At its Gamescom press event in Cologne this week, Sony released a flood of news regarding the PlayStation 4. Without a doubt, the biggest headline was that the PS4 has officially sold-through 10 million units, but sprinkled throughout the press conference was some truly exciting info regarding the future of the platform. Specifically, the promise of streaming multiplayer games to my friends has me intrigued.
Sony’s presentation was chockablock with games — many of which are new IPs. Michel Ancel (of Rayman fame) showed off his new project called WiLD, Housemarque’s Alienationis yet another take on dual-joystick shooters, and Ninja Theory’s Hellblade trailer looked absolutely fantastic. Of course, existing franchises were there in full force as well.Tearaway, LittleBigPlanet 3, inFAMOUS First Light, and Metal Gear Solid V were up on stage just like you’d expect. If you’re actually interested in seeing more about the games, you can actually watch Sony’s entire presentation in the embedded video below.
After about an hour of trailers, Sony finally got to the good stuff: new features. Sony’s 2.0 firmware, rolling out in the next few months, will sport a number of useful improvements and additions. For example, YouTube support is being baked into the OS. You’ll be able to directly upload your gameplay clips to Google’s massively popular video sharing site, and a dedicated YouTube app is headed to the PS4 as well. As it stands, your only options are to either save your videos to an external drive or share them on Facebook, and that’s a huge hassle for many of us. This is a smart move on Sony’s part.
Even better, the “Share Play” functionality promised before launch is finally making its way to PS4 owners. After firmware 2.0 ships, you’ll be able to let any of your PSN friends play with you co-operatively over the internet. Sony is selling this concept as a “virtual sofa,” so you’ll be playing on a single copy of the game. With Share Play, you’ll be running the game locally on your PS4, and your friends can be invited to stream your game on their PS4 — much like a multiplayer version of Remote Play. You’ll be able to play together, and even swap controllers at will. In effect, this feature is a bizarre and clever hybrid of local and online multiplayer gaming.
Sadly, there wasn’t any discussion of the game suspension feature for version 2.0. The ability to put your game to sleep, and instantly return to where you left off is a killer feature on the Xbox One and Vita. In fact, Sony has promised that capability for the PS4, but the company remains vague about when that functionality is coming. Still, I’m holding out hope that game suspension will be ready in time for the big 2.0 rollout in fall. At this point, that’s my most anticipated feature — DLNA be damned.
No comments:
Post a Comment