Sony Launches PlayStation 5 Cloud Gaming Beta, With 4K Support

Sony has launched its beta for PlayStation 5 cloud gaming. Invitations to the beta have begun to be sent to PlayStation Plus Premium member, enabling the ability to try the upcoming feature.

Players have been eargerly awaiting the opprotunity to test PlayStation’s version of a cloud gaming service since news broke that the company has been testing such a feature. At the time, Sony announced that the feature would enable the ability to play PlayStation 5 games via the cloud directly rather than download and install them.

Recently, PlayStation Plus Premium members have recieved an invite to download the latest beta system software as well as the new feature. The invitations include a voucher code that gives access to the beta preview. Thanks to users across the web, we’re able to glean some information from the beta.

Anyone else get invited to try the new #PS5 game cloud streaming preview / beta?

Just got an email inviting me to download the latest beta system software but also to try the ability to stream PS5 games….#PlayStation pic.twitter.com/3KNDYpDXzW

— rdmetz (@rdmetz) August 7, 2023

Over on ResetEra, the popular gaming forum, many invited users have been posting their invites as well as sharing early impressions. User ArashiGames posted a screenshot highlighting one of the menu options available through the service. Under the option ‘Max Resolution’ users can apparently choose between 720p, 1080, 1440p, and 2160p (4K) resolutions.

Source: ArashiGames (via ResetEra)

As with other cloud gaming services, PlayStation 5’s cloud gaming imports cloud saves so you can pick up and continue playing the games from your library. In the past, Sony has struggled to create a holistic cloud gaming service. Previous, PlayStation Now had no way of importing PlayStation 3 games.

ArashiGames continues to state that the avaialble catalogue of games to play via the cloud include God of War: Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, Fortnite, Fall Guys, Destiny 2, Returnal, Demon’s Souls, Death Stranding, Sackboy A Big Adventure, Destruction All Stars, and Fall Guys. Resident Evil Village and Demon Slayer are also available as trials.

Seemingly, PlayStation is beating Xbox to the punch by delivering 4K resolutions via the cloud. However, it’s still unclear whether the reference to 2160p is for the streaming resolution or the render resoultion.

The other major mystery in PlayStation’s cloud gaming initative revolves around its ‘Project Q’ handheld. Revealed earlier this year, the portatable piece of hardware is said to be designed “for playing games installed on your PS5 and streamed over WiFi.” Whether this includes cloud gaming support of any PlayStation 5 games remains to be seen.