PlayStation 4 / 12 Aug 2014
Gamescom: Sony Outlines PS4 Firmware 2.0, Share Play Share.
Play with your friends, no matter where they are.

By Colin Moriarty At Sony's Gamescom press conference, PlayStation 4's firmware update 2.0 was outlined, and will be coming soon to the console.

A big feature of firmware 2.0 are options surrounding your friends, particularly finding like-minded friends. The new firmware update will also recommend friends for you. Gameplay videos, as previously promised, will also be able to be updated directly to YouTube.

However, the biggest feature is SharePlay. SharePlay is a way for you and your friends to play the same game virtually, no matter where you are. If you're in front of a PS4 and your friend is, you can share the same game cooperatively or competitively, without both of you having to actually own the game. From the sound of it, this could be pretty major.

Here's more on Share Play, directly from The PlayStation Blog.

The best way to think about Share Play is like a “virtual couch”. PlayStation 4 will create an online local co-op experience by allowing you to invite a friend to join your game—even when they don’t own a copy of it. With this first-of-its-kind feature, you’ll be able to play games with a friend just as if you were together in the same room. Let’s say that with games… you’ll be able to invite your friend online to play against the Miami Heat for the championship as the San Antonio Spurs in NBA2K, tackle the challenging Towerfall Ascension Quest Mode together, or aide, heal, and protect you as Igniculus in Child of Light’s local co-op mode.

With Share Play, you can even jump into a game to assist a friend. For example, if there is part of a game that you can’t quite finish, you can invite a friend to take over your controls. Like handing over the controller to a friend on your couch, your screen will be shared as your friend gets through the part of the game that has been giving you trouble—can’t get past that part in The Last of Us: Remastered when you’re hanging upside down? Get a little help.


Next Gen has begun!

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I kinda want to play this shit.

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but I was playing for the 1st time & on the hardest difficulty available for the 1st so yeah, would've been nice to have help but I feel like more of a grizzled vet of the game not getting it. Either way, this is next gen gaming

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now that's a nice feature. I live across the country from most of my friends and we don't always own the same games. It will be nice to invite them to play FIFA or be able to join their Madden games. Coop for difficult games might be nice too. Either way, I'm looking forward to testing this out. Sounds almost too good to be true.

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http://kotaku.com/how-digital-game-sharing-on-the-ps4-will-work-1621424897

So, Sony's upcoming update feature is going to let me borrow and play my friends' games without actually owning them? Holy crap, I'm on board. But how does it work? And what game limitations (if any) are there?

"How it works is, for example, say, a friend has a game that I don't. I ask them to let me play it, and if they send me an invitation, I can access their PS4 and play while watching the video that is streamed." Said Sony Worldwide Studio big man, Shuhei Yoshida, explaining the new SharePlay feature in an interview with Weekly Famitsu. "You could call it a mini PlayStation Now."

That sounds pretty damn awesome. While you may expect some sort of limit in what specific games will be compatible, Yoshida assured that aside from games that use the PlayStation Camera, like PLAYROOM, any game that can be played with the Dualshock 4 will be playable via SharePlay. "There is no need for developers to do anything for their games to be compatible with SharePlay." Yoshida said.

Another feature is that players can save their game data to their own account, rather than their host's. "You can save your save data to your own account, so if you like a game you played via SharePlay, you can buy it for yourself and continue where you left off." Yoshida explained. "Or, if you get stuck in a game, or there's an enemy or stage you find difficult, you could hand over the reins to a friend for those areas."

Note that because SharePlay is basically the streaming of gameplay between 2 PS4s, it stands to reason that whoever is lending their game will basically be lending both their game AND their PS4. If your friend wants to borrow a game for an hour or so, it means you won't be able to use your PS4 during that time – unless it's to assist, disrupt, or just plain troll your friend.2

Another catch is that since this is a PS4 exclusive feature, it is currently limited by the PS4 library, which, at the moment, is not as extensive as its predecessors'. This is a limitation that Sony is obviously hoping to change in the upcoming months.

SharePlay will be an included feature in the upcoming 2.0 system update for the PS4, scheduled for some time this year, and I can't wait to try it out.




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Which kind of makes it better; I was wondering what the setup would bet to play a game you don't own (downloading files, etc), this is instant and should work with any game with localized multiplayer.

sounds good on paper, but lag may be an issue here, unless you gotta download some of the game to your PS4 you're downloading video and uploading control commands.

my in home streaming with steam has been ok, but not great. i can only imagine trying to stream someone's system across town, state, etc...

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Don't have time to play it on my own, but the ability to switch off controls while watching the rest of the time? Yes please.

Adding a "co-op" element to single-player games means that studios may not have to shoehorn in some misguided multiplayer mode for sales anymore.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/16/6009033/playstation-4-share-play-is-only-available-in-60-minute-sessions

The PlayStation 4's Share Play feature, unveiled at the Sony conference earlier this week, is only available in 60 minute sessions, according to the company.

GameSpot reports confirmation from Sony that players will only be able to use the "virtual couch" system for one hour at a time. Share Play allows PlayStation 4 owners (with a PlayStation Plus subscription) to hand off control of a game to another player in an entirely different location, even if they don't own a copy of the game.

Share Play will arrive with PlayStation 4's Version 2 system software update this fall. "With this first-of-its-kind feature, you'll be able to play games with a friend just as if you were together in the same room," said Sony's Scott McCarthy, when introducing the gizmo.

For more on Sony's announcements this week, be sure to browse Polygon's StoryStream, which corrals every PlayStation story from Gamescom 2014.
SOURCE GameSpot


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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

If it makes it cumbersome to start up another session with the same friend then it sorta defeats the purpose.

I wonder the thinking behind it? Server load? Afraid that someone like me might just say 'fuck it' and let my friend play through FFVII while I am on vacation?

(even then I assume that the bandwidth would be peer to peer and wouldn't really affect SONY's server bill since it's probably just matchmaking)

At first but then you think about how it will actually work and it's like, there's no way it can be as good in practice as it seems in theory. Like the Xbox kinect voice control feature. Maybe I'll be wrong but as a designer I just keep thinking of all the potential issues. I'm definitely gonna give it a shot though.

Apparently the service was similar to OnLive's streaming game service.

I'm almost certainly positive there will be a ton of hiccups once the service starts but if those can eventually be ironed out the potential for the service is intriguing.