Sony has now opened pre-orders for the PlayStation Portal, a PlayStation 5 accessory that it officially announced last week. As we discussed at the time, the PlayStation Portal retails for US$199.99, as well as €219.99 in the Eurozone. While the device is available to purchase now, this is only true when ordering from Sony directly. Even then, the company has restricted the device's initial availability to Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the UK and the US.
In a PlayStation Blog post, Sony explains that the PlayStation Portal will not be orderable from third-party retailers until September 29, which is also the date when it will expand availability to Canada and Japan. The company adds that 'regional availability will be announced at a later date', albeit without outlining which other counties fall into this tertiary category. For reference, the PlayStation Portal will only work when connected to Wi-Fi, for which Sony recommends a 15 Mbit/s connection.
It is worth bearing in mind that you cannot pair other official PlayStation 5 accessories to the Portal, nor can you stream games from Sony's PlayStation Plus Premium service, even when on the same Wi-Fi network as a paired PlayStation 5. Moreover, the device lacks Bluetooth and relies on PlayStation Link for integration with wireless audio equipment. Please see Sony's PlayStation Portal product page for more details; currently, the company hopes to start shipping Portal units on November 15.
Source(s)
Sony via Liliputing