PS Portal Gets So Much Better Today in Huge UI, Cloud Streaming Update

This is huge, this may tempt me to start purchasing more digital games.

Updating and checking this out the minute I get home 🙌

Hmm was looking at buying one recently but decided to use the app on my iPad instead. This could be a good excuse to buy yet another gadget I don’t really need 😂

Very cool. I'm still asking for them to allow the touch screen controls to change for the touch pad though. Double tapping the screen to replicate a tap on the touchpad is super annoying. It makes using the virtual mouse in games like FFXIV near impossible.

Yes! This is fantastic. Really pumped to have access to additional games and features.

Wait now you can stream games directly from the cloud without having to download them on your ps5? That's really a huge upgrade!

Ia there any info on whether it's available for PS+ Deluxe (what some countries get instead of Premium), since in Deluxe there is no streaming of PS3 games?

This maybe a dumb question but how is this any different than what it does now? You are streaming as you play now.

Cooking yes. This is what i have been waiting for.
They just need to add ps3 streaming and ps4 digital library and I will be extremely happy

Incredible. Nearly 3000 games available to stream now

@Linaphor doesnt require your PS5 on

@Linaphor You can stream select PS5 games without the console being on.
Also can play games now when someone else is on the console but improved.

The Portal is such an underrated device! As a proud Portal owner.

@arkhamtheknight It's a game changer!!

I sold my portal to buy a steam deck. I like the steam deck and access to so many cheap games, but the portal was so much nicer to hold and use. I rarely stream from my ps5 to the steam deck anymore as it just doesn't feel great.

@Linaphor cloud streaming is far better experience than remote play. Less lag, less pixelating and less loss of connection

A question: do I understand it correctly that you need to be subscribed to the highest PS+ tier in order to stream your games directly from Could, otherwise no PS+ means you need to have those games installed in your PS5 and cannot play at the same time on the PS5 and on the Portal?

@Olmaz Unknown at the moment. It will probably be answered soon by the account for the countries that have it.

@Linaphor No dumb questions. While you could already stream games from the PS+ catalogue without turning on your ps5, now you can also stream all the games you own (digitally) without turning on your console. Like Ghost of Yotei for example.

I know i’ve been saying this for a while now, but i’m totally getting a PS Portal. This things just keeps getting more awesome.

Playing Astro Bot again on this is gonna be so cool 😁

3D Audio, finally! Its lack was such a bummer for me all the time, because this PS5 feature is a key part of the experience.

And with the streaming service progressing, I don’t know whether I should buy a PS6 or just use PS6 streaming to my PS Portal (if available).

@Andy22385 oh that is cool

@LogicStrikesAgain That is awesome. Thanks for explaining

I was excited and went to update my Portal, only to find out the update isn’t quite out yet. It goes live in about 12 hours or so. 🫤
No problem, I’ve waited this long, another half day won’t matter

Nice timing ahead of Black Friday! Would love to pick up on of these eventually so I can play a couple games while my kids hog the TV for YouTube etc.

A shame this feature is locked behind Premium.

@Linaphor This turns the Portal into its own standalone console. Aslong as you have a playstation account and premium membership you don't even need to own a PS5 to play PS5 games. Just buy a game from the store using your phone and then play it on your portal via cloud streaming.

They need to advertise the hell out of this update, this will lead to an increase in Portal sales and premium tier subs.

Great update, too bad it's locked to Premium. I can see the rationale from Sony's perspective is to get more people to upgrade their plans but It would be really sweet if this was available across all tiers. Oh well, at least I get to set up a passcode to stop my kid from trying to use my Portal

Let people on Extra have access to this and I MAY consider picking one up!!

All my games are digital, may be tempted by this and up my mobile plan to unlimited data, had a go on a portal in CEX today, streamed cyberpunk from the cloud, very impressive 👍

Edit - one question, are save files synched for cloud streaming with regular saves ?? Not wanting 2 seperate save files.

