Since Portal cloud streaming is in beta, there are many features missing, however. Users won’t be able to play “streaming games purchased from the PS Store“, only those included in the subscription-based Premium catalog, and they’re limited to PS5 titles—PS3 and PS4 games are explicitly excluded, which seems odd.
Game trials are also excluded, as are other system features, such as party voice chat, 3D audio support, or “in-game trading”. That last one is probably a good thing to leave out for now—the last thing anyone wants is a dropped connection that could ruin real-money DLC sales.
Sony says games can be streamed at up to 1080p full HD quality at 60fps, with save data capable of being transferred to the cloud, too. “Access” is key though—you’ll need a minimum of 5Mbps upload/download speeds to establish a cloud gaming session, with 720p quality requiring a minimum of 7Mbps, and 1080p requiring 13Mbps. In fact, based on similar game streaming services and the functionality of the Portal itself even on a home network, expect to need even higher speeds to get an active experience.
The End of the Console Era?
Of particular interest here is time. Portal as it was introduced was actually an evolution of the same Remote Play feature that Sony had been offering in various forms for decades—the PSP used the first version of the technology to connect to the PS3 back in 2006, followed by the PS Vita to pair with the PS3 and PS4. .
Today, almost any device with a screen, an Internet connection, and a paired controller can use Remote Play to mirror your PS5—Portal was just a dedicated kit to do just that. The introduction of cloud gaming could make Portal more feature-rich, but it could also point to a growing trend among console manufacturers to leave the console behind entirely.
Take Sony’s gaming rival Microsoft – its current marketing push is that almost anything is “Xbox”. A big part of that depends on accessing Xbox services with “Cloud Gaming”, turning any device with a screen, an internet connection, and a paired controller (sound familiar?) into an Xbox.
Nintendo, on the other hand, has allowed certain games to launch on the Switch as cloud-only titles, and although this is often limited to titles that are generally too demanding or too large for the Switch to run natively (such as Resident Evil Village or Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy), it shows even the Japanese company famous for its old-fashioned food isn’t averse to at least exploring ether-only games.
