With the recently announced cloud streaming-only handheld, Project Q now on the horizon, PlayStation has revealed in a recent PlayStation Blog post that it will begin testing cloud streaming PS5 games, though when it does launch, the feature will only be available to PS Plus Premium subscribers.
For now, this announcement sounds more like PlayStation is giving players a heads up, that those on the top-tier of PS Plus subscriptions will be able to try streaming Returnal and other PS5 titles over the cloud sometime soon.
“We’re currently testing cloud streaming for supported PS5 games – this includes PS5 titles from the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Game Trials, as well as supported digital PS5 titles that players own.” said Nick Maguire, vice president of global services and sales at PlayStation in the blog post.
“When this feature launches, cloud game streaming for supported PS5 titles will be available for use directly on your PS5 console. That means as a Premium member, it’ll be easier to jump into your favorite games without downloading them first onto your PS5 console.
Our goal is to add this as an additional benefit to PlayStation Plus Premium as part of our ongoing efforts to enhance the value of PlayStation Plus.
We think it’s important for Premium members to be able to enjoy as many games as possible via cloud streaming. As more games continue to launch on the PS5 console, we look forward to adding cloud streaming capability for PS5 titles in addition to the PS3, PS4 and classic titles that are already available for Premium members to stream.
We’re in the early stages right now, and we can’t wait to share more details when we’re ready, including a launch time frame. Stay tuned”
Being able to just jump right into a title via streaming definitely sounds great, but there are more factors that could work against you when streaming something versus downloading it and playing it off your console’s internal drive.
A bad internet connection on your end, server issues on Sony’s, and the potential of unpredictable internet issues in your area could all prevent you from playing a game you’d have no issue playing if you’d just downloaded it instead.
It also doesn’t help that before PlayStation re-organized PS Plus into its new tiers that the company never had a great reputation for streaming games with its retired PlayStation Now service.
That doesn’t change the fact that cloud streaming is becoming more popular, and that cloud services can act as a means to play more games in different ways. Cloud gaming is definitely a part of the future, it’s just not yet clear how large a role it’ll play.
Hopefully PlayStation is really putting its best foot forward when it rolls out this new cloud streaming functionality for PS5 games, especially since it is banking an entirely new piece of hardware on cloud gaming becoming more popular.
Source – [PlayStation Blog]