The fact that Xbox is falling behind is yet another indication of this.
“At least give us true cloud gaming.” That is exactly what I requested at the conclusion of my review of the PlayStation Portal, which was a $150 device that I finally found to be aggravating due to the fact that it could only do one thing: stream games from your PlayStation 5. Over the course of a year, Sony has at long last responded to my pleas. For PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers, the company has begun testing cloud streaming on the Portal, which will provide customers with quick access to more than 120 PlayStation 5 games. Moreover, for the first time in my life, I’ve begun to despise this thing a little bit less.
After playing a little bit of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Control, and Demon’s Souls through the cloud, I have just one question for Sony: Why wasn’t this game available on the PlayStation Portal when it was first released a year ago? When compared to the Portal’s original PS5 remote play, which was (and still is) less stable than cloud streaming, I was quite aback to discover that cloud streaming was significantly more dependable. On occasion, it would function perfectly, allowing me to spend some quality time watching Spider-Man 2 while sitting on the couch. On other occasions, however, it would simply refuse to connect to the PlayStation 5 for no apparent reason. (And yes, I own a Wi-Fi 6 router and a pretty good internet setup that is capable of gigabit speeds.)
During my initial evaluation of the PlayStation Portal, it did not meet the primary criteria that I use to evaluate consumer electronics: I simply did not have the ability to trust it. This is not the case with Sony’s cloud streaming service. Simply pressing the Cloud Play button on the Portal, waiting fifteen to twenty seconds for the service to launch, and then waiting another twenty seconds or so for my game of choice to start up is all that is required of me now. It is not exactly a rapid procedure, but it is not too dissimilar to the process of starting up your console and waiting for a game to load up.
During my time spent playing Control over the cloud, I was astounded by how clear and fluid everything appeared to be. There was no latency, which is something that I normally experience when I am streaming games. The video distortions and lethargic screen refreshes that I occasionally see when playing cloud games through Xbox Game Pass were not present in any of the games that I downloaded. There is a possibility that Sony’s acquisition of Gaikai, which occurred more than a decade ago, is finally beginning to bear fruit.
I had no issue moving over to the ray-tracing filled 30 frames per second fidelity option even though Control worked smoothly at 60 frames per second in 1080p when it was in its performance mode. Additionally, I had the ability to effortlessly switch between several quality levels in Miles Morales. I always choose to play at 60 frames per second whenever I have the opportunity to do so (this is one of the primary reasons I enjoyed the PlayStation 5 Pro so much), so it was satisfying to find that the Portal was able to easily keep up with that framerate. After spending fifteen minutes swinging around Manhattan and completing a few side objectives, I found that it didn’t feel all that different from playing Spider-Man 2 on the PS5 Pro in its full magnificence.
On the other hand, your experience will be decided by your own internet connection as well as the demand that is placed on Sony’s servers, just like it is with the majority of cloud services. The streaming experience on Xbox cloud became substantially worse as more users hopped on the future, and it is uncertain whether Sony is capable of meeting a demand that is comparable. Additionally, the cloud streaming of The Portal is restricted to the more than 120 PS5 titles that are included in the PS Plus Premium service. Despite the fact that there are a few noteworthy titles, such as The Last of Us: Part 1 and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, the most of the entries are older and not nearly as intriguing (unless you are very anxious to play Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures). This capability is not yet accessible for the Portal, according to Sony, despite the fact that you are generally able to stream digital games that you own through PlayStation Plus. However, it is something that is likely to come up at some point in the future.
In spite of the fact that it is a pleasant development that Sony has brought cloud streaming to the PlayStation Portal, it is a feature that will mostly appeal to individuals who already possess the device and are users of the PlayStation Plus Premium service. You know, the people who are 100% dedicated to PlayStation. As a result of the fact that streaming is dependent on having a reliable internet connection in order to function correctly, I would still not recommend the Portal as the ideal portable gaming option for you to use when you are traveling.
Cloud play does not resolve the problems that I am currently experiencing with the Portal. It took me eight minutes to connect to the console when I tried to compare it to Remote Play from the PS5 Pro on the Portal (which is seen above). I eventually had to make my way downstairs, manually turn on the PlayStation 5 Pro, and log in in order for the Portal to function properly. I can’t believe how convenient it is to play games remotely! In that mode, Spider-Man 2 appeared to be of a worse quality compared to anything I saw when I was streaming it over the cloud.
Interestingly, Microsoft also announced this week a significant streaming enhancement for the Xbox. The new feature allows users to play games that they actually own, rather than being restricted to only playing games that are included in the Game Pass catalog. Baldur’s Gate III and Cyberpunk 2077 are two examples of games that are compatible with this functionality, however it is not applicable to every game. With the exception of the Final Fantasy II HD Pixel Remake, which I was able to stream without any difficulty using XBPlay on the Steam Deck, I did not have many Xbox titles that I had purchased to stream because I am primarily a PC player these days.
Although it appeared to be decent when viewed through Xbox cloud streaming (as shown above), Forza Horizon 5 was not quite up to par. While I was racing throughout Mexico, the lettering was hazy, the textures were unclear, and artifacts appeared and disappeared on a regular basis. When compared to the games I saw on PlayStation Plus or the higher-resolution streaming that was available on services like as NVIDIA’s GeForce Now, it did not appear to be nearly as impressive.
The combined news that Sony and Microsoft have released this week is, if anything, an indication that these two firms ought to spend a little bit more time and effort on cloud streaming. These console manufacturers have been dragging their feet when it comes to adopting and publicizing this technology, despite the fact that we have been hearing about it for more than a decade. (The new marketing campaign that Microsoft has been running called “This is an Xbox” is a little bit embarrassing, but simultaneously, it is the kind of thing that the corporation ought to have been shouting from the rooftops for years.)
Cloud streaming has the potential to become significantly more beneficial in light of the proliferation of gaming handhelds and the growing apprehension individuals have regarding the high cost of console hardware. However, in order to reach their goal, Sony and Microsoft need to make additional leaps in streaming rather than taking a series of inconsistent steps ahead.