It’s not just Microsoft that’s stepping up on the cloud front (more on that in today’s news), Sony has done the same.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced on the PlayStation Blog that PlayStation Portal has received a new firmware. This changes the sound output so that when the volume is set to low, it doesn’t really have a high volume. You can also change the settings for the PlayStation Link device from the settings menu in PlayStation Portal, so the volume can be fine-tuned here too. But that’s not the device’s biggest new feature.
There’s also the ability to play PlayStation Portal from the cloud. PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers will be able to play certain PlayStation 5 games from the PlayStation Plus game catalog, so there’s no need to run anything from your own PS5 – you can use Sony’s servers. This is still very much in the experimental stage. Over 120 titles will be available (including Dave The Diver, Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Monster Hunter Rise, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart).
You get a maximum 1080p/60 FPS resolution and frame rate from the white. DualSense features (haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, speakers, touchpad – emulated on the touchscreen) and motion sensors are also supported. Up to 100GB of storage can be synced with our PlayStation 5. The beta is available in the following countries: 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, United States.
You will need PlayStation Portal, a PlayStation Network account, an active PlayStation Plus Premium subscription and a Wi-Fi connection. You’ll need an upload and download speed of at least 5 megabits. This is 7 Mbps for 720p and 13 Mbps for 1080p. Once the beta is open, update your PlayStation Portal firmware, then go to the settings quick menu, select Cloud streaming (beta) and turn it on as it’s off by default. You will then see a new option in the main menu to play from the cloud.
Some features will not be available in beta: PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 titles will not be playable from the cloud, game trial demos will not be available, titles purchased from PlayStation Store will not be accessible, and in-game trading (microtransactions), 3D audio, create button functionality, team voice communication and game invitations will be missing.
Why couldn’t this have been available from the start?
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