PS6 Portable could be the best retro gaming handheld you've ever owned

There have been plenty of rumours on Sony's return to handheld gaming before, but the latest is of particular interest to those looking for the ultimate retro device. That's because it is tipped to be able to emulate systems even the latest PC handhelds cannot.

As an owner of multiple handhelds, including Android, Linux and the SteamOS-powered Lenovo Legion Go S, I can just about play games from every era of console. However, there are two in particular that remain out of reach. And that's where the PS6 Portable could come in.

According to YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead (via NotebookCheck), the PS6 Portable will be able to play PS5 and PS4 games natively.

There is an emulator for the latter available for PC, Linux and Mac (ShadPS4) but it's very early in development and it'll only run a handful of PlayStation 4 games. And even then with caveats.

PS6 Portable BWC Leak, XBOX Helix Price, Steam Machine Crisis | Colin Moriarty | Broken Silicon 357 - YouTube

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A handheld system that will run PS4, PS5 and PS6 games could be the holy grail for retro gamers, therefore, especially with some PS4 titles never getting decent remasters or PC releases.

Add the ability to play older classic PlayStation 1, 2 and 3 games through PS Plus Premium – likely through streaming – and you're onto a winner.

Of course, to be the ultimate retro gaming handheld you'd really need it to also play other classic systems, but I'm a believer in having multiple devices for different use cases. For example, I play 4:3 systems on my Ayaneo Pocket Air Mini, Game Boy and Game Boy Color on my TrimUI Brick Hammer, and 16:9 games on my Legion Go S or Odin 2 Portal.

Adding a PlayStation powerhouse that can play a vast library of otherwise difficult to emulate games seems a shoo-in to me.

There is one thing to note though, according to Moore's Law is Dead – who claims to have gleaned his information from a leaked Sony internal document – you will have to own the digital versions of games you play on the handheld. There is currently no way to assign disc copies to your account.

So all those physical games you've been collecting will be exempt, as things stand.

That said, the main PS6 console could be different – let's just hope it includes a disc drive, unlike the PS5 Pro.