@Stevemalkpus lets hope that the rumoured PS6 companion handheld version will be more like the switch, without need to have a premium PS+ nor needing to block your main console to play.

@Jrs1 this is what I want to know also!

@Jrs1 yes saves are universal if you have auto upload donwload cloud saves on your ps5 turned on. I have been playing death stranding ac valhalla and dead island across portal and ps5 without have to go to download and upload saves

@Th3solution I expect your full review in the forum once you've had a chance to use it a bit 😁 this is basically what we've all been waiting for, right?

Now do I get the portal (on black friday), or wait for the next gen monster 😬

As this is locked behind PS Premium, this is a no from me. My collection is also dominantly physical so the value add isn't there. If Sony would just make this available to PS Essential subscribers I'd be ecstatic. Heck, I might even consider adding more digital games to my library.

I want this, but I just can't pay for the service. The giant library of games breaks my head and I can't stop hopping around. And there's the FOMO with games constantly leaving. Very unenjoyable experience for me.

Talk about gamechanger!

Will the streaming quality be the same on both ways (from the installed game on PS5 and directly from the Cloud) ?

So just for clarity. You can only natively stream gamea from the portal with the Premium account including games you have purchased digitally? Or are you able to stream games you have purchased digitally with out Premium

@TheFakulty Cheers bud for the info 👍

@Linaphor I didn't think you have to have the game downloaded to your PS5 to play them now

This is what I've been waiting for! I use my portal way more than I ever thought I would.

Any word on exactly when the update is being rolled out? I just checked and it's not on mine yet and say's it's totally up to date...

What I would really like to see is the ability to stream YouTube or your movie channels. I really don’t understand why we can’t do that but I’m sure there’s a reason.

@get2sammyb I was one of those people that thought it wouldn’t work well when I first initially saw it but since getting it over a year ago it’s been a device I use daily and is one of my favorite gaming devices ever.

Mega update. Just what was missing from an already great device.

@Megabeenz Yeah good point, if they made it an option on all tiers that could work out really well for them.

Can’t complain about this on a £200 device (£150 in CeX)

Fair play to Sony for it

@get2sammyb It just goes to show that internet commentry is pretty much meaningless and doesn't represtent the real world.

Like you, I really like my Portal. It's a fantasic device.

Now bring the ability to the iPhone. I’ll happily pay for it.

They should bring this to the remote play app on apple and Android.
I can already cloud play my Xbox/Gamepass games on my phone. It's making a big difference in where I choose to buy my games now

Sounds great, although assuming it cannot be used for physical games? Would be great if they implemented maybe some sort of requirement for a physical game to access the internet maybe every few weeks to remain tied to your account, but I guess that's a lot more leg work for them...

What I do wonder is whether this could be replicated via Chiaki at all....

2am gmt time for the update

@UltimateOtaku91
"This turns the Portal into its own standalone console."

Ehh, no it doesn't.

@ElectricWizard Why doesn't it? You can buy and stream games on it without ever owning a ps5 making it a standalone device if you want.

Its pretty much a logitech g cloud but dedicated to playstation games.

@ElectricWizard - Actually it kind of is as you can play a different Game on it even if your PS5 Console is currently in use somewhere else.

@Mikeg1965 @UltimateOtaku91
A console can play games natively.

This update turns the Portal into a fully standalone streaming device (an excellent one at that).

I.E. It was the use of "console" I was questioning not "standalone".

Peace.

@Linaphor not a dumb question as it’s somewhat nuanced but it is quite different. Previously, in order to play a game from your library, it had to be installed on your PS5, boot your PS5 at home and rely on your home connection’s upstream bandwidth. Now, if you’re a PSN Premium subscriber you can stream all your digital games and I believe all of the streaming games that Premium access affords you directly to your Portal via its internet connection. Freeing up your home PS5 to be untethered to the task and not relying on your home connection and PS5 to stream the game to your portal. Essentially, it’s possible now to stream games on the portal without a PS5 involved or even owned at all. At least that’s how I’m understanding it on that last point.

