PlayStation Portal remote player system update releases today with Cloud Game Streaming Beta UX enhancements

Thick Thighs Save Lives

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
Today, we have an announcement for our fellow gamers on PlayStation Portal remote player.

As we continue to improve user experience based on community feedback, we are releasing a new system software update for PS Portal starting later today, which will add a few new features to improve your gaming experience while using Cloud Game Streaming Beta.
Click to expand...

As a reminder – Cloud Streaming (Beta) is an option for PlayStation Plus Premium members to play games via cloud streaming on PS Portal, allowing select PS5 games in the PlayStation Plus Catalog* to be streamed directly from our servers, even without a PS5 console. Since Cloud Streaming (Beta) on PS Portal is still an experimental offering, the features available during the beta period may change over time and may not reflect the final experience. For more details, visit here.

Without further ado, here are the new features added in this update:
Click to expand...

Sort

You can now sort games in the Cloud Streaming (Beta) catalog screen. There will be a new sort icon added to the top left corner, allowing you to sort games by: Recently added to PS Plus (default), Name, and Release date.

UI of PlayStation Portal remote player showing the Cloud Streaming (Beta) catalog

Capture gameplay

The Create button on your PS Portal will now be enabled during a Cloud Streaming (Beta) session. Here is what you can do:
  • Press once: Display the create menu
  • Press and hold: Take a screenshot
  • Press twice: Start/finish recording a video clip**
Images and videos captured during a streaming session will be automatically uploaded to the cloud server, which can be accessed from the PlayStation App by selecting [Library] > [Captures]. Your captures will be stored for 14 days after they were created.

UI of PlayStation Portal remote player showing the create menu

Queue

You can now wait for your turn to play when the streaming server is full. The estimated wait time will be displayed on screen, and the game session will automatically start as soon as it's your turn.

UI of PlayStation Portal remote player showing the Queue screen

Pause

During a Cloud Streaming (Beta) game session, gameplay will now pause in the following situations:
  • Gameplay will pause when you open the PS Portal quick menu. You can open the quick menu by pressing the PS button, swiping left from the top right corner of your screen, or tapping the quick menu icon from the status bar.
  • When you press the power button once, PS Portal will be put into rest mode and the game will be paused. You can un-pause and get back to your game play by pressing the power button again. If PS Portal remains in rest mode for more than 15 seconds, the cloud streaming session will be disconnected.
  • Gameplay will also pause when a system error message is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
Note that the pause feature will not be supported in some cases, such as during an online multiplay session.

Notification of inactivity

You will now receive a system notification when your streaming session is about to close due to inactivity of over 10 minutes.

UI of PlayStation Portal remote player showing the notification of inactivity

User feedback screen

We have added a user feedback screen at the end of the streaming sessions to rate the quality of your streaming experience. This will help us identify what went well or could be improved, as we continue to enhance the quality of our service.

UI of PlayStation Portal remote player showing the user feedback screen


blog.playstation.com

PlayStation Portal remote player system update releases today with Cloud Game Streaming Beta UX enhancements

Sorting games and support for gameplay captures are among the new features.
blog.playstation.com blog.playstation.com
 
Pretty clear that it won't be in beta much longer. I think the last big things that they need to introduce are Voice Chat and friend management and joining groups.

Definitely think it will leave beta by the end of the year. Wonder if it gets a rebrand as a Cloud and Remote Player.
 
Mibu no ookami said:
Pretty clear that it won't be in beta much longer. I think the last big things that they need to introduce are Voice Chat and friend management and joining groups.

Definitely think it will leave beta by the end of the year. Wonder if it gets a rebrand as a Cloud and Remote Player.
Click to expand...

100% correct. Potentially leaving Beta this Fall.
 
It's crazy, in hindsight, how we beta tested this thing (And Portal 2)for Sony :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Turned into a pretty cool product and worth way more than the initial price at this point. I hope Sony never realizes this.
 
Loomy said:
Can you elaborate on how you imagine this working? Genuinely curious.
Click to expand...
The Portal would communicate over your local network to the PS5 instead of going out over the internet.

Same way Steam in-home streaming/Moonlight works.
 
Last edited:
phant0m said:
The Portal would communicate over your local network to the PS5 instead of going out over the internet.

Same way Steam in-home streaming/Moonlight works.
Click to expand...
It goes through your local router and not internet
If your router is not overloaded it should be pretty much the same as wifi direct
 
Felessan said:
It goes through your local router and not internet
If your router is not overloaded it should be pretty much the same as wifi direct
Click to expand...
Yes but also a bit of a no on top of it, the Portal goes to the PSN servers to check the PSN id and so does the PS5 for the initial setup. Hence the Portal not working during the PSN out(r)age.
 
Watching Sony so ahead of MS in everything related to cloud is kind of hilarious.

Anyway...all this talk about Portal and i'm really trying hard to not buy one...seriously.
 
Baemono said:
Yes but also a bit of a no on top of it, the Portal goes to the PSN servers to check the PSN id and so does the PS5 for the initial setup. Hence the Portal not working during the PSN out(r)age.
Click to expand...
I thought complain was about stability/latency and these are non-issue
Auth/initial connection go through internet but I doubt it'll be changed - too small of an issue and require separate functionality on both portal and PS5 sides instead of reusing already present remote play.
 
