Millions of people have great wifi in their homes though. So it's for a decent amount of people. Plus a DualSense costs $70. Throw a screen on it and no way it was going to sell for a dollar under $150. So yeah.....it's also a profit making machine.
But they do need to add cloud gaming on it. I think they'll add it by the end of 2025. Sony is always slow with stuff like that.
It's not even about just home use, either. When I found out you can basically use your home PS5 as a remote server over public wifi networks wherever you happen to be (well outside the home), that's when the Portal actually started to make sense to me as a device.
Basically, it's a portable PS5 via streaming. Not necessarily cloud streaming (not yet, anyway), but streaming nonetheless. No need to split dev resources between two independent platforms. No need to split marketing costs. No need to add unnecessary production expenses. Take your PS5 games on the go, at home or on the road. Just make sure your PS5 at home is turned on and hooked up to your home network (preferably wired if you're out on the go).
From that understanding I can see why the Portal is doing so well, and it was really necessary for markets like Japan IMO.
Sony will never allow the PS Portal as a way to stream PS+ game, why they have to dilute the PS ecosystem?
Luckily they are not stupid as MS.
PS Portal is a reason more to get a PS5, not the other way around.
Yeah that's what I see them doing too, at least for a few years. FWIW they could always add a tier for PS+ focused strictly on cloud gaming, but the thing is even if they do that it wouldn't likely impact PS5 console sales. PS+ is mainly for catalog/legacy content, not new releases.
I think cloud streaming to PS Portal will probably be tied to the console in some way, but it could be a neat way of adding value to PSVR2 (or a future PSVR headset). I'm actually more interested in Sony exploring streaming for a future PSVR headset, that way production costs could come down dramatically, slimmer designs can be had, and cheaper entry-level models can be made. You wouldn't need so much stuff built into the headset itself for local data processing, if you can just stream tightly from the console itself. I'd expect the PS Link tech to be improved on and utilized for such a purpose.
That could hopefully allow a great entry price point for quality VR headsets, and maybe even bundle one as default in next generation of consoles (which I think, is needed if VR or AR are to become mainstream. They have to be a core part of the experience, not just an optional peripheral. But they'd have to make certain it doesn't come at the expense of console performance or software, a mistake Microsoft didn't avoid with XBO (the Kinect 2 itself was pretty solid quality tech-wise but came at the expense of XBO hardware performance and focus).