The PS5 Cloud Gaming service can now be experienced in full glory starting in late October. However, the service will be exclusive to PlayStation Plus Premium members. Now, gamers can stream big titles like Spider-Man: Miles Morales and the Resident Evil 4 remake to their consoles. In simple terms, the service will allow players to play games on their consoles without downloading them.
Before this, only Xbox users could stream current-gen titles on their consoles over the cloud. This was confirmed when Sony took to the PlayStation blog to make the announcement. The rollout of this feature is set to happen regionally in phases.
PS5 Cloud Service vs. Remote Play
The Remote Play feature already exists for the PlayStation 5. The feature allows gamers to stream games to their PCs and smartphones using the PS App. The PS5 cloud service allows PS Plus Premium Subscribers to stream games from PlayStation Servers to their PS5 consoles without downloading.
Sony didn’t mention other devices in its plans for PS5 Cloud Services. It is only confirmed that the service will only be available on PlayStation 5 devices at launch.
The entire list of titles can be inferred from Sony’s announcement on its official PlayStation blog. The statement released by Sony said:
Starting this month, we will begin launching cloud streaming access for supported PS5 digital titles within the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog* and Game Trials*, as well as supported titles in the PS5 game library that PlayStation Plus Premium members own.
The supported PS5 titles included in the blog post were:
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Saints Row IV
- Resident Evil 4
- Dead Island 2
- Genshin Impact
- Fall Guys
- Fortnite
Game Trials* for PS5 games, such as Hogwarts Legacy, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and The Calisto Protocol, will also be included. As per the company, the game lineup is expected to increase to hundreds of games over time.
PS5 Cloud Service Features
A myriad of features are available for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers, which can be accessed with the PS5 Cloud Service. The features are:
- Downloadable content and in-game purchases will be available for PS5 game streaming, including DLC and add-ons, similar to purchases from downloadable games.
- High-quality resolution options, including 4K, 1440p, 1080p, and 720p, with 60 FPS and SDR or HDR output.
- Enhanced audio supports all PS5 audio capabilities, including 5.1 and 7.1, and Tempest 3D Audiotech.
- Capture screenshots and record up to 3 minutes of video, which will be downloaded to your Media Gallery on PS5 and available in the Media Gallery on the PS App.
It is commendable that one does not need to install games to play them using the PS5 Cloud Service. The PS5 console has limited capacity, and games nowadays can take hundreds of gigabytes of console storage. Although storage expansion options are present, for the average budget gamer, they add to the expense list.
But the PS5 Cloud Service introduces another parameter to be taken care of. To obtain a smooth experience, one needs a perfect internet connection. The requirements shoot up even more if one plans to stream at 1440p or 4K with HDR.
Apart from general lag and stutter, the possible input lag will make playing eSports games like Fortnite even more difficult. The PS5 Cloud Service requires a minimum internet speed of 5 mbps, 15 mbps for 1080p, and 38 mbps+ for 4K.
As mentioned earlier, this feature will be a hefty one and will take substantial time to roll out successfully.
Here are the dates revealed by the company:
● Japan, targeting October 17
● Europe, targeting October 23
● North America, targeting October 30
These are the regions where the service will be available: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Sony has finally caught up with Xbox, which has been providing current-gen game streaming for quite some time now. Other services, like Geforce Now, are good alternatives if someone wishes to game on a PC instead. Now, the pitfalls of game streaming are out there, and that is a fact. Despite this, the PS5 Cloud Game Streaming service provides some respite from PlayStation 5 local storage.
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