New PS5 SDK update may hint at portable PS6 handheld, PlayStation Smart Delivery option reportedly discovered

New entries in the PS5 Software Development Kit (SDK) may point towards a PlayStation handheld, potentially reinforcing reports of a next-gen PS6 Portable.

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The latest video from Moore's Law is Dead claims to lay out the evidence of a high-powered PlayStation handheld. MLID presents info that was replicated from the PS5's current SDK, which apparently features an asset-packaging infrastructure similar to Xbox's Smart Delivery. It's called PlayGo, and the idea is that Sony will allow devs to choose which assets are attached to which version of a game; the PS4 and PS4 Pro version, for example, will have lower-res textures compared to a PS5 or PS5 Pro version.

Included in the PlayGo settings is a preset for Power Saver mode, and it's this mode that is believed to facilitate the handheld's performance targets, downscaling raw power profiles into more manageable, portable-friendly CPU and GPU optimization settings aimed at balancing battery life. As we postulated when the mode was announced, the PS5's Power Saver mode is believed to be the backbone of what makes these adjustments possible.

The latest video from MLID breaks this down on a technical level, speculating that the new PS5 SDK settings are essentially future-proofing for next-gen devices like the PlayStation 6 and rumored handheld.

Developers can now select multiple platform profile targets for their games, scaling asset libraries to match the capabilities of each system. This feature, part of the PlayGo system, sounds a lot like Microsoft's Smart Delivery feature that was used to bridge the Xbox One and Xbox Series console generations with backward compatibility. This ended up being one of the most important decisions that Microsoft ever made.

It's also believed that the new chip could be powered by AI technology, possibly even some optimized version of PSSR that's specifically made for handhelds. This way, developers may be able to more flexibly scale and adjust assets to ensure the delicate performance vs battery life balancing act is more sustainable and evened out.

As for official specifics on the handheld, Sony has yet to make any announcements, yet there have been rumblings for quite some time.

Back in November 2024, Bloomberg reported that Sony had been prototyping a new PlayStation handheld device that could natively play PS5 games. These reports have grown over the years, and the latest rumblings say the new-age PS Portable could be powered by AMD's Canis chip, complete with a Zen 6 CPU and RDNA 5 GPU.

With these specs, the handheld may theoretically beat an Xbox Series X or Switch 2.

Sony has said that its accessories business is highly profitable, and the company just raised the price of its so-called remote play receiver, the PlayStation Portal. That handheld is now $250, up from $199, and the product has been seen as a great success for the group.