PlayStation Portal is the new PS5 restock – how to find Sony's remote player in stock
How we're tracking the $199 Playstation Portal at Target, Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon and GameStop with our restock expertise
The $199 PlayStation Portal restock of the remote player from Sony is the hottest gift this holiday season with one teeny, tiny problem – you can’t find it in stock today, though PS Portal may be in stock this, says Sony.
There’s at least some good news if you’re still looking to buy the PS Portal in time for Christmas. It’ll be in stock at multiple retailers between now and the end of the year, according to our trusted retail sources. Sony is going as far as promising supplying more PlayStation Portal inventory in the coming days. Hence why The Shortcut is tracking the handheld at these stores in North America.
PlayStation Portal restock links
PlayStation Portal at Walmart (secret link that sometimes shows a blank page)
These are the top six stores in the US that have sold the PlayStation Portal since its launch on November 15. Fun fact: pre-orders weren’t in demand before the handheld came out (we found it was very easy to secure the handheld at first). But once people caught wind that the $199 remote player was an ideal gift for current PS5 owners, the new Sony handheld become very difficult to find in stock.
PlayStation Portal: a good value?
We’ve started testing the PlayStation Portal for review and so far it’s a fun “second screen” device to avoid hogging your main 4KTV just to get some PS5 gameplay time in. Being able to play the new Spider-Man 2 game from anywhere within reach of strong Wi-Fi is a treat for gamers. You can play in bed, on the toilet – anywhere within your home internet connection.
So far, the PlayStation Portal feels freeing – more so than PSVR 2, which doesn’t have enough software to justify its price that’s more than double the PS Portal. If you’re deciding between the two, getting the PS Portal is the better choice. Wait for the Sony PSVR 2 headset to mature with more games and drop in price.
PlayStation Portal isn’t PlayStation Portable
Of course, it’s not all rosy, if you’re looking for a standalone PlayStation Portable, for PS5, which this is not. There’s no offline gaming, so playing all of your PlayStation Plus games straight from the cloud isn’t possible from this $199 remote player.
That said, I was able to successfully test the PlayStation Portal for the first time outside of my home during Thanksgiving and it worked when sneaking in some Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart game time. It’s one of the best PS5 games, and I had it downloaded to my console located in a different state.
I needed strong WiFi for the PS Portal and my PS5 was back home – miles away – connected to my home router via an Ethernet cable (a key to getting this to work). After a few minutes of blocky textures and one disconnection, the game started to work just fine on the LED screen.
I will note that I couldn’t remotely play any PlayStation 5 disc-based games that weren’t slotted into the disc drive, making having a digital games library much more valuable. This is a shame because PS5 games on disc are often much cheaper than their digital counterparts.
Is it perfect? No. But the PlayStation Portal is a great way to play games remotely – if you can find it in stock – while we wait for a true PlayStation Portable.