Sony has announced that its PlayStation Portal streaming handheld will launch November 15 with preorders open now.
Announced on the PlayStation Blog, Sony revealed the PlayStation Portal will be released "in select markets" on the November date. These are presumably the same countries the device is currently available to preorder in: the United States, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, Span, and Portugal.
The PlayStation Portal remote player launches starting November 15 ?
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) August 31, 2023
Pre-order details: https://t.co/meD5OKkvlH pic.twitter.com/uBsvsj94tM
While the PlayStation Portal is currently only available to preorder from PlayStation directly, "other select retailers" in these countries, plus Canada and Japan, will list it for preorder on September 29. Additional retailer availability will be announced later, Sony said.
The PlayStation Portal doesn't work without a PlayStation 5, as unlike the Nintendo Switch or PlayStation Vita, no games are run from the handheld itself. The entire PS5 system is instead streamed to the device, letting users play games and run other apps as if on the console itself. It retails for $199.99 / £199.99.
In our preview of the device, IGN said: "The Portal is unlikely to be someone’s primary way to play PS5 games – that’s what your TV is for. But for times when someone else wants to use the TV, or maybe you have small kids in the home and don’t want to put God of War on the big screen, and maybe you just want to be able to play in a different room without buying another full-on TV. In that scenario, the Portal offers a compelling use case."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
