Sony’s Remote Play handheld PlayStation Portal gets a November release date

Sony has announced the release date for its upcoming Remote Play device, PlayStation Portal.

A tweet from the official PlayStation Twitter account revealed that the device will launch “in select markets” on November 15.

The handheld is now available for pre-order at the PlayStation Direct store in the US, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

From September 29, it will be available for pre-order from “other select retailers” in those countries, as well as Japan and Canada.

The PlayStation Portal will cost $199.99 / €219.99 / £199.99 when it launches on November 15, but while it looks like a traditional gaming handheld it can only stream games from a PS5 console.

“PlayStation Portal is the perfect device for gamers in households where they might need to share their living room TV or simply want to play PS5 games in another room of the house,” Sony said in a blog post last week.

“PlayStation Portal will connect remotely to your PS5 over Wi-Fi, so you’ll be able to swiftly jump from playing on your PS5 to your PlayStation Portal. PlayStation Portal can play supported games that are installed on your PS5 console and use the Dualsense controller.”

PlayStation Portal is solely a Remote Play device and will not provide access to cloud streaming of games on PlayStation Plus Premium. As such, players will need to own PS5 hardware for the PlayStation Portal to work as intended.

Even if players do own a PS5, they won’t be able to use it to stream games via PS Plus Premium, then stream that to the Portal.

“PS VR2 games, which require the headset, and games that are streamed through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming, are not supported,” Sony has said.