@Otherbarry unfortunately, the Portal direct streaming ability as a whole, regardless of how you own the content played, is tied to subscription to PSN Premium. Which I am not so as it stands this doesn’t benefit me and I’m not sure it’ll worth the upgrade for my subscription but it’s certainly cool and does a good job compelling some to that upgrade. I might if I find more reasons in the future. I don’t travel a lot right now and have good fiber connection at my home so I’m likely to just stick with what I have since I tend to extend my game play to whatever I’m into on my home console via the Portal just in another room or while briefly traveling around town and waiting on my kids art class or something. No one else uses my PS5 most of the time either.

@dodgykebaab Particularly the online gaming discourse.

Reddit in particular is really bad for this. I've stopped visiting r/games as it's full of people patting each other on the back with constant spirals of confirmation bias.

@Dodoo i mean honestly they are all gadgets we don't need , but we still enjoy the heck out of them lol.

@PapaGlitch i'm pretty sure the physical games you can still run using remote play, but this feature also makes it more portable , yes you still need a solid connection , but you could bring it on a vacation and it use it.

This is so very timely. I was literally on the verge of selling my PS Portal to help fund a Steam Deck. Now I think I'm gonna hold onto this and up my subscription to PS Premium. If it works well, I may just forgo the Steam Deck all together.

Gamechanger! So glad we eventually got here with the portal! Hopefully we get a sale on black friday and I'll pick up another one!

No benefit to me (I drive to work) but new, free functionality is nice. I use my Portal on a daily basis to play strategy games on the lving room couch (my Pro is in the den) in the afternoon.

@Dlld0Baggins that's super helpful thank you. That part of the article was confusing me for a min. I'm in the same boat I like using it but the extra price for the highest tear of plus isn't worth the feature honestly. It would be cool if the device supported usb storage to allow for digital games to be saved and played off of that natively as a way to bridge the gap but I suspect the allowance of any external drive would lead to some amount of piracy. Ah well thanks for the info though at least now I won't be staring at my portal confused as to why I can't play my digital games lol

@ElectricWizard - Ah', understood.

@LiamCroft with portal already selling above expectations do we see this even furthering those sales even more 🤔

Shouldn't this be way cheaper considering its just a screen and a controller?

Also is it possible to play without having PS5 at all?

It's kinda ironic that we get power saving features on ps5 whilst at the same time i wonder how much energy these cloud servers feeding the streaming use 😄

Edit - Anyone know if this will cloud stream games bought on another country's storefront through my primary UK account with Console Sharing enabled. I know that if i buy on another store the price still shows on the UK store for those games but they can still be launched (play game)

Oh I see, it's not actually live till 2am gmt

@reek won't know for sure until the update rolls out but it's looking like as long as you have a premium PSN account then you won't need the console. But as I say, it'll need confirming.

Being able to stream a number of the games I already own without needing my PS5 on is actually a really big plus and may prompt me to get a portal now.

I wish it would also run physical games, but that's unfortunately too much to ask.

That being said it's amazing how this system surpassed everyone's expectations, even Sony's.

@Ravix Absolutely and you know I will!

@reek with that question you clearly didn't bother reading the article you are commenting on.

So still not available in Australia (and I guess other similar areas) where we have the hamstrung “Deluxe” tier instead of “Premium”…?? Sony WHYYYYYYY 😾

My portal updated before, in Australia but cannot see any option to stream. If streaming is not in because I am in Australia, I will be cancelling Plus since it does expire in a week.

@CallMeDuraSouka Who do you display it to? Are they impressed?

Genuinely tempting to buy more digital. Until I see the prices on the PS store

Was streaming games to PS Portal not always the end game?

Incredible and game changer! I hope the premium is just a tester to start with as I’m not a fan of that service. Too expensive for so little. Personally I think they should add the feature to extra or all tiers to get more engagement into their ecosystem.

Premium doesn’t tempt me but Extra would.