The PlayStation Portal is finally getting PS Plus cloud streaming

thesixthaxis.com:

Sony has announced that the PlayStation Portal will finally get support for PlayStation Plus game streaming, fixing one of the most glaring omissions from the remote play device’s feature set.

PS Plus game streaming on PS Portal has now been added in a new system software update, and is available to PS Plus Premium members, allowing a selection of PS5 games to be streamed directly from the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog.

Once you’ve updated, you need to opt in. You do this via:

The features available for the cloud gaming beta are:

It is initially being labelled as a beta, and does have some minor compromises and feature limitations, when compared to the regular remote play experience from a home PS5 console and PS Plus in general. The biggest limitation is that you can only play PS5 games, with PS4 and PS3 game streams quite bizarrely locked off from the PS Portal. You also can’t use Game Trials, you also cannot stream games purchased from the PS Store, and you can’t use system features like party chat, the Create button, 3D audio or in-game purchases.

Elsewhere, the system update does also fix one of the more aggravating aspects of the PS Portal, that it was just so damn loud on its quietest setting! The update patch notes also include:

Sadly there’s still no support for generic Bluetooth headphones. It’s either Sony’s locked in PlayStation Link headphones and earbuds, or you’d better have a wired headset handy.

Nobody knows why it took Sony quite so long to figure out that the PS Portal should be a PS Plus streaming device – literally everybody could see this is what it should be able to do – but it’s great to see them finally get around to adding the feature.

We’ll just have to see how well it performs in that role, considering that the streaming experience from a PS5 console to Portal isn’t always the best.

Source: PS Blog