The PS Vita was a complete misfire, and failed to take off almost everywhere in the world. The platform was relegated to being a “legacy” one back in 2015, and earlier this year, Sony even confirmed that cartridge production for it will be ending in North America and Europe. It represented another instance of a platform holder attempting, and failing, to support two platforms.

So that’s the end of Sony’s portable aspirations, right? The Vita failed, the 3DS and now the Switch have that market on lockdown, and Sony is finding a lot of success with its home consoles anyway. Why bother trying to fight for that market a third time?

And yet, PlayStation boss John Kodera has hinted in an interview with Bloomberg that that is exactly what might happen. Kodera said that Sony’s next console might be “closely integrated” with portable devices- though he also said that for now, it is too early to discuss specifics regardless.

“In my opinion, rather than separating portable gaming from consoles, it’s necessary to continue thinking of it (portable gaming) as one method to deliver more gaming experiences and exploring what our customers want from portable,” Kodera said. “We want to think about many options.”

Speaking for the Vita, Kodera also mentioned Sony would probably continue to keep it around until 2020 or so, at least for Japan and Asian territories. “While sales (shipments) of PS Vita for Europe and America are over, we’re still continuing (sales) for Asia and Japan. But in the end, we’re on a direction to wrap it up within 2 years (2020),” he said.

So, I think that’s that, then- the Vita is definitely on the way out, but it is clear Sony does intend to have some portable aspects play a role in the future of PlayStation. What those might be remains unclear- but I am excited to see how they try and tackle the portable market for a third time.

As of right now, we already know that we can expect PlayStation 4 Slim and a PlayStation 4 NEO announcements at the upcoming PlayStation Meeting- but if nebulous rumors are to be believed, then Sony may be preparing a third hardware announcement for the event- a new PlayStation handheld.

Rumors for this new handheld are actually associated directly with rumors about the PlayStation 4 revisions- for instance, as NeoGAF are pointing out, months ago in June, a Foxconn worker, presumably working at the assembly lines manufacturing the device, leaked the PlayStation 4 Slim. This, of course, gives him credence, which is why we must take him seriously when he says that there is also a portable device being manufactured alongside, a ‘PSP-like’ device.

Now, before we jump to conclusions, let’s at least assess the other possibilities- could this not just be Nintendo’s NX, instead of being a PlayStation portable? There would be a case to be made for that if a) Nintendo’s NX were not launching in March 2017 (meaning that production for it is completely unlikely to have begun as far back as June 2016), and b) if leaks and patents hadn’t already confirmed that the NX portable takes on a flatter, more tablet-like look.

This lends credence to it being a PlayStation handheld. And then there is more evidence to add to the fire. For instance, Japanese blog Hakanko is reporting that Sony have registered two wireless modules with the FCC in the United States. The module numbers are AW-CB262 and J20H091, which correspond, respectively, with the model numbers for the modules in the PS4 and the PS Vita.

The PS4 wireless module being there makes sense- we already know of new PS4 models incoming. but what is the PS Vita doing there at all?

Where there is smoke, there is likely to be fire, and for now, it appears that there may be a new PlayStation handheld announcement of some kind incoming at the PlayStation Meeting, too. Whether that is a PS Vita successor, or just a slimmer revision, remains to be seen. But whatever it is, a small but loyal band of PlayStation handheld loyalists are doubtless going to be happy at the notion that Sony have not yet exited the handheld market completely.