Playstation Remote Play - Attempt 2

 

Two years ago I wrote about Playstation Remote Play. Having access to my Playstation remotely is appealing for numerous reasons. However, at the time I experienced connection issues and frame rate drops, making the service unreliable and not too useful. I said that once I got my hands on a PS5 and was able to do some improvements on my home network, I would revisit the service. That time has now come, so I decided to give it another go.

In addition to upgrading from the PS4 to the PS5, I also upgraded my home network. I finally decided to go with a Mesh network, and have an access point on each floor of my house instead of one central router. This has improved performance of my network in the basement, which is where I keep my PS5. Previously when I've tried to use Remote Play, I tried it out by playing the F1 games. That type of game obviously won't tolerate any drops in frame rate as your car will end up in the wall. What prompted me to revisit remote play was Cities: Skylines (C:S).

C:S is the type of game that I'd prefer to play on a computer. I find the mouse and keyboard combo much more functional for this type of game. I actually have the game on Steam, but don't play it because my iMac apparently isn't powerful enough. It runs well on the PS5 (via the PS4 version), but I honestly don't see myself sitting in my basement recliner in front of my big screen building cities. I want to be able to turn this game on and tinker with it when I have 20 minutes or so here and there to spend. This is where Remote Play comes into the conversation. I'm able to pretty easily connect my DualSense controller to my iMac or iPad and begin playing anywhere in my house.

My second attempt at Remote Play was a better experience. The app connected to my PS5 most of the time. I believe the resolution is 720p, which is a noticeable drop from 4K, but is still functional. I still ran into connectivity and frame rate issues, however. The majority of the time this wasn't the case, but periodically it would happen and gameplay would suffer. Occasionally to the point that the connection would drop. Periodic frame rate and resolution drops are tolerable on a free service for a game such as C:S, but it really limits which games you can consistently play on the app. I will admit that despite my new Mesh network, I don't exactly have the most robust internet connection. It is fiber optic, but only 100 MBPS down. I don't run into any other streaming issues and this is well above the recommended connection speed for the app. I've even streamed games on Playstation Plus on my PS5 without trouble. There has to be something specific to the nature of the app contributing to these issues.

Last week at the Playstation Showcase, Sony revealed Project Q, a dedicated device for Remote Play. I am intrigued by this device because I want to make Remote Play useful. A dedicated device for the app could be an improvement. However, given the limitations mentioned above, I somewhat struggle to understand the full purpose of the app and who it is meant for. This is not a replacement for the Switch or Steam Deck.