After teasing a remote play device for a while, Sony unveiled the PlayStation Portable last year. It's essentially a DualSense controller with a screen on it for users to stream their PlayStation 5 games remotely on a home network via WiFi. One of the main complaints for the new hardware, aside from the $200 price, was the lack of cloud streaming options, something that Sony itself offers with its PlayStation Plus Premium tier as a cloud gaming service perk.
Today, Sony surprise announced a massive change, cloud streaming is actually incoming. A system update carrying the feature in beta form as well as audio tweaks for lower volume support on the hardware is rolling out today, November 19.
During the beta stage, Sony is only enabling the streaming function for 120 PlayStation 5 games, supporting up to 1080p/60fps play. Standard DualSense features like haptics, adaptive triggers, speakers, motion sensor, and touchpad will also be supported on games that ship with those features. Saves will also be synced via the PlayStation Plus Cloud storage service.
As expected, the Cloud Streaming beta for the PlayStation Portal will only be available for users on the PlayStation Plus Premium plan. The plan is available only in these regions:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.
The minimum requirements for accessing the beta are these:
- A PlayStation Portal remote player
- An account for PlayStation Network
- An active PlayStation Plus Premium membership
- Access to broadband internet Wi-Fi
- To establish a cloud streaming session: requires minimum 5Mbps of upload and download speeds
- To stream at 720p: requires minimum 7 Mbps
- To stream at 1080p: requires minimum 13 Mbps
Those who want to join the beta will need to update their system software to the latest version, then head to Settings and set the "Cloud Streaming (Beta)" toggle to ON. The Home screen will then start displaying a new cloud streaming option.
Streaming will be limited to PlayStation 5 games, with no support for PS3/PS4 games. "Game Trials, streaming games purchased on PS Store, system features such as Party voice chat and game invites for select games, Create button, 3D audio, and in-game commerce," are not supported too, at least during the beta.
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