Rumors leading up to E3 are always huge. They happen all the time. The biggest rumors almost always seem to center around Sony because they’ve been a market leader consistently for so long that a lot of people are generally excited to see what they pull out each year. Well, adding on to the rumors that surfaced earlier this year in February centering around a patent that Sony filed for a handheld device, as reported by Digital Trends, two new pieces of information popped up about a new PSP 3 or a PS Vita 2.

So first up, Game Kana is reporting that Chinese games media have reportedly noted that they’re being invited to a special presentation by Sony’s China office for the unveiling of a new piece of hardware.

There’s images of the press invitation and the comments from the Chinese about Sony’s new hardware potentially being something to rival the Nintendo Switch. They also speculate a possible PS4 Extreme Slim Edition being unveiled. The images of the press invite were posted over on A9VG.

GameKana discounted the news, stating that they didn’t believe that it could actually be a PSP 3, but they did believe that there might be a new PS4 SKU introduced at E3.

Now keep in mind that this could very well end up being little more than a hoax. There have been a ton of rumors dumped out just ahead of E3 from a number of people looking to put eyes and attention on them.

However, in addition to Chinese media claiming that Sony may unveil something akin to the PSP 3 or PS Vita 2, there was also rumors that someone overheard someone from Square Enix talking about a possible new device from Sony that they may unveil, similar to the likes of the Nintendo Switch. YouTuber bitbite did a quick video on it in addition to what was reported in the Forbes article regarding the topic.

This could be huge news for PlayStation gamers, if it turns out to be true.

The patent design lends a lot of credence to the rumors, but the flimsy sourcing makes it a little difficult to take the other pieces at face value.

Of course, this possible new hybrid portable system from Sony wouldn’t be too surprising. Sales of the PS4 are somewhat slowing down compared to what they were before, and innovation seems to have stalled. Both Sony and Microsoft have opted to chase the 4K arena, which is only really popular amongst the hardcore enthusiasts.

Nintendo going in the complete opposite direction with their home console/handheld hybrid seems to be paying off for them, so seeing Sony mimic them with their own device would only make sense given that they did the same thing with the PlayStation Move, following behind Nintendo when they released the Wii with the Wii-motes. The only problem with these rumors is that Sony has never dominated the handheld market. While their Xperia phones are in-demand, the PSP and PS Vita are not.

Ultimately, we’ll find out if there’s any truth behind these rumors when E3 rolls around in just a couple of weeks.

Thanks for the news tip Mr. Towel.

(Main image courtesy of Curved Labs)