Sony Enables Cloud Streaming Of PS5 Games On PlayStation Portal
This update will be available in select markets, excluding India.
Sony has released a significant new software update for the PlayStation Portal, enabling cloud streaming of limited PS5 games from your console over WiFi. This is part of a broader system update rolling out today, which allows users to stream PS5 games from the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog to the Portal. However, this feature is currently in beta and requires a PlayStation Premium Plus subscription. Regrettably, it won’t be available to Indian users.
The streams will be at 720P, and a minimum Wi-Fi connection of 7 Mbps is necessary. The Portal can also stream at 1080P, but a faster 13 Mbps connection will be required.
Initially, Sony PlayStation Plus features won’t be available for cloud streaming to the PlayStation Portal. This means features like Game Trials, party voice chat, game invites for select games, 3D audio, and in-game commerce won’t be accessible. Additionally, users won’t be able to stream PS4 or PS3 games. Furthermore, child accounts won’t be able to use cloud streaming on the Portal.
Other changes include lower minimum volume levels and the ability to customize settings for the PlayStation Link device.
This update will be available in select markets, excluding India. The PlayStation Blog announced that 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 the United States will support this feature. These are the same countries that gained access to the cloud streaming feature, which was activated in October 2023.
Cloud streaming on the PS5 began last year for PlayStation Plus Premium users. However, it was limited to PS5 games that could be streamed directly to the PS5. The Portal didn’t support this feature because users couldn’t stream from the cloud to the PlayStation Portal. The Portal was designed to play local games from the PS5 over Wi-Fi.
Sony recently launched the PlayStation 5 Pro in markets like the US and Japan, which has become the world’s most powerful video game console, supporting 8K resolutions. However, the PS5 Pro recently made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Sony India announced that the console won’t be available in the country due to a lack of Wi-Fi 7 at sub 6GHz frequency. This is because the spectrum is not allotted for public use in India which is why India also doesn't have 5G at 6GHz in India as it is capped at 5GHz. Additionally, Sony uses a Broadcom Wi-Fi chip in both the PS5 and PS5 Pro, which hasn’t been modified to operate at frequencies lower than 6GHz, unlike the Qualcomm Wi-Fi solution in the PlayStation Portal.
