Comparison: PS4 Remote Play vs. Xbox One Streaming
With our overview of each platform out of the way, it's time to turn to the most important question: how do Xbox One Streaming and PS4 Remote Play compare? If you already own one of the two consoles, the point of a comparison may be of little significance, as you may be, practically speaking, committed to one platform or the other. But for those who have yet to purchase an Xbox One or PS4, and are now interested in doing so thanks to the consoles' PC streaming capabilities, a direct comparison of features and quality will hopefully guide your purchasing decision.
Feature Comparison
Some of each platform's features have already been touched on in the preceding sections, but we've compiled what we think are the most important and differentiating factors of Xbox One Streaming and PS4 Remote Play into the table below:
| PS4 Remote Play | Feature | Xbox One Streaming |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 8.1 Windows 10 OS X Yosemite OS X El Capitan |
OS Compatibility | Windows 10 |
| Wired | Controller | Wired or Wireless |
| 720p / 60fps / 30fps 540p / 60fps / 30fps 360p / 60fps / 30fps |
Video Quality | Very High (1080p / 60fps) High Medium Low |
| Lossy Stereo | Audio Quality | Lossy Stereo |
| Yes | Remote Access | No* |
| No | Keyboard Text Entry | Yes |
The difference in features between the two streaming platforms highlights the approaches taken by Sony and Microsoft. PS4 Remote Play is available on more devices and from both inside and outside your home network, but Microsoft's ability to integrate Xbox One Streaming into its own operating system currently allows for key advantages such as higher video quality and keyboard support. (*We should note that while Microsoft doesn't officially support remote connections to your Xbox One from outside of your local network, users can optionally configure port forwarding or place the console in a DMZ (demilitarized zone) which, when coupled with a static IP address or dynamic DNS service, allows you to force a streaming connection from anywhere. A workaround like this applies to virtually all networked devices but can introduce potential security concerns.)
It's also worth noting that the overall Xbox One streaming experience currently feels far more complete than Sony's. The Xbox app in Windows 10 connects directly to your gamer profile and lets you manage and communicate with friends, share content, check out achievements, and browse the Xbox Store. Little features such as the ability to change quality levels without quitting the stream are also appreciated. Looking ahead, the Xbox app will play a prominent role, for better or worse, in Microsoft's future strategy for Windows 10-compatible UWP games, with features such as GameDVR and live broadcasting support.
Conversely, the PS4 Remote Play service is currently quite spartan (pun slightly intended), without any direct integration with the user's PlayStation account, console settings, or friend lists. At heart, Sony's current implementation is basically just a video stream receiver, but some users will undoubtedly prefer that approach to Microsoft's, irrespective of the other differences between the platforms.
It is still relatively early days when it comes to game streaming for Microsoft and Sony, however, and it's likely that both companies will update their services to address their respective shortcomings, particularly once the rumored more powerful console revisions hit the market.
Quality Comparison
At the end of the day, some users won't care about extra features or compatibility, and they'll only be interested in the platform that can provide the best quality. To address that question, let's look at a real-world quality comparison between PS4 Remote Play and Xbox One Streaming in Windows 10.
The quality of your experiencing with Xbox One Streaming or PS4 Remote Play is difficult to address universally, as individual factors such as your home network configuration, Internet speed, and PC specifications all play a role in the final end user result. But there are still at least some factors that can be objectively measured, such as maximum video quality, and we've attempted to provide a comparison based on these factors in the video below.
For our test, we've compared streaming gameplay of NHL 16, a game chosen because (1) it's available on both Xbox One and PS4 and (2) while suffering from the typical frame rate woes of this console generation, it technically renders at 1080p/60fps on both consoles.
Both consoles were configured to stream over a wired gigabit Ethernet network to a Windows 10 PC running an Intel Core i7-5820K, NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti, 32GB of DDR4 PC4-24000 memory, and a 1920x1080 60Hz display. It's important to note, however, that the system requirements for Xbox One and PS4 game streaming are quite modest, with even relatively underpowered devices like the Microsoft Surface able to provide a satisfactory experience.
We captured full-screen gameplay of each quality setting on both consoles, which can be seen in the video below:
At the "Very High" setting, Xbox One Streaming is visually impressive and almost reaches native quality. You may encounter some fuzziness from scaling if you're using a display with a resolution greater than 1080p, but input latency aside, you may forget you're playing a streaming console game with the Xbox's highest setting.
The PS4 certainly looks adequate at its highest setting, 720p/60fps, but it is noticeably softer when compared directly to the Xbox. We also noticed more frame rate stuttering with the PS4 at this quality level, although both consoles exhibited some hiccups at certain points.
Another advantage for the Xbox One is that its lower quality settings, "High" and "Medium," also looked quite good, and arguably better than even the PS4's 720p setting. At the lowest settings, however, both platforms were an ugly mess, and users should look into upgrading their network configuration before settling for "Low" or "360p" gameplay.
