PlayStation Portal (Project Q) up for pre-order....

Sneaking out quietly among all the Gamescom news, Sony formally took the wraps of the PlayStation Portal today, formerly Project Q. Priced at $199, £199, €219, it delivers up to 1080p 60fps streaming from the PS5, but only for games installed on your PS5 machine, and assuming no one else is using it. 

Update: Release date is 15th November for major US and EU territories, with pre-orders going live from most retailers at the end of September or now direct from PlayStation. (Pre-orders now live on Amazon)...

The PlayStation blog post bills it as the "perfect device for gamers in households where they might need to share their living room TV or simply want to play PS5 games in another room of the house." That's pretty much me, although I can see a lot of people not being very happy, but when are they ever? (Already the comments are forming into the usual rudeness.) 

I suppose the "magic" with Portal is low latency gaming, something that is very hard to demonstrate beyond live in-our-hands. So, will Sony start setting up roadshows or booths in the last few gaming stores to highlight the feature? Probably not. 

PlayStation Portal Pushes the Limitations

"PlayStation Portal will connect remotely to your PS5 over Wi-Fi." suggests in-house only, butother sources say it will play over any WiFi link, as long as the connection is strong enough. Most of the post goes on about the wireless Pulse Elite wireless headphones and the Pulse Explore earbuds, so the Portal is clearly just another accessory or gadget to Sony and absolutely not another primary device. 

I also guess that's why we never got a PS5 remote play app on the Vita. If sales of Portal aren't going to be stellar (out of a 40-ish million PS5 user-base), then they need every PlayStation fan they can chipping in to make this a worthwhile effort. 

Update: one of IGN's wonks (naturally) got invited over to Sony's secret bunker for a play (video). One note, he mentioned it should work wherever you are in the world, as long as the connection is strong enough. And Famitsu has some nicer less-glossy press shots to enjoy, although they could at least have turned the unit on!

The Sound of PlayStation 5

The audio gadgets had better deliver an amazing soundscape, otherwise they are very over-priced, (Pulse Elite $/£149 and Pulse Explore $/£199), and use PlayStation Link to connect to the Portal, otherwise there's ye olde 3.5 jack, but no Bluetooth - as with the PS5. 

But back to the star of the show, I guess the Portal is in that "could-buy-gadget" territory, and is priced less than I was expecting! Hopefully distant remote play will be solid, and we have to wonder what the unofficial potential of it is. 

Release date for all of these gadgets is later this year, likely October/November in time for the festive sales. Portal could be a useful ongoing side-gig supporting PS5 sales, but any deeper support or improved feature set is likely just a pipe-dream, except for perhaps Project Chronos streaming when that launches.  

Update: The sadness of Sony's Portal marketing approach 

Less than 24 hours later and the same-time rollout of this news means that Portal is already off the bottom of most tech/gaming websites. Portal trended briefly, but with no exciting games to talk about, no killer tech, there's little to talk about beyond the comment hatred. 

It was a one-day non-wonder, and no one outside the portable family will know or care until launch day, which will be another modest burst of activity, and then vanish into the ether once again.