A massive PlayStation Portal update just turned it into a $199 streaming machine, no console required

The PlayStation Portal just received its major update in time for Black Friday shopping, allowing PlayStation Plus Premium members to stream games without the need for a PS5 console. In the past, the PlayStation Portal had to be connected to your PS5 home system in order to work. Since that is no longer the case, it is essentially one $199 PlayStation machine. That’s a pretty good deal, especially when you consider that a regular console would at least set you back $449 for the PS5 Digital Edition.

I personally have a PlayStation Portal and use it all the time to play games like Genshin Impact and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. It’s basically a Steam Deck for PlayStation, although it doesn’t run native games. It has a bright display and DualSense features, including haptic feedback, adaptive triggers and motion sensors. I’ve always recommended it to friends, and that recommendation just got a lot easier with this cloud streaming update.

According to Sony it is PlayStation Plus Premium members can use Cloud Streaming in beta for more than 120 PS5 games in the PS Plus games catalogue. These games can be streamed up to 1080p at 60 FPS. PlayStation even published one handy manual to get everything going. If you’re not already a member, PlayStation Plus Premium costs $18 per month or $160 for a full year.

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If you are thinking of giving a gift this holiday season, the PlayStation Portal would be a great choice. You don’t even need one of the best TVs to enjoy it. Just buy a system with a PlayStation Plus Premium membership and you’re good to go.

Why this matters

This update essentially makes the PlayStation Portal the cheapest PlayStation “console” available. And with consoles becoming increasingly expensive, like the PS5 Pro at a whopping $700, it’s great to see more affordable options available. And this comes just in time to compete with Microsoft’s latest campaign to promote portable devices that can stream Xbox games.