What is Sony’s Project Q actually for?

polygon.com:

It’s always nice to spice up a summer console showcase with a little hardware reveal, but Sony’s unveiling of its Project Q handheld at the PlayStation Showcase on Wednesday was one of the more head-scratching ones.

Project Q is a device with an 8-inch screen that lets you play PlayStation 5 games using Sony’s Remote Play system, streaming them from your PS5 over Wi-Fi “when you’re away from your TV,” in the words of the press release. It looks like a DualSense controller chopped in half and attached to either end of a Switch’s midsection.

Here’s what it’s not: a true handheld console, or a cloud gaming device. The games are run locally on your PS5, and with no cellular connection, Project Q won’t work on the move, unless the plane or train you’re on happens to have an extremely robust Wi-Fi connection or you invest in a 5G hub on a good network. (Sony says Project Q requires “at least 5 Mbps” to use, with “a better play experience” needing at least 15 Mbps.) The games must be installed on the PS5, too, which rules out using Project Q with the cloud gaming service that’s part of Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription offering.

Really, Project Q is about giving you access to your PS5 games around the house — when the TV’s in use or when you’re in bed. Or it could potentially work well when staying with family, or vacationing at an Airbnb.

This is what Remote Play does — and has been doing for a very long time, actually. The feature launched with PlayStation 3 all the way back in 2006, initially only working with the PlayStation Portable and later the Vita handheld. Over time, support was expanded to other Sony devices, then Windows and Mac PCs, and eventually, in 2019, Android and iOS mobile devices. It’s not too difficult