PS5 power saver mode might tease PS6 handheld

Low powered Souls (Sony Interactive Entertainment)

A patch for Demon’s Souls has added support for the PS5’s new power saver mode, in what seems to be a tease for Sony’s rumoured PlayStation handheld.

Sony has already discussed its plans for the PlayStation 6, but one area we don’t know anything about is its rumoured new handheld device.

While Sony hasn’t confirmed if another handheld is in the pipeline, there’s been growing evidence to suggest as much. The big unknown is what kind of device it will be, whether a standalone console like the PS Vita, a remote player like the PlayStation Portal, or some kind of hybrid of the two.

One piece of evidence to support the existence of a new PlayStation handheld is a recently added power saver mode on the PlayStation 5. This was previously referred to as a ‘reduced bandwidth’ mode, in a leak from insider Kepler, which is designed to unify development of games across the PlayStation 5 console and its planned handheld.

The power saver mode was officially released across PlayStation 5 consoles last month, and Sony described the feature as being part of its ‘Road To Zero’ environmental plan.

While the power saver mode has been available in the console’s settings since then, no games supported the feature, so we haven’t been able to see what it actually does. In its announcement post on the PlayStation Blog, however, Sony promised ‘future updates’ for Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, Demon’s Souls, and Ghost Of Yōtei to add support for the power saver option.

Now, around a month later, an update for Demon’s Souls has been released which shows off the power saver mode in action. As noted on ResetEra, the power saver mode apparently runs at 30fps with a lower resolution. Although we’ve just tried it and we couldn’t discern any difference, even with half a dozen zombies hovering around us.

Demon’s Souls is the only game with the feature so far (Metro)

An impressive downgrade (ResetEra)

A video has been uploaded showing the mode in action too, and while the downgrade is noticeable, it still looks pretty impressive. We can only assume it lowers the frame rate and resolution when necessary, as a new leaf icon, with a thunderbolt in the middle, on the dashboard indicates when the mode is active.

If this is connected to functionality with an upcoming PlayStation handheld, it implies the device will be able to run PlayStation 5 games natively, but at a lower resolution and frame rate. A prior rumour claimed this would be case, placing the portable device’s power at somewhere between an Xbox Series S and a standard PlayStation 5.

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