PlayStation Portal Launching At $200 But It Doesn’t Support Streamed Games

The good news? Sony’s upcoming PlayStation Portal is coming later this year and will be priced at $199.99.

The bad news? Despite it being a great looking handheld device that lets you play your PS5 games around the house, PlayStation Portal doesn’t work with Sony’s upcoming cloud streaming games for the PS5.

PlayStation Portal and PlayStation Plus Premium, not that compatible

Earlier this year, Sony announced that PlayStation Plus Premium users will receive a cloud streaming feature for PS5 games. The new feature will let you stream games from your PS5 to PCs, Macs or phones without having to download those titles locally on the PS5. Weirdly enough, that feature won’t work on the PlayStation Portal.

“Games that must be streamed on PS5 using a PS Plus Premium membership are not compatible,” said Sony.

PlayStation Portal also does not support PSVR2 games.

What are the games that work on PlayStation Portal?

“PlayStation Portal can play supported games that are installed on your PS5 console and use the Dualsense controller,” said Hideaki Nishino, a Sony representative.

That means that, to stream a game from your PS5 to your PlayStation Portal, you’ll have to have downloaded the game on your main console.

You also need a stable WiFi connection of at least 5Mbps, with 15Mbps being what Sony recommends.

You also can’t use PS5 headphones or any other headphones, because the PlayStation Portal doesn’t have bluetooth. To get around that, Sony offers a PlayStation Link proprietary technology, which will work with the official PS5 earbuds. 

The good news is that the PlayStation Portal has a 3.5mm headphone jack so yes, you can use your favorite wired headphones with it.

What is PlayStation Link though?

This is basically a system similar to Logitech’s Unifying Software. Here’s what Sony has to say:

This innovation delivers low latency, lossless audio and easy switching between multiple PlayStation Link hosts such as PS5 with the USB adapter and PlayStation Portal.

When using Pulse Elite and Pulse Explore with PS5, the USB adapter that’s included with each headset and earbuds is required for PlayStation Link. The PlayStation Link USB adapter will also be sold separately as a standalone item, and can be used on PC and Mac, so players can connect Pulse Elite or Pulse Explore to experience the same lossless and low latency audio. 

Pulse Elite and Pulse Explore can simultaneously connect to a PlayStation Link supported device (PS5, PC, Mac, or PlayStation Portal) and a Bluetooth supported device. For example, Pulse Explore can be connected to PS5 (via the USB adapter) using PlayStation Link and also to a mobile phone through Bluetooth at the same time. While playing on PS5, gamers can instantly answer a call and hear it through the same Pulse Explore earbuds.

PS5 earbuds and PS5 headphones are coming – better save up!

They’re called the Sony Pulse Explore and will also cost $199.99 – a steep price for wireless earbuds that looks even steeper considering that’s how much the PS Portal goes for as well.

A more budget-friendly option will be the Pulse Elite headset, which will go for $149.99.

In a blog post announcing them, Sony wrote that both PS5 headsets are “are the first PlayStation audio devices to use custom-designed planar magnetic drivers for an audiophile-level listening experience normally found in premium headphones for professional sound engineers.”

As for the hardware side of the PlayStation Portal, you can expect all the features of the DualSense controller, including adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.

It has an 8-inch LCD screen with 1080p resolution

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