Shuhei Yoshida, Sony’s current PlayStation indie liaison, certainly wasn’t expecting such a reaction when he posted an innocent tweet…

Given Yoshida’s status as one of the leaders in the games industry (he was previously the head of PlayStation Studios’ predecessor, Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, a post taken over by ex-Guerrilla Hermen Hulst), it’s no surprise that Valve sent him a Steam Deck. We gamers will be lucky to get Gabe Newells’ portable PC in December if we pre-order it…

Yoshida didn’t go next door for a test subject (or if he did, he did it literally) because he installed Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition on the Steam Deck right away, and it’s no wonder that this answer, among others, asked the question “imagine a dedicated PlayStation handheld; a good idea?”, trying to divert the topic to the PlayStation Vita sequel. We could link to several other tweets here, but if there’s already a suggestion, it’s already an indication that there’s a demand for a new platform after the Vita, which has been badly neglected in the West.

With Sony waving a white flag and pulling out of the handheld market (because although the Nintendo Switch’s base and OLED models can be used as a desktop console when docked, we still have the option to play on it in portable mode!), Nintendo is alone with the Switch, which has seen some excellent ports (mainly from Saber Interactive, who have brought The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on the Switch, as well as Crysis Remastered Trilogy). There, the big N has a monopoly.

Sony is now looking more towards the PC. Still, we have already written that there is little chance of a PlayStation 5 exclusive game (say Marvel’s Spider-Man 2) being released on console and PC simultaneously (which Microsoft already does with all its titles!).

Source: PSL

Thanks to @valvesoftware, checking out #HorizonZeroDawn on Steam Deck 😀 pic.twitter.com/rO9ev0NLkR

— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) October 29, 2021