Sony embraces cloud gaming on PlayStation Portal, but requires $18/month subscription

Ben Schoon | Nov 5 2025 - 11:30 am PT

While Google’s Stadia project is becoming a distant memory, cloud gaming lives on, and Sony is now embracing it further with its PlayStation Portal handheld finally adding cloud gaming for everyone.

The PlayStation Portal is a handheld in the same realm as the Steam Deck, but it doesn’t actually do anything on its own. Instead, it relies on you already having a PlayStation 5 console that the Portal then streams. The obvious answer to getting the Android-based handheld to do more on its own, though, has always been cloud gaming.

Following tests, Sony has announced that, starting today, all PlayStation Portal owners will be able to using cloud gaming on the handheld.

This will include access to “select digital PS5 games from their own library” without needing to connect to a PlayStation 5 via Remote Play. There’s also a catalog of PlayStation games available through cloud streaming through PlayStation Plus.

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The Portal will be updated with a new “Cloud Streaming home screen” as well as a search option to sort through games that you either own or have access to via PlayStation Plus to then play on the handheld. The update also adds some new features such as 3D Audio support and a passcode lock, as well as a network status page (that really should have been available all along).

The “catch,” though, is that PlayStation Portal owners can only use cloud gaming if they have a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription. That’s Sony’s highest subscription tier and costs $17.99 per month. The cost can be lessened with 3-month ($49.99) or 12-month ($159.99) options.