Cloud Gaming Has Finally Officially Arrived on the PlayStation Portal

Finally—two years after its release, and one year-long beta later—the PlayStation Plus handheld can finally officially play games without needing to connect to a PS5 console first. The portable machine is not strictly playing them all by itself, and you do need a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription to do it, but the latest system update brings the PlayStation Portal a lot closer to being a true PSP successor.

The news came earlier today via the official PlayStation blog, where Sony announced that cloud streaming for the PS Portal will soon officially go live for everyone with a compatible subscription, a little less than a year after the company started testing it with an optional beta. That means that the device can finally live untethered from a console, without any additional setup.

It's a breath of fresh air for the Portal, which, when it launched back in 2023, garnered negative reviews for its limited power and portability. While previous Sony handhelds like the PSP and PS Vita were able to play games on their own, disconnected from the internet, at launch the PS Portal could only play games by remotely connecting to a PS5—something gamers could already do on other devices like mobile phones.

That severely limited the device's usefulness, essentially turning it into an accessory rather than its own console. After today's update, it still needs an internet connection, but the handheld is a lot more useful as a standalone experience.

How to cloud game on the PlayStation Portal

Credit: Sony

Starting at 6 p.m. PT today, Nov. 5, Sony will start pushing the update live. Once it hits your device, you should see a new UI that, if you weren't in the beta already, will add the option to select a cloud icon to the device's top-left corner. Click through, and as long as you have a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription, you'll be taken to a brand new menu (new even to beta users) that shows all cloud-compatible games, either from games you own or from the PlayStation Plus library. Choose one, and you'll connect directly to Sony's servers, where you can start playing without getting your home console involved.

It's not a perfect solution, but Sony advertises it as a way to play its games "even when your PS5 console back home is powered off or is in use by another account." Personally, I'd also like to point out that you could now technically buy a Portal and not get a PS5, instead playing only through the cloud rather than using a console and remote play. At $200, the Portal is less than half the cost of a PS5, so it would save you a decent amount of upfront cost.

Still not a perfect handheld solution

That said, there are still drawbacks. While a cloud connection frees you from having to connect to a PS5 for remote play, it still won't allow you to play in areas without reliable high-speed internet, like on an airplane. It also risks introducing input lag into your gameplay, which means it's not a great choice for competitive titles. Visuals also might appear compressed, depending on your internet speed, and only certain titles are available via the cloud (although hundreds of games are already compatible).

The biggest caveat, though, is the required PlayStation Plus Premium subscription. That'll run you $18/month. It's up to you whether that's worth it over connecting to a console via remote play.

On the plus side, Sony promises that it has improved support for public wifi on the Portal, which should make for a smoother experience when playing in a coffee shop or at a hotel. Cloud gaming also now comes with access to features that weren't available during the beta, like in-game purchases, multiplayer invites, and new accessibility options like a screen reader. Outside of cloud gaming, the new update also adds 3D audio support to the PS Portal as a whole, so long as you're using wired headphones or Sony's own Pulse earbuds or headset.

It's definitely still a stopgap when compared to an entirely standalone device that can play its own games instead of streaming them (like the Nintendo Switch 2), but if you're a Sony gamer who misses being able to play on the go, the PS Portal should now be able to bring back some of those fond PSP memories—as long as you're in a spot with good wifi.

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