Conclusion
Dedicated PC gamers have long lamented the existence of console exclusive games, and while all of the performance and quality limitations inherent to console games remain, this new era of game streaming gives users the ability to enjoy console games from the comfort of their PCs, either across the house or, in the case of the PS4, across the world.
When comparing Xbox One Streaming to PS4 Remote Play, there's also no clear overall winner at this stage. Xbox One Streaming is the hands-down video quality champion, but you're limited to using Windows 10 inside your home network. On the other hand, PS4 Remote Play solves the platform and location limitations, but offers questionable video quality and a lack of deep integration with your PlayStation account and friends.
The feature sets and capabilities of both platforms will continue to evolve and improve, but which platform you should pursue today boils down to how you weigh and value the factors above. Still, it's good to see that both Sony and Microsoft currently provide a satisfactory game streaming experience, even if the suits at the MPAA won't let you stream your Blu-ray movies.
So neither allow KB&m in
So neither allow KB&m in game?
Makes no sense. This all
Makes no sense. This all seems like an awful lot of trouble to still be forced to use the retrograde control mechanism.
It’s not hard.
It’s not hard.
“Most games are certainly
“Most games are certainly still playable and enjoyable after a slight adjustment to the latency, but you’ll probably want to avoid playing any “twitch” or competitive multiplayer games via Xbox One Streaming or PS4 Remote Play.”
That’s true of game streaming on any device. I’ve got the Steam Link and a good hardwired network, but even then I couldn’t stop myself from looking for the added latency in any streamed games, including ones it shouldn’t affect. It just became really annoying so I stopped game streaming.
Can someone come up with a
Can someone come up with a scenario (or game) where the ability to “game stream” outside your home would be useful? I don’t understand how that is a feature; it seems like all that it does is cause all kinds of legal problems that lead to the restriction of content streaming. Latency is bad enough over wired networks, and I simply can’t play games streaming over wifi, so how is over the internet feasible?
Okay so you are stuck at your
Okay so you are stuck at your parents house for Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday. You could spends quality time talking to them about awkward and boring things or you could play Fallout 4 streaming from your PS4 at home to your laptop there.
My experience with fairly decent internet speeds games like Fallout 4, Elder Scrolls online and even Diablo III work well. GTA V is a tad too laggy for twitch like responses when driving really fast. It’s best if the both systems are on your local network for games like that.
so i liked playing Killer
so i liked playing Killer Instinct but now it’s available on win10 so my streaming capabilities are useless right now :0P
For me, the main appeal of
For me, the main appeal of console streaming are the sports games. I play Madden and NHL series every year — and the 2K NHL games in the past…RIP 🙁 — and EA has completely abandoned the PC market for both titles. I think the only sports game EA still offers on the PC is FIFA.
I’m hopeful that with UWP games gaining traction, EA will participate in letting the Xbox versions of their sports game play natively on Windows 10. But, then again, the UWP game situation is far from perfect right now.
Until then, game streaming lets me play these games from the office, even when the family is hogging the TV in the living room.
My experience with XBOX One
My experience with XBOX One streaming: wired gigabit works great, Wifi not as great (as expected.) Overall a good experience for something like a racing game or light platformer (Ori is a good example) from the laptop when you’re in another room and the TV is being hogged by someone watching HGTV.
The Smart Glass app is another good addition that compliments XBOX One with or without streaming to a PC. For instance, it works on a Windows 10 desktop in the same room as a PC, so without fumbling around for a remote or repeating yourself to Kinect to change to ESPN, you can open up Smart Glass and dial it in just like that.
Works fine, can play on my PC
Works fine, can play on my PC if everyone is on the big TV.
Boy are you pushing for MS
Boy are you pushing for MS dominance aren’t you. There is text entry for PS4 remote play and 1080p with loss of recording.
You need to update your information.
Also, there is wireless play
Also, there is wireless play with the addition of an adapter.
Can you play xbox one remote
Can you play xbox one remote on another network other than your home network. I know you can on PS4.
I’ve done quite a bit of
I’ve done quite a bit of streaming with the ps4 home streaming on a wired gigabit connection… at least for games like uncharted and the last of us remastered, it works just fine (after sorting out audio issues with the ps4 controller taking over). The latency isn’t really noticable in that game at least. The downside, I don’t have a ps4 pro so limited to 720p streaming. The quality is good enough, but wired connection helps.
I’ve tried streaming my xbox as well, works as advertised, at full 1080, but didn’t have any compelling game on it to play to try it out with.
The reason to use this is because… someone’s using the TV that the console is connected to, but you want to play some more. Yes I could just game on the pc, but uncharted 4/last of us/etc aren’t on the PC and never will be (sony publisher).