A new app lets you stream PS5 games to a Steam Deck, no PS5 required
A third-party app called Asobi: Remote Play is now in Steam Playtest for Steam Deck and Linux devices. It brings PS4/PS5 Remote Play plus PlayStation Plus cloud streaming, letting you play supported PS5 games without owning a console, with a PS Plus Premium subscription.
A new app is bringing one of the PlayStation Portal‘s best tricks to the Steam Deck: streaming PS5 games from the cloud without owning a PS5 at all.
The app, Asobi: Remote Play, is now available as a Steam Playtest for Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and other Linux devices. It does two jobs, standard Remote Play from your own PS4 or PS5, and, more notably, PlayStation Plus cloud streaming, which lets you play supported PS5 games straight from Sony’s servers with no console in the house.
There’s a subscription catch, but for Deck owners it’s a genuinely useful addition.
What it actually does
The cloud-streaming half is the headline, and it’s the part that didn’t exist on the Deck before.
To stream from the cloud, you need a PlayStation Network account and an active PS Plus Premium subscription. With those, you can stream supported games from the PS Plus catalog, plus eligible digital PS5 games you already own, directly to your Steam Deck. No PS5 required. Sony gave the PlayStation Portal this capability in 2025; Asobi, a third-party app not affiliated with Sony, is opening it up to Valve’s handheld and other Linux hardware.
The standard Remote Play half, streaming from your own console, isn’t new territory, apps like Chiaki already did that on the Deck. The cloud piece is what sets Asobi apart, since even Sony’s own software doesn’t offer it on non-PlayStation handhelds.
The important caveat on the specs
The free base version streams at 1080p / 30fps in SDR with automatic bitrate adjustment. The better stuff, 1080p at 60fps, HDR, manual bitrate control, low-latency modes, and 4K upscaling, is part of a premium tier.
During the playtest, those premium features are unlocked for everyone, but the app will be free-to-play at launch with the premium package sold separately, at a price that hasn’t been announced. So the fancy specs aren’t the free baseline; they’re a paid upgrade you’re currently getting to try.
Not every owned PS5 game will stream, either. Availability still depends on Sony’s cloud catalog, your account, and your region, cloud streaming covers 30-plus countries but not everywhere.
Why Deck owners should care
This fills a real gap in the handheld-streaming world.
The Steam Deck is already a great little screen for streaming games in bed or on the couch, but PlayStation cloud access specifically has been missing. Early impressions from playtesters have been positive, with reports that image clarity beats competing solutions like Chiaki and that latency is low. For anyone who has a PS Plus Premium subscription but doesn’t want to buy a PlayStation Portal, or who wants their PlayStation library on the same device as their Steam games, Asobi is a compelling option.
It’s a Playtest, so it’s early and things can change, and the premium pricing is still an unknown. But the core idea, your PlayStation cloud library on a Steam Deck, is exactly the kind of device-agnostic streaming players keep asking for and rarely get. Request access through the Steam store page, and it runs inside Steam itself, no desktop-mode fiddling required.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
VideoCardz (August 2026), verified for the Steam Playtest availability on Steam Deck/Steam Machine/Linux, the PS4/PS5 Remote Play and PS Plus cloud streaming features, the PSN-account and PS Plus Premium requirements, the supported-catalog-and-owned-games detail, and the base-versus-premium spec breakdown
The Gamer (August 2026), verified for the developer’s Reddit announcement, the all-premium-features-unlocked-during-playtest note, the free-to-play-at-launch plan, the unknown premium pricing, and the not-affiliated-with-Sony disclaimer
Notebookcheck (August 2026), verified for the console-free owned-game streaming, the Chiaki comparison, the DualSense controller support, the positive early impressions on clarity and latency, and the Windows-version-in-progress note
tbreak and Asobi Steam store listing (August 2026), verified for the 1080p/30 SDR base tier, the premium 1080p/60/HDR/4K-upscaling tier, the regional cloud-availability limits, and the request-access flow