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It’s update time for the PlayStation Portal, and Sony’s latest release offers something markedly more exciting than usual: cloud streaming is coming to the handheld device if you’re a PlayStation Plus Premium member, albeit initially as a beta.
Since its launch last year, the £200 PlayStation Portal – a PS5 peripheral rather than a standalone device – has enabled owners to stream games from their console to the smaller 1080p screen, with Sony pitching it as a way to share a living room TV or play PS5 games in another room of the house. Its uses were somewhat limited then, but Sony’s latest update marks the great untethering, enabling PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers to play “select PS5 games” from the PS Plus Game Catalogue via the cloud, even without a PS5.
As per Sony’s announcement post, over 120 games will be supported during the beta, including Dave the Diver, Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Monster Hunter Rise, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Games can be streamed at up to 1080p/60fps (requiring a minimum internet connection of 13 Mbps) with major DualSense wireless controller features supported alongside cloud-based saves.
“Since Cloud Streaming (Beta) on PS Portal is still an experimental offering,” Sony notes, “the features available during the beta period may change over time and may not reflect the final experience.” Game Trials, the ability to stream games purchased on the PS Store, system features such as Party voice chat and game invites for select games, the Create button, 3D audio, and in-game commerce are all unavailable at these “beginning stages of publicly testing”, for instance. Furthermore, players will initially only have access to PS5 games, with PS4 and PS3 games remaining unsupported for the time being.
Once the beta is available, it can be accessed via an updated PS Portal by going to Quick Menu > Settings > Cloud Streaming (Beta), and then turning the toggle to ‘on’. And if that all goes as planned, players should then see a new option on their PS Portal home screen enabling them to access games via cloud streaming. Alongside cloud streaming, Sony’s latest PlayStation Portal update – which is available from today – introduces various “refinements in the audio experience”, as detailed on the PlayStation Blog.
Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter called the PlayStation Portal an “interesting gadget” when it launched last year, despite the sense “Remote Play itself isn’t as good as it should be.” Richard also explicitly called out the lack of cloud streaming support on the device, so it’ll be interesting to see Digital Foundry’s response to Sony’s latest news.