It looks like the PlayStation Portal is proving to be a pleasant surprise for Sony. In an interview looking back at the making of the cloud-based handheld, PlayStation vice president of product management Hiromi Wakai talked about the thinking behind the machine and its performance, and dropped some hints on how well it's been doing.
"Although we don’t have any numbers to share, the demand has continued to exceed our expectations," Wakai said.
Wakai offers few other details, but does say that PlayStation was not surprised by some of the initial skepticism around the device. "From the beginning, PlayStation Portal was intended to be a product best suited for people with specific needs and those who want to play in a specific way, so the reactions after the announcement were very much within our expectations"
She says that the device was never intended to be a dedicated handled, and that initial discussions focused on how to "expand the console game experience, not launch a separate handheld device."
A popular trend
Dedicated handhelds have become a popular trends within the games industry in the wake of the Switch's success, with the Steam Deck leading the way. Unconfirmed rumors have also suggested that Xbox is working on a handheld of its own.
Ultimately, Wakai credits the Portal's success to fans talking up potential use cases as well as positive feedback on its performance, with the Portal's most popular games including EA Sports FC, Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Wakai says that PlayStation has heard "a lot of positive feedback" from initial adopters according to the interview, but she also acknowledges that unstable home internet has impacted the experience for some
While we've received few hints as to the Portal's overall performance, stock shortages have suggested a certain level of demand for the device. It has also found a niche among tinkerers who have hacked it to run PSP games among other functions. In our PlayStation Beyond column, we wrote about about how the PlayStation Portal "might not be for everyone, but it's 100 percent for me."
"Would I have preferred a device that isn’t always online? Sure. Would I have been excited by new, device-specific games? You betcha. But that isn’t what’s on offer," we wrote. "Sony is providing a middle ground that doesn’t speak to everyone – perhaps not even to the majority. But what the PlayStation Portal offers is a solution for my personal situation and although you may fairly consider the device not for you, it certainly is for me."
One way or another, it seems that the Portal is doing better than anyone expected, and Wakai says that "production is running smoothly." While she did not share any future plans she did say that Sony "will continue to bring more units to the market, so please stay tuned."
Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
