Halo itself will appear on PlayStation consoles this year, with Sony offering virtually zero reciprocity for its own games. In essence, PlayStation’s ecosystem will have more to play than Xbox’s own ecosystem — but Xbox has lots of exclusive platform-level features that helps it stay unique.
PC Xbox cross-buy with Xbox Play Anywhere, an industry-leading Xbox Cloud Gaming platform, and a(n undeniably expensive) Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription service featuring all first party games on day one, including Call of Duty.
But what if that differentiation was about to evaporate?
PlayStation dropped a bit of a bomb today, revealing that its PlayStation Portal “PS5 remote play” handheld is now capable of streaming “thousands” of PlayStation games you own from the cloud — no console required. This thoroughly beats Microsoft’s own “Stream your own game” Xbox Cloud Gaming feature, which only features roughly a thousand games.
The PlayStation Portal handheld caused head scratching when it first came out. The $200 peripheral could only run games remotely from a PS5, with no support for apps or native play. However, Sony has worked hard to bolster its feature set since launch, and this latest upgrade does away with the need to own a PlayStation entirely.
Now, you can buy-to-own “thousands” of digital PS5 games and stream them from PlayStation’s cloud servers. The total number as of November 5, 2025 on PlayStation Plus tallies at 2845 games, compared to Xbox Cloud Gaming’s 2107 titles. Sony also notes that you can now stream these purchased games on PS Plus’ PC app, too, no PlayStation Portal required.
I recently tried PlayStation’s cloud array and found it to be quite solid on PC, although not quite up to parity with the latest Xbox Cloud Gaming upgrades or NVIDIA GeForce Now. The interface could also use a ton of work, as when I last tested it it didn’t even support full screen. It does, however, have tons of exclusive titles that aren’t available to stream anywhere else (including Bloodborne) — and that list is only set to grow as PlayStation continues to prioritize its own ecosystem over others.
Jez being dramatic is nothing new. He’s got clicks to get to get paid.
The directional shift of Sony decoupling from a console-first business model is slowly taking place. And it’s smart of them to do so. Cloud streaming absolutely, without a shred of doubt, is going to take over. Many, many years from now, but convenience always wins.
It seems like they want cloud streaming but still want people to be buying their PS devices instead of making it available on everything like you should for this type of service for that extended reach!
Jez is still fighting the “console war” in his head, he needs to get over it. Just enjoy the wide variety of games from Xbox studios and on gamepass, at the end of the day thats what its all about
Also were did he hear that xbox was never going to make exclusives? Like jeez hyberbole much. Phil and matt said its case-by-case and i think that should be the strategy going forward .Am more excited to see if they have an new ip that could replace halo as a flagship or not, now that is what am most curious about currently causei do think it would be smart.
Also, the whole cloud thing from what i recall is for the portable ps handheld, so in the end its not even a pc storefront and even if they do i know for a fact that they will screw this up way more than xbox did. PS subscriptions and helldivers 2 if anyone recalls that little show when it was on pc.
Not agreeing with Jez here as it’s a bit premature to say it will do damage to Microsoft. PS Cloud and their Ps Portal is still for the Sony enthusiasts and only them. It is still playing catch up with Xbox Cloud gaming, but I hope it will make Xbox move faster. They are taking their damn time as if there were the only one on the market.
For a self-proclaimed cloud-first company, they have moved so incredibly slowly on leading the way. I’d put Nvidia put in front as far as who I think of first when it comes to cloud gaming.
Sony has a long way to go before coming even remotely close to encroaching on Play Anywhere. They don’t even offer cross-progression on their own consoles, between PS4 to PS5 back to PS4. No reason for any reasonable person to assume there will be cross-progression between PS to PC back to PS.
Brain rot is real and there’s a lot of historical revisionism, coupled with a healthy dose of ignorance (specifically that thing called a data center - the fact that MS has an infrastructure and Sony does not and as others have already said, this directly translates to a lack of availability, among other problems (cost, downstream revenue, etc.).
There’s a reason I don’t read games media any more, and I hate to break it to people but there’s literally no value in it when garbage like this is the status quo.
I wouldn’t go that far, he still has some good articles now and then and he is a good source of information, we cannot deny that, especially when it comes to the rumour mill. But he is a bit unstable at times, which doesn’t look good when making what should be more ‘‘serious’’ reporting.
This is nothing new. PS was like the first to jump on streaming back with PS Now in like 2014. Their direct to streaming service predates Xbox Game Pass existing at all (and game pass didn’t roll out streaming as a perk on Ultimate in beta until like 2020 or 2021 iirc). “No console required” even predates Xbox Game Pass. I remember being in middle school and convincing my mom to buy a Sony TV (a Sony 3D TV at that (it was truly 2014)), so that I could subscribe to PS Now and stream PS3 games in the living room directly without a console.
