Surprising PlayStation Portal Update Offers Cloud Streaming Beta

I don’t play bingo, so I didn’t have a bingo card available specifically for this situation (sorry!), but it appears Sony wants you to play more video games within its ecosystem, so the company’s pushing a new update for the PlayStation Portal today. The update includes cloud streaming, which is still in beta, with support for 120 PlayStation 5 titles available via the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. Of course, you must subscribe to PS+ Premium to enjoy a cloud streaming performance of 1080p resolutions in 60 frames per second. Fancy!

That said, according to the PlayStation Blog, several features are available during the beta, some that aren’t available, and a number of locations where you can check out the cloud streaming beta. We’ll start there:

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.

Beta Features

As for new features available as part of the PlayStation Portal cloud streaming beta, you can enjoy:

• Stream select PS5 games in the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog
  • Over 120 PS5 games from the PS Plus Game Catalog, including Dave the Diver, Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Monster Hunter Rise, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, will be accessible on PS Portal via cloud streaming*
• Streaming up to 1080p/60fps**
• DualSense wireless controller features, including haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, speakers, touchpad (emulated on the touch screen for PS Portal), and motion sensor***
• PlayStation Plus Cloud storage
  • Save data and game progress can be stored up to 100GB and will be automatically synced with your PS5 console, making it easy to switch seamlessly between local and streaming gameplay, and between multiple devices.

Related: PlayStation Portal is the Best Selling Accessory This Year

How to Join the Cloud Streaming Beta

If you want to participate in the beta, you require an active PlayStation Network account, an active PS+ Premium subscription, access to high-speed broadband internet, and the PlayStation Portal. Once you have everything, you can access the new update and activate cloud streaming by:

1. Open “Quick Menu” and access “Settings” on your PS Portal.
2. Select the “Cloud Streaming (Beta)” button
3. Switch the Cloud Streaming (Beta) toggle on (this will be off by default).

Unfortunately, per the blog post, some features will not be readily available for this beta. This includes Game Trials, system features like party voice chat, the create button, 3D audio, and in-game microtransactions.

Do you play on the PlayStation Portal? Let us know your thoughts on the device in the comments below, or visit our community forum to talk PlayStation with like-minded fans!

Speaking of Sony and PlayStation, did you hear the news that they’re talking about buying FromSoftware‘s parent company? Maybe we’ll finally see Bloodborne 2?!