PlayStation Portal just shot to the top of my Black Friday wishlist – here's why
Sony is finally making the PlayStation Portal a worthwhile purchase
🆕 Sony has released a fantastic update for the PlayStation Portal
☁️ The handheld will stream PS5 games over the cloud
👉 You’ll need to be a PlayStation Plus Premium subscriber
🙌 But the feature makes the PS Portal far more appealing, as you don’t even need a PS5 to play games
The PlayStation Portal has split opinion ever since it was first revealed. On the one hand, it lets you to play the best PS5 games away from your console using Remote Play. But on the other, it’s an extremely limited handheld, and its usefulness depends entirely on the strength of your internet connection.
Throw in other frustrations such as being unable to connect a Bluetooth pair of headphones, and it’s easy to see why the release of the PlayStation Portal led to an increasing demand for Sony to make a PSP 2.
However, Sony is finally addressing one of the Portal’s biggest issues: its inability to play games via the cloud. And it means the handheld has now shot to the top of my Black Friday wishlist if it goes on sale over the next few weeks.
The power of the cloud
The absence of cloud streaming on the PS Portal has always seemed like a huge oversight, but it’s great to see Sony has listened to the thousands of fans who asked for the feature to be added.
Rolling out in beta form, the new PlayStation Portal update lets PS Plus Premium members access hundreds of titles that were previously unavailable unless you owned them already. It also means you don’t even need to own a PS5 anymore to benefit from the PlayStation Portal, as a PS Plus Premium membership will let you stream from the cloud instead of the console.
Again, you’ll need a strong internet connection to get the 1080p/60fps quality on offer, but I’ve tested Sony’s cloud streaming service before on PS5 and it was leagues ahead of Xbox Cloud Gaming, which offers subpar image quality and less responsive controls.
Remember, it’s still in beta
I’ve seen a few comments angry that you can’t play PS4 or PS3 games, but Sony could add those in the future as it clearly says in its announcement post, “We are in the beginning stages of publicly testing cloud streaming on PS Portal, some features will not be available.”
Players also won’t be able to access Game Trials, streaming games purchased on the PlayStation Store, system features such as Party voice chat and game invites for select games, the Create button, 3D audio, and in-game commerce.
Clearly, the feature will grow over time and add more functionality, but the fact it’s even here is well worth celebrating. The timing couldn’t be better for Sony, either, as it comes hot on the heels of Microsoft’s recent “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign, which highlights you can use other devices to play Xbox games, not just a console.
In a way, Sony has a better solution in place with the PlayStation Portal. Not only is PS Plus cloud streaming superior like I mentioned before, but having an 8-inch screen and a fully featured DualSense controller attached means it’s much easier to market it to consumers than asking them to get an Amazon Fire TV Stick, and Xbox controller and sign up for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
The PlayStation Portal is $199.99 and you’ll have to pay an extra $159.99 a year for PS Plus Premium. That might be enough to put people off, but if you’re already heavily invested in the PlayStation ecosystem and even bought a PS5 Pro, there’s no doubt that the PlayStation Portal has gone from a niche purchase to something that’s well worth considering.
Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.