Thanks to the Switch, I’m Playing My PS5 Again

I hadn’t touched my PS5 for months as real life always got in the way. But then a comment from a colleague made me realize that if I could find time to play my Switch, I could find a way to get back to my PS5, too.

The Reasons I’ve Not Been Playing My PS5

There were two big reasons why I hadn’t touched a game console in several months. Both of those reasons are small humans who each have half of my genetic material. Having kids and gaming just don’t go well together.

In the good old days, I could spend hour upon hour working through a game over the weekend or in the evenings. Now that’s simply not possible. Weekends are taken up by taxi duty, birthday parties, going to the park, or riding bikes. in the evenings, I only have enough energy to collapse in front of the TV.

It’s not simply the fact that kids seem to eat up all of your available time, either. My kids enjoy watching me play video games (it’s like real-life YouTube) but a lot of games just aren’t suitable for them to watch. Even if the content isn’t massively inappropriate, the punishing nature of roguelikes and roguelites such as Returnal means that my language most definitely is when I die again in the middle of a run.

If I do play with the kids, it’s usually something like Overcooked, Mario Party, or Mario Kart which we can all play together on the Switch. My PS5 was just sitting gathering dust.

How the Switch Helped Me Start Gaming Again

All of that changed when I spotted a comment from colleague Sydney Butler in the work Slack. It was a thread about new games that people were excited about, and someone commented that they get put off from starting big games because they don’t have the hours to put into them with other life commitments.

Sydney replied that he can fit in two or three hours a day by grabbing his Switch or handheld PC to snatch some gaming time here and there.

I realized that I could do the same and started picking up my Switch in my downtime. I finally managed to complete a nostalgic playthrough of Majora’s Mask that I started more than two years ago. It felt good to be able to enjoy games like I used to when I had more time.

The Eureka Moment

The trouble was, once I’d finished Majora’s Mask, I was a little stuck. I didn’t have any new games to play on the Switch. I could buy some more, but I was all too aware that I had a bunch of games on my PS5 that I either needed to finish or hadn’t started at all. If only the PS5 was as easy to pick up and play as my Switch was.

And then it hit me. My PS5 may not be portable, but with Remote Play, the games could be. Remote Play would let me stream my PS5 games to my iPhone or my Mac so that I could play them at any time, without having to hog the only TV in the house. I’d be able to quickly dip into games whenever I wanted.

It was time to fire up the PS5 again, dust off the PS Remote Play app, and start playing some of my PS5 games whenever I could. I couldn’t wait to get started.

My Experience Using Remote Play on PS5

I’d tried Remote Play on my iPhone before, and the experience wasn’t ideal. The touch controls were fiddly and even using a controller, the screen was too small to really enjoy the experience. Still, I wanted to give it another shot, as this would give me the potential to play at a moment’s notice, with nothing other than my iPhone.

PlayStation 5 Slim Digital Edition (PS5)

Sadly, the screen of my iPhone 15 Pro just isn’t big enough for a satisfactory experience using the touch controls. While playing games such as Balatro is fine on an iPhone, the PS5 games I tried were no fun at all with the janky controls.

Remote Play on my Mac, however, was a different story completely. I spend most of my day at my desk in my home office, doing what my kids describe as “tapping.” I paired my DualSense controller with my Mac, fired up the PS Remote Play app, and reconnected to my PS5. It takes about 15 seconds for the PS5 to fire up and connect, and then I’m ready to play.

Remote Play isn’t perfect, but it’s possible to set it up so that it’s good enough for the job. I’ve had very few issues when playing my PS5 games on my Mac using Remote Play, and it’s a real joy to be able to pick up the controller, open an app, and start playing my PS5 games without leaving my desk.

The beauty is that I can even do so when the kids are home. I’m not stopping them from watching the TV or using the docked Switch, and since I’m in my own room when I play, I don’t have to worry about them seeing me perform some random act of violence in a game or curse in frustration when I die yet again.

I can easily sneak in ten minutes of gaming on a break, or even put in an hour while the kids are watching Floor Is Lava downstairs, and the experience is (almost) like I’m playing it on the console. I’m even considering getting a Steam Deck which would let me stream my PS5 games to a handheld, as well as allow me to play my Steam library wherever I want.

I’m in Love With Gaming Again

I owe Sydney a debt of gratitude. I was beginning to get frustrated by the fact that I just didn’t feel I had enough time to play any of the games that I’d spent my hard-earned money on. One comment in a Slack thread changed all of that.

I’m now managing to snatch multiple sessions of gaming almost every day, and it’s honestly a real joy. It’s the perfect way to switch off for a short while and lose yourself in something else. I’m sure it’s good for my mental health, too (at least, that’s how I’m justifying it to my wife).