Felessan said:
I thought complain was about stability/latency and these are non-issue
Auth/initial connection go through internet but I doubt it'll be changed - too small of an issue and require separate functionality on both portal and PS5 sides instead of reusing already present remote play.
Click to expand...
The annoying thing is that there were no checks before, they added the PSN Id requirement like 2 or 3 years ago
 
Tiago Rodrigues said:
Anyway...all this talk about Portal and i'm really trying hard to not buy one...seriously.
Click to expand...
I was really close with Metaphor: ReFantazio. Because lets be honest. As great as the game is, there is a lot of grind involved as well. And being turn-based, it's something you could literally do with your left hand (or right hand, if you're a southpaw). Didn't give in then, but the next major turn-based (J)RPG may just break the back of the metaphorical camel for me.
 
Last edited:
I grabbed the black portal that came out a couple months ago or whatever. Since I spend a lot of my time with any portable including switch playing somewhere in the house anyway.... its been fantastic. We've come a LONG way since remote play on the vita etc.
 
As a none PS5 owner, can someone confirm costs for me?
I Would obviously need the Portal, buy the games too?, is PS+ needed anywhere in this also?

My lad is Spiderman crazy so thinking I can get the Portal and PS+ Premium and cloud stream all included games yes?

Thanks in advance
 
Parazels said:
Like the WiiU: the gamepad and console each have dedicated wifi modules for a direct connection without a router.
Click to expand...

that is not the only reason the Wii U gamepad is superior tho.
the way the image is sent to the controller is why it is so low latency (although it has been bested by some PC based remote play options nowadays)

in an Iwata asks episode they talked about the GamePad, and while they didn't go into extreme detail, what it sounds like the Wii U is doing is that is starts sending chunks of the image to the gamepad before the GPU is even done rendering the frame.
so imagine the image is broken up into a 20x20 grid of rectangles (just an example, no idea how many chunks they divide it into). as soon as the top left rectangle is fully rendered it gets sent into the frame buffer of the GamePad, and as soon as the first row of rectangles is fully rendered and sent over, the GamePad starts drawing the new frame on its screen.

that is what it sounds like the Wii U is doing.
it also seems that it can not do this with virtual console/emulated games, giving them significantly more latency than games that run natively on the hardware. which you can feel easily if you compare them.

meanwhile, what the PS5 does is it renders a frame, and only after it is fully drawn by the PS5 is it starting to be sent to the Remote Play device. so the process of sending over the image is delayed dramatically compared to what the Wii U does. that's around 16ms of additional lag compared to the Wii U Gampead, that the PS5 remote play will always have at the very least.

the input lag of the Wii U gamepad is around 30ms btw., which in itself is not great anymore by today's standards, but was really good compared to LCD TVs in 2012.
 
Last edited:
My portal hitches for maybe half a second every 5 minutes or so. This only started after an update a few months ago. It wouldn't be so distracting if the connection issue and sound prompt didn't happen.

I still love my portal. Just wish an update will happen to fix this.
 
djjinx2 said:
As a none PS5 owner, can someone confirm costs for me?
I Would obviously need the Portal, buy the games too?, is PS+ needed anywhere in this also?

My lad is Spiderman crazy so thinking I can get the Portal and PS+ Premium and cloud stream all included games yes?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

PS Portal: $200
Games: Yes, you'll need to buy the games separately
PS+ Premium: $160 a year or $18 per month. This comes with some games that you won't have to buy separately. Spiderman 1 for PS5 is included, so you wouldn't have to buy that game.
 
djjinx2 said:
As a none PS5 owner, can someone confirm costs for me?
I Would obviously need the Portal, buy the games too?, is PS+ needed anywhere in this also?

My lad is Spiderman crazy so thinking I can get the Portal and PS+ Premium and cloud stream all included games yes?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
You can get the Portal for around 120-150 used. Many PS5 owners bought it but weren't satisfied. I got mine for 150€ barely touched.
PS Premium seems steep each year, but depends what kind of games you are playing/want to play. I did the math and as I didn't buy a PS5 I'm good to go for at least 3 years.
Also wait for Black Friday to buy Premium as it will be on sale.
 
I've only tried a few games following the update (Stellar Blade, F1 25, Oblivion and Street Fighter 6) but they have all played brilliantly (overall better than when linking to the PS5). Quite a lot of my digital library is available to play, and it's really cool that I don't need to have them downloaded to my PS5.

The only issue so far is that a couple of games haven't picked up my saves (Outer Worlds 2 being one), so I wonder if I need to add them to the cloud?

Also, Forza Horizon 5 wanted me to sign into my MS account again, but maybe that's part of the save issue?

Once I've figured out the save issue, I'll be a happy gamer indeed.
 
For the people that don't have a PS Portal, but are interested in what this update does and how it performs.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Cloud Streaming officially arrives on PlayStation Portal today
News  2 3 4
164
1K
hououinkyouma00 replied
PlayStation Portal sales going up on Amazon since owned games streaming came out of beta. ( #28 in video games )
2 3 4
168
990
Giallo Corsa replied
Playstation Portal Cloud Streaming for PS+
News  2 3 4 5
229
20K
Tobimacoss replied
[Verge] Xbox Cloud Gaming comes out of beta with improved 1440p resolution
16
864
GoldenEye98 replied
New PlayStation Portal remote player system software update releases tomorrow
News 
47
6K
N30RYU replied
Top Bottom