PlayStation has been out of the handheld game for a sizeable stretch, so when the Portal was announced, there was plenty of curiosity about what it would look like. This curiosity ultimately fizzled out when it was released in 2023 and it lacked the utility that many were hoping for.
This has gradually changed with updates, however. In 2024, an update was released that allowed the PlayStation Portal to stream games through the PlayStation Plus Premium subscription service, essentially making it a handheld console for that tier.
However, one eagle-eyed Reddit user spotted a supposed leak that signals another upgrade is on the horizon, and one that could make the PS5 redundant for many people.
PlayStation Portal Could Soon Stream Owned Games
It’s important to point out that none of this is confirmed and so until Sony announces otherwise, it should be treated as a rumour.
However, a Reddit user made the discovery that under the game Delivery At All Costs (and eventually others like Dead Space), there was a notice that games purchased could be played through the PlayStation Portal, though this notice has since been removed. This was also seen for The Outer Worlds 2, as shown in the comments beneath the original post.
The removal means that this was either mis-worded, or it wasn’t supposed to be revealed yet. If the latter is true, then it seems plausible that someone could buy the PlayStation Portal without owning a PlayStation 5, subscribe to PlayStation Plus, buy the games they want to play through the PlayStation Store app, and then play the games on your handheld PlayStation Portal.
The ability to circumvent needing to buy a PlayStation 5 would sound very appealing to a lot of people, but is this something that Sony would allow?
After all, the PlayStation Portal is less than half the price of the PlayStation 5, and while you still would need to subscribe to the highest tier of PlayStation Plus, that doesn’t quite make up the difference. Of course, it would be handheld and it would rely entirely on streaming, which are two shortcomings which some might not think are worth the trade-off, but it would still be a radical upgrade.
Some also think that this could ultimately be laying the groundwork for a future iteration of PlayStation hardware – especially if rumours about a supposed PlayStation 6 handheld version turn out to be true.
