The PlayStation Portal just received its most important update in time for Black Friday shopping, allowing PlayStation Plus Premium members to stream games without needing a PS5 console. In the past, the PlayStation Portal needed to be connected to your home PS5 system in order to work. Since that's no longer the case, it's essentially a $199 PlayStation machine. That's a pretty sweet deal, especially considering a normal console would set you back at least $449 for the PS5 Digital Edition.
I have a PlayStation Portal myself and I use it all of the time to play games like Genshin Impact and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. It's basically a Steam Deck for PlayStation, though it doesn't run games natively. It sports a crisp display and DualSense features, including haptic feedback, adaptive triggers and motion sensors. I've always recommended it to friends, and that recommendation just got a lot easier with this cloud streaming update.
According to Sony, PlayStation Plus Premium members are able to use Cloud Streaming in beta for over 120 PS5 games in the PS Plus Games Catalog. These games can be streamed up to 1080p at 60 FPS. PlayStation even published a handy how-to guide to get everything up and running. If you're not yet a member, PlayStation Plus Premium costs $18 a month or $160 for an entire year.
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If you're thinking of giving a gift this holiday season, the PlayStation portal would make a pretty good one. You don't even need one of the best TVs around to enjoy it. Just pick up a system with a PlayStation Plus Premium membership and you're good to go.
Why this matters
This update effectively makes the PlayStation Portal the cheapest PlayStation "console" out there. And with consoles getting more and more expensive, like the PS5 Pro at a whopping $700, it's great to see more affordable options available. And this comes just in time to compete with Microsoft's latest campaign promoting handheld devices that can stream Xbox games.
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