Nintendo, Sony Unveil Handheld Upgrades
While NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 is drawing all sorts of divisive opinion and debate, leading console manufacturers Sony and Nintendo have been shipping out improvements for their existing customers that have been going over much better.
Sony’s PSSR2 is getting comparison videos left and right and seeing notable improvements in details for PS5 Pro players – especially for performance modes on titles like “Silent Hill 2,” “The Last of Us Part II,” “Alan Wake 2,” “Star Wars Jedi Survivor,” “God of War Ragnarok” and more. Reception so far has been essentially universally positive from the player base.
Now, Sony has added a new 1080p high quality mode to its PlayStation Portal handheld in a new system update rolling out this week. The new 1080p High Quality mode – which works both during Remote Play and Cloud Streaming – increases the streaming bitrate, allowing for higher video quality.
Cloud streaming is also getting some upgrades with improved search, trophy notifications, game invite and product detail. The upgrade comes as talk of an OLED version of the Portal with a 120hz display is on the way.
Nintendo, not to be left out of all the fun PC & Sony have had in the past 48 hours, has been doing its own adjustments. The company has just released a new update (Version 22.0.0) for Switch 2 with a new feature called ‘Handheld Mode Boost’.
When enabled, the mode allows compatible Switch software to run on the handheld as if it’s “in TV Mode” on the original hardware. This means some older games that were running in 720p handheld mode can now run in 1080p mode on the handheld. Some titles should see not just nicer graphics but performance boosts too.
A small handful of titles are blocked from this upgrade, likely due to control schemes related to docked mode that can’t be emulated via handheld mode. Most notably, “Super Mario 3D All-Stars” and “Skyward Sword HD”.