For supported PS5 games, Sony is testing cloud streaming

The testing of cloud streaming for "supported PS5 games" has started, according to a statement from Sony today.

The ultimate goal for PlayStation, according to Nick Maguire, VP of Global Services, Global Sales, and Business Operations at SIE, is to make this "an additional benefit" for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers.

As of right now, supported PS5 games—including those from the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Game Trials as well as supported digital PS5 games that players already own—are being tested with cloud streaming, according to Maguire. When this feature debuts, supported PS5 games will support cloud game streaming that can be used on the PS5 console, according to Maguire. As a result, users will find it simpler to start playing their favorite games as Premium members without having to first download them to their PS5 console.

The timing of this announcement is intriguing. PlayStation previously experimented with cloud gaming through PlayStation Now (before it combined with PS Plus to create the current version of PlayStation Plus), but the company recently unveiled a new handheld device known only as "Project Q" that can play games that are installed on your PS5 and streamed over a Wi-Fi connection.

Furthermore, Sony has been an outspoken critic of Microsoft, a major player in the cloud gaming industry that is currently attempting to acquire Activision Blizzard. Cloud gaming is still technically "very tricky," Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida warned earlier this month. After the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced it was opposing Microsoft's acquisition, Yoshida made the statement. The CMA was concerned that Microsoft might make some of Activision Blizzard's games, including Call of Duty, exclusive to Xbox Cloud Gaming.