Steam Deck Now Streams PS5 Games Without a Console

Sony sells the PS Portal for £220 as a way to play PlayStation games away from your TV. Valve's Steam Deck costs more but does far more. And now, thanks to a third-party app entering public testing, the Deck can do the Portal's signature trick without a PS5 plugged in anywhere in your house.

Asobi: Remote Play, developed by a solo developer known as Ichenzo, has been around for a while as a way to stream games from your own PS4 or PS5 to a Steam Deck over a local network. That part isn't new. What is new, as reported by VideoCardz, is PS Plus Premium cloud streaming support. With an active subscription, you can now stream games directly from Sony's cloud catalogue to a Steam Deck, Steam Machine, or any SteamOS/Linux device. No PlayStation hardware required at all.

"Good news everyone! The PlayTest for Asobi: Remote Play on Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and Linux is live now. All premium features are unlocked until the full release becomes available on the Steam Store. Cloud gaming will require a PSN account with an active PS Plus Premium Subscription. Invites are going out by email to everyone who signed up. There are a lot of you, so give it a little time."

Ichenzo posted the announcement on the app's subreddit, and the playtest is available through Asobi's Steam store page. During the testing period, every premium feature is unlocked for free: 1080p at 60fps, HDR, 4K upscaling on supported displays, manual bitrate control, low-latency modes, controller haptics, and even on-device gyro input. Once the playtest ends, the free tier drops to 1080p at 30fps. Pricing for the premium unlock hasn't been announced yet. A Windows version is planned but not yet available; Ichenzo described it as coming "soonish."

Why This Stings for PS Portal

I keep coming back to the price comparison. The PS Portal costs £220 and, until Sony added cloud streaming support to it, couldn't even do what Asobi now does on a Steam Deck. Even with that cloud streaming update, the Portal is a single-purpose device. A Steam Deck plays its own library of thousands of PC games, runs emulators, and now streams PS5 titles from the cloud. The Portal plays PlayStation games. If you already own a Deck, Asobi just eliminated one of the last reasons to consider buying Sony's handheld.

Asobi is not affiliated with Sony, PlayStation, or Valve in any way, and that's a detail worth keeping in mind. There's nothing stopping Sony from breaking compatibility in a future update, intentionally or otherwise. Third-party streaming apps exist in a grey area where they work until the platform holder decides they shouldn't. But right now, it works, and it works without leaving Steam's interface. No desktop mode, no sideloading, no tinkering.

According to DualShockers, around 3,970 PS5 games are available to stream through the cloud, including recent releases like Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls and Beast of Reincarnation alongside catalogue staples. You'll need a PS Plus Premium subscription and a broadband connection with at least 5 Mbps in both directions.

A solo developer built this before Sony offered anything comparable on non-PlayStation hardware, which says a lot about where Sony's priorities sit. They want you buying a Portal or a PS5. Ichenzo just gave Steam Deck owners a way around both, and the playtest is live now.