South Korea is about to hand PlayStation a much-needed win. On October 28, Sony officially launches its cloud streaming service for PS5 games in the country.
This year has been hard on PlayStation, and on the wider games industry too. Reviews for Marvel’s Wolverine were middling, and Sony’s choice to abandon physical media from now on got a cold reception. A free tier upgrade makes for a welcome break from that run of news.
Free Premium upgrade for Extra subscribers
Cloud streaming comes with PlayStation Plus Premium. Subscribers can use it to stream more than 300 supported Game Catalog titles on PS5 consoles and on PlayStation Portal.
Korean PlayStation Plus Extra subscribers get something extra. Sony is moving them up to Premium without charging anything more. The rollout began on October 21, so anyone in that group should, with luck, already see the change on their account.
Cloud streaming now sits alongside the perks subscribers already get: monthly free games, online multiplayer and cloud storage. On PS5, streams can run in 4K. PlayStation Portal handles 1080p at 60fps and doesn’t need a connected PS5.
What’s available to stream
Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Forbidden West, Ghost of Tsushima, Final Fantasy 15 and Hogwarts Legacy are all on the Game Catalog list. Plenty of games you already own can be streamed without a download first, too, Crimson Desert, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Ghost of Yōtei among them.
Sony laid out the specifics in a post on its official blog.
“Thank you for your patience,” the post said. “The cloud streaming service for PS5 games, playable on the PlayStation 5 console and PlayStation Portal Remote Player, will be officially launched in Korea on October 28, 2026. Existing PlayStation Plus Deluxe members will automatically be upgraded to PlayStation Plus Premium at no additional cost. In addition to the various PlayStation Plus benefits already provided, such as monthly games, online multiplayer, PlayStation Store discounts, exclusive content packs, and cloud storage, you can now also access cloud streaming services. In Korea, cloud streaming is currently only supported for PS5 games; PS4 and PS3 games are not available via cloud streaming.”
No streaming for older games yet
The final sentence of that post is where the limits show. At launch in South Korea, PS4 and PS3 games won’t be supported. There’s no word on when they’ll be added, or if they ever will be, and Sony hasn’t explained why.
PSVR 2 games aren’t mentioned at all. That’s hardly a shock, considering the way Sony has handled its VR headset.
Sony is also celebrating the launch with a set of 10 Black Desert PlayStation Plus avatars exclusive to Korea. You can grab them until March 31, 2027.
Where it could go next
Subscribers elsewhere hope this is a sign that cloud streaming will reach more major markets. Australia is among them, and it’s odd that the feature hasn’t arrived there yet.
Streaming relies on infrastructure, though, and some countries don’t have the cloud data centers PlayStation’s streaming services need to operate.