And it says a LOT that in 10 years no one gave a crap until Xbox started doing it. Sony themselves didn’t really market it and killed off PS Now when everyone realized how much better Game Pass was and they had to pivot hard. All in all, competition is good. If not for Game Pass, PS Now would still be a separate service from PS plus and cost $20 a month for just streaming older Gen games. Probably the thing that makes me accept the Game Pass Ultimate $30 price tag the most is remembering back when I was forced to pay $20 a month just for PS Now just to play older Gen games at all on my PS4.
If Sony now can light a similar fire under Xbox Cloud Gaming, great. But that said this is… yeah still nothing. It doesn’t really compete when it’s tied to the PS portal. The PS Portal still remains the same overpriced cloud/streaming only handheld that it is. If Xbox released the same product they’d be laughed out of the industry. The idea of the PS Portal competing with Xbox Cloud Gaming or any other streaming service (GFN, Luna, etc) is just kinda moot because this isn’t the platform or service competing with another platform or service, it’s “specialized hardware + a paid subscription” vs “literally any device with an internet connection + a paid subscription”
It’s in the name, Xbox Play Anywhere, it’s about complete freedom in an ever expanding ecosystem. Neither Nintendo nor Sony offer anything like it. There’s no cross entitlement and without seamless free cloud saves even the handheld Switches aren’t truly “Play Anywhere”. I can’t leave my Switch at home, fly to some other country, sign onto a PC, and find a single game just pop into my PC library and for it to sync my save data from my console when I open it all without paying for any subscription (basic play anywhere has no pay walls). Even comparing with the subscription it’s jut not the same when you need a specific piece of Playstation sold hardware.
He definitely is. I give Jez benefit of the doubt because he calls himself out on podcasts that he has to do the click bait for windows central to be sustainable. In general I give “individuals” the benefit of the doubt because as much as I hate it, who exactly is to blame? The internet itself? People themselves? Search engines (basically just Google)? Social media platforms? The people that write and post the articles or the people that read and engage with them (negatively or positively)?
I mean, at the end of the day, if the people didn’t click on it we wouldn’t have a problem. I know I don’t go for my news on sensationalist websites when it comes to local news and political stuff as I can’t trust a news outlet that’d bring itself to that level to have a single ounce of integrity.
I guess when it comes to gaming news or other, less important stuff, it’s possible that those algorithms do work with people or else they wouldn’t be pushing for them. I just find it weird that he hates click baity stuff that goes against Xbox and talks about it on his podcast, but then writes an article that does exactly just that. I know people will do anything when it comes to protecting their livelyhood though, I just think that Windows Central should be above that.
At the end of the day it’s an opinion piece though, and should be labeled as such on their website, not as ‘‘News’’.
Unfortunately the only people or businesses that can afford to be above it all, are the same ones profiting the most and actively pushing for things to remain the same .
People are people. Clickbait isn’t new, the internet just streamlined it. Sensationalized “news” has always been around (“Dewey defeats Truman” anyone?). The truth and proper reporting has always been secondary to the headline. And it’s going to work because we’re going to click on it even just to talk about how wrong of a tactic it is like now. Stuff that’s just good and does everything right, doesn’t get as much reaction unfortunately. The internet and all the algorithms are really just the worst of humanity streamlined. They haven’t made a unique problem, they just amplify the worst parts of ourselves (of society) and profit from them.
Something also interesting is how these gaming “news” sources view themselves and are viewed by their readers (and probably governments as well). Like I once came across a windows central employee on reddit mention they don’t consider themselves a journalist and I think Jez has said he’s not like a real investigative Journalist on podcast nor is the Windows Central like the Washington Post or anything. And probably all the gaming websites and especially the people that just post to Twitter would say the same if pressed. But it’s all treated as news (everything online is really) and it’s given the same credibility often (especially by the online masses) and it’s hardly ever labeled outright as an opinion piece because that’d pull in less clicks.
I think as long as you’re not exploiting it too much, I have to let it go because otherwise it is everyone all around. I don’t imagine Windows Central would be able it significantly more than any other tech site. Tech blog post is probably most accurate for all of them, and the way things are I can’t “like” any of the “teach news” (heavy quotes) sites. I just focus on which I can trust more than others.
I don’t get it, why is Jez contracting himself with his own words? A week ago or so, he wrote an article about nextbox being hybrid, and it will has the most games across all consoles. And somehow he still can’t get over with those xbox ports on playstation lol.
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