Sony is expanding the PlayStation 4’s Remote Play feature to PC and Mac, letting users stream their console games to laptops and desktops.
How To Connect A Controller To Mac; How To Stream Xbox Games to iPhone; Play Cyberpunk 2077 on iPhone With GeForce Now; Being able to play in the “cloud” removes the need to have the best hardware just to play some great games. And while gaming is getting better on the Mac itself, it’s just not the same as gaming on a PC or Xbox. Whether it’s a dedicated device such as the Apple TV or a hybrid device like the Xbox 360, chances are you have a device that will allow you to stream content to your TV. Let’s make the most of your connected device and stream the media you have on your Mac to almost any media receiver - for free! Xbox Cloud Gaming is our technology that allows you to play over 100 console games on the devices you already have with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and a compatible controller. As part of your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, you can enjoy the console games you love, the people you want to play together with, on the devices you already have, all. It’s the same story for streaming from a new Xbox console to a Mac computer for the time being. This wasn’t natively supported on the Xbox One X and Xbox One S.
To play your Xbox games on a laptop or desktop, you can stream them through the pre-installed Xbox Console Companion on Windows 10.Unfortunately, this only supports Xbox One consoles for the time.
The new feature is part of a PlayStation 3.50 software update that’s set to launch on Wednesday. After getting the update, PS4 owners can download the Remote Play PC installer from Sony’s website.
To stream games, users will need a PC running Windows 8.1 or higher, or a Mac running OS X 10.10 or higher. A DualShock 4 controller must be plugged into the computer via USB.
Why this matters: Until now, Sony has required either a PlayStation Vita handheld or PlayStation TV set-top box to remotely stream PS4 games. Neither device has been a strong seller, so expanding Remote Play to PC makes sense. While there’s nothing like playing a game natively on a big TV, PC streaming can be helpful when someone’s using that TV for something else, or you want to hang out in a different part of the house.
PC streaming: Xbox vs. PlayStation 4
Xbox Remote Play Apple Tv
How To Stream Xbox To Mac
The PlayStation 4 isn’t the only console to support streaming on a PC. Last year, Microsoft added a similar feature to the Xbox One, and it’s in some ways better and worse than Sony’s version.
Unlike Microsoft, which requires a PC running Windows 10, Sony is also supporting Mac and Windows 8.1. Remote Play for PlayStation 4 works over the Internet as well, so you can stream games from outside the house. The Xbox One only supports home network streaming, unless you rely on an unofficial, complicated workaround.
Xbox Games On Mac
However, the Xbox One currently supports a higher streaming quality than the PlayStation 4, with up to 1080p and 60 frames per second on its “Very High” setting. Sony’s Remote Play tops out at 720p and 60 frames per second, and defaults to 540p and 30 frames per second.
How To Stream Xbox To Mac Free Version
In my experience, Xbox One to PC streaming has been smooth and nearly lag-free, even on Very High settings. (Valve’s PC-to-PC In-Home-Streaming has also worked well.) Hopefully Sony can provide a similar experience when PC Remote Play launches on Wednesday.