The PlayStation 5 is Sony’s next-generation gaming console, and as more people acquire them, I am feeling less guilty about receiving one early on. A number of options exist for gaming on Chromebooks, including cloud gaming with Stadia, GeForce Now, Xbox Game Pass, Steam Link Beta for remote gaming, as well as official Steam support on Chrome OS. However, Sony’s exclusive titles have always been unavailable on the go, which is something that has always been lacking.
This gap can be filled by simply firing up Sony’s official Remote Play app from the Google Play Store, but it is simply awful. In a short time, it connects briefly, lags a great deal, and is accompanied by a significant amount of artifacts, and then drops the connection almost immediately.
Additionally, the last time I tried to connect my PS4’s Dualshock 4 controller to my Chromebook, it went haywire as well, further aggravating my frustration.
Since the PS5 came out, I have been searching for a solution to use my PS4 outside of my living room again. The third-party application I discovered works better than the official offering, and I want to share it with you.
In the following sections, I will guide you through the process of setting up your Chromebook and getting it working properly. An application called ‘PS Play: Unlimited PS Remote Play (PS5/PS4)’ is available on the Google Play Store for $5.99 USD and is developed by Florian Grill.
At first, I was hesitant to pay the six dollars to try out the application – after all, how could a single developer create something better than a corporation? Well, that’s exactly what he did. This is the world in which we live.
A company often struggles to meet the demands of consumers, and then a consumer comes along and creates something they wish to see coming to fruition. In many cases, it is better than what the large companies can produce since there is no red tape to cut through in order to make things happen. In this regard, PS Play is similar.
How to Setting up Playstation Remote Play
Okay, so after installing it, I found that it performed fairly well even on WiFi, but your mileage may vary. It is recommended that you use a Chromebook, Chromebox, or Chromebase equipped with an Ethernet connection in order to achieve the best results.
Once you open the app, you will be presented with a screen that asks you whether you wish to connect a Playstation 4 or Playstation 5. The PS5 was my choice since it is what I am currently using, but this app works equally well on both devices.
Next, you will need to turn your PS4 or 5 on, go to the settings, select ‘System’, ‘Remote Play’, and then ‘Link device’. After memorizing the six-digit code on the screen, return to your Chromebook and enter it into PS Play.
Remote Play will only work if both your Chromebook and Playstation are connected to the same network. As soon as your code is accepted, you will be directed to a screen in which you will need to sign in to your Playstation account.
That’s great! In the next few seconds, you should be able to view a remote stream of your Playstation with a message titled ‘Gamepad support’. This is just a message informing you that you cannot use your Dualshock 4 or Dualsense controller via USB-OTG.
Due to the fact that you are not playing the games directly on the Chromebook, plugging it into your gaming console will not allow you to control it. In order to use your gamepad, you will have to connect it via Bluetooth.
How to Connect your controller to your Chromebook
To do this, simply go to the Settings app on your Chromebook and select the Bluetooth section. At the same time, press and hold the Playstation button and the share button until the light bar begins to blink rapidly.
When you look back at your Chromebook screen, you should see ‘Wireless Controller’ listed under unpaired devices. After clicking, the device will jump to the paired devices section. After you have connected your Dualshock 4 or Dualsense controller, you will see the following message. Once again, I have experienced difficulties with the PS4 controller, but I have had no such problems with the Dualsense.
Return to the PS Play app, hover your cursor over the top left corner of the screen, and click the back arrow that appears. Your remote play session will be disconnected when you are asked if you wish to disconnect. While we’re going to do that for a moment, please do not click the option to put the console into rest mode. Using the hamburger menu on the top left of the screen, you can slide out the menu and select ‘Settings.’
How to Improve Your Experience
In order to maximize your experience with the app, we are going to toggle a few settings in the settings section. Just a moment ago, you may have noticed that your internet connection was blurry.
Due to the app’s default settings, the stream quality is set according to your internet bandwidth. If you are on wifi like I am, the resolution is set to 540p. Go to the ‘Streaming’ settings and select ‘Resolution’. The resolution should be changed to 1080p.
The next step is to scroll down to the ‘Streaming Gamepad Layout’ section and untick the box that says ‘Show on-screen gamepad layout.’ By doing this, all of the other buttons and the virtual joystick will disappear from your game session. Due to the fact that we are not using a touch screen, we are using a real Playstation controller instead.
If you notice that the buttons for your favorite game are not functioning as they would if you were playing directly on your living room TV, you can access the ‘Button mapping’ section to create profiles for each game.
As a matter of fact, this was a pleasant surprise that I found when the confirm and back buttons in Final Fantasy XIV were reversed for me. It is recommended that you check all the settings before beginning to play with Sony’s official Remote Play application.
The Result
There you go! When you click ‘Local connect’, you will be returned to your gaming session where you can choose a title to play. The screen should be free of any UI elements from the application, and the stream should be of high quality.
However, there is one disappointing fact that you should be aware of. You cannot utilize remote play if you are one of the many people using PlayStation Now to access over 900 games on your console.
As you would technically be streaming a stream, Sony simply does not allow this, so you are limited to the games you have installed locally on your Playstation 4 or 5. My recent purchase of a 5TB external HDD from Best Buy for a hundred dollars has significantly increased the number of games I am able to play.
It is necessary to set up the ‘Remote Connect’ option if you wish to use PS Play outside of your home. This will require some additional information regarding your router. In spite of my crappy Wi-Fi connection, the experience has been almost flawless.
Despite the fact that I do not recommend playing twitch shooters or raiding on your Chromebook without ethernet, it is still very convenient to have access to another library of games on the go while slaying creatures and leveling up on your Chromebook, while checking your email and performing other tasks in between.
The hope is that Sony will one day follow in everyone else’s footsteps and provide its PS Now service through the web browser.
However, it would also be nice to have access to a Google Play version of the service. For the time being, tapping into your purchased games and adventuring a bit with this awesome app is definitely worthwhile. If you intend to set this up yourself or if you would like me to discuss some more Chromebook gaming options, please let me know in the comments.
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