Sony’s latest update pushes the PS Portal closer to becoming your ultimate portable PlayStation—with cloud capture, sorting, and even queues.
Sony just released a new system update for the PS Portal. Update 5.0 may appear to be a standard firmware update, but it introduces six key features that will make a significant difference, particularly if you’re part of the cloud streaming beta. For people who already love the Portal or are waiting for it to grow up and become as good as the Nintendo Switch 2, this update is a big step in the right direction.
Let’s talk about what’s new and why it’s important.
You already know how hard it is to find the game you want in Sony’s cloud streaming beta—there are over 200 of them up until now.
With update 5.0, Sony adds a new way to sort the cloud gaming catalog. You can now sort games by:
Recently added:
- Order by letter (A-Z or Z-A)
Date of release
It would be great to have a real search bar and genre filters, such as “racing,” “horror,” and “RPG,” but for now, this is a huge improvement. You will no longer have to scroll for hours to find Uncharted or Hogwarts Legacy. It’s not perfect, but it’s a big step forward.
You can now record gameplay directly on your PS Portal. This is for people who like to make content and keep memories.
When streaming in the cloud, the Create button is fully turned on:
- To get to the menu, tap once.
- Press and hold to take a picture.
- To start or stop a video clip, double-tap it.
Content that is captured is automatically sent to Sony’s cloud, and it can be seen in the PlayStation App by going to Library > Captures. It stays online for 14 days, which is plenty of time to download, change, and share your great kills, funny bugs, or cinematic walkthroughs. You can now use it anywhere, and it has all the features you’d expect from a console.
Have you ever wanted to play a game in the cloud, but the servers were full? Sony adds a queue system to the cloud streaming beta with this update.
The feature hasn’t gone live for everyone yet (because some games may still have low server demand), but the idea is simple: if a game is full, you’ll be put in a virtual line and given an estimated wait time. For you, the game starts automatically when it’s your turn.
There’s a small but necessary feature that Sony needs to add to the PS Portal’s cloud streaming for more people to use it.
Don’t stop a session in the middle of a game. With update 5.0, the Portal will now automatically pause the game in common situations.
If you:
- Get to the quick menu.
- Press and hold the power button.
- Don’t do anything for more than 15 seconds.
The session stops or enters rest mode, which reduces the chance of accidental disconnection. We considered this an extra touch that makes the PS Portal feel more natural and less like a cheap screen.
Have you ever walked away from a game only to find that it ended? Not any longer.
Now, if you don’t use your PS Portal for more than 10 minutes, you’ll receive a message indicating that the session may end. This allows you to jump back in before losing your work or your place in a cloud server. It’s another feature that makes you feel more comfortable using the Portal as your main gaming device.
Sony really wants to hear from you. At the end of your cloud gaming session, you’ll now be asked to give feedback. You can rate the performance, streaming quality, or anything else that changed how you played. This may not seem important, but it’s an important feedback loop that can help shape future upgrades and improvements.
Sony is clearly not using the cloud beta as a test run—they’re really paying attention.
These features may not seem important on their own, but when combined, they represent a significant step forward: Sony is slowly but surely transforming the PS Portal into a standalone PlayStation device. One that might one day work without a PS5 and could potentially compete with the Nintendo Switch 2.
By improving the UI, game capture, queues, and responsive feedback systems, Sony is making the Portal’s ecosystem more sleek, flexible, and potentially even powerful.
It’s getting more valuable because, every month, more games are added to the cloud catalog.
The 5.0 update for the PS Portal may not have any big or flashy additions, but it is a smart, well-thought-out improvement. This is the level of polish you’d expect from a platform that’s growing up, not just getting by.
This update has something for everyone, from content creators to those who simply stream in the cloud for fun. Were you on the fence about whether or not the Portal was worth it? Now might be a good time to get on board.
The PS Portal isn’t just a fun way to play games from afar anymore. It’s becoming a real competitor in the portable gaming market. The real question won’t be “Is it better than Remote Play?” but “Can it beat the Switch 2?” if Sony continues to improve.
We’ll see in time. For now, though, update 5.0 shows that the PS Portal is ready to be a hero rather than just a sidekick.
