Xbox Game Pass Lands Win vs PlayStation Plus, New Cloud Perk Slammed

Some PlayStation Plus subscribers aren’t too pleased with Sony’s newly touted cloud streaming feature given that it’s paywalled behind the subscription’s most expensive tier.

Sony revealed on the official PlayStation Blog that their PlayStation Portal handheld is getting an exciting new update – but some fans aren’t happy with their decision to lock the function behind PlayStation Plus Premium.

Previously, cloud streaming on the PlayStation Portal was somewhat restrictive. Unless you wanted to pair your handheld directly to your PlayStation 5 console, you could only stream select titles available through PlayStation Plus Premium.

That’s all changed following the latest update, however, as you can now stream select titles you own in your digital library, including “blockbusters such as Astro Bot, Borderlands 4, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Fortnite, Ghost of Yōtei, Grand Theft Auto V, and Resident Evil 4”.

It doesn't matter if someone else is logged into your PlayStation 5 or even if your console is powered on, as you can seemingly now play any of the available titles in your digital library without even owning a PlayStation console.

Xbox Game Pass tier updates from Xbox Wire Blog, Microsoft

I say “seemingly” because the explanation on the PlayStation Blog is somewhat vague. If I’m correctly reading between the lines here, it seems that you’d have to connect your PlayStation Portal to a PS5 at some point, but I assume you could simply do so using a friend’s console.

However, it’s not all good news. Over on the r/playstation subreddit, fans aren’t pleased that the new cloud streaming update still requires you to be a PlayStation Plus Premium subscriber… even though you’re streaming games directly from your own digital library.

“Kinda stupid it’s only for the highest tier of PlayStation Plus”, commented user devonathan.

“I was thinking the same thing. I have it so it doesn’t affect me but feels like a no brainer to just let everyone use it, or at the bare minimum have the lowest tier. Premium is a lot to ask”, replied user ericypoo.

For comparison, Xbox Game Pass Essential, the lowest Xbox Game Pass tier, allows users to take advantage of cloud streaming on Xbox and PC for roughly £6.99 a month, whereas PlayStation Plus Premium costs a whopping £13.49 a month.

Plus (hah), Xbox Game Pass Essential also allows you to stream games from your digital library.

It does seem that Sony has lost out on a bit of an easy win here by not offering the cloud streaming feature to PlayStation Plus Essential tiers, especially considering that you need to own a separate peripheral device to even take advantage of it in the first place.

Hopefully its something they opt to change in the future, because if so… well, it would almost be enough to convince me to actually buy a PlayStation Portal.