience a massive resurgence in popularity. Multiple companies, including Valve, Asus, Lenovo, and MSI, decided to throw their hats in the ring and make portable gaming devices of their own. While the systems they made weren't true consoles, they were still very much inspired by the form factor of the Nintendo Switch. Now, more than 8 years after thelaunch of Nintendo's hit hybrid console, it looks like both Microsoft and Sony are preparing to dip their toes into the handheld market. Sony is reportedly gearing up to launch a portable PlayStation console alongside the PlayStation 6 in 2027/2028, while Microsoft is going to release a new family of handhelds later this year.