It's difficult to believe that we are entering the last part of the Playstation 5 lifecycle. Yet here we are, nearly 5 years after the PS5's launch, and rumors about the PS6 are beginning to take shape. The PS6 is anticipated to launch in 2027, and one of the more intriguing rumors is that it will have dedicated portable hardware to play games on the go. With the success of the Switch, and the recent reveal of Microsoft's Xbox handheld device called the Asus Rog Xbox Ally X, it seems as if portable is the way things are going for consoles. I've never owned an Xbox, so while a device such as the Rog Xbox Ally X picques my interest, it isn't something I'm going to buy. Much like how I wrestled with the idea of getting a Steam Deck, I'm in no way involved with Xbox or PC gaming, so getting such a device wouldn't make sense. However, I like where gaming consoles are going. As streaming becomes more of an option, the idea of playing your games on multiple devices away from the console itself is intriguing. While I don't see the console disappearing entirely, at least not during the next cycle of consoles, this concept of accessing content away from the console itself has tons of advantages. The fact that portable devices are getting powerful enough that they can run mainstream games is impressive. Which brings me to my current state of gaming on the Playstation Portal.
I was an early adopter to the Playstation Portal, having purchased one almost as soon as they became available. I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the device, though it's mostly been love. My biggest beef with the device is that using Remote Play is finicky at best. I've done everything in my power and with my knowledge to optimize my network for Remote Play, and the damn thing still disconnects frequently. The thing is, it was working quite well for probably close to a year. For whatever reason, however, for the past 2-3 months it has had difficulty maintaining a consistent connection. This is frustrating for obvious reasons, but the biggest frustration is that it isn't exactly clear why it has connection issues in the first place. Researching solutions on the internet is useless, so I'm stuck in frequent disconnect limbo. Being an early adopter, I accept the fact that this device and technology isn't ready for the masses, so I'm excited to see devices like the Rog Xbox Ally X and the Steam Deck being produced, although from what I've read the Rog device may also not quite be ready for the masses.
About a year ago, Sony enabled streaming on the Portal, completely bypassing the need to have a Playstation. In the past year, the streaming library has expanded a lot. My experience with streaming has been very positive. While not perfect, streaming provides a much more consistent experience than using Remote Play from the PS5. My connection with Remote Play has become so finicky that I'm starting to factor in whether or not I can stream the game on the Portal into my decision on which games to play. I've had the chance to stream games on the Portal and play them later on the console, and cloud saving between the devices worked perfectly. I did this a bit with The Witcher 3.
I'm interested in hearing more about the capabilities of Sony's portable device for the PS6 (if the rumors are true). I imagine that it will involve a combination of streaming from the library in addition to local installation for games. I already have opinions about what this could look like and the pros/cons of this approach, which I will save until a later date. In the meantime, I'll continue to play my Portal, but will likely lean a bit more towards games that I can stream over playing Remote Play.
No comments:
Post a Comment