Last week we briefly mentioned the upcoming Share Play feature that’s coming with Sony’s 2.0 firmware update soon, but now Business Insider has a bit more info on it.
Firstly, Update 2.0 is going to arrive sometime before SA’s summer (the official line is it’s coming “this fall”), bringing with it Share Play and the ability to upload captured game video directly to YouTube.
Share Play has the power to turn your PS4 into a virtual couch by allowing you to share your game with a friend as if they’re sitting next to you, by streaming it directly to their PS4 over the internet. You can have them join you in games that support local multiplayer, or pass them control of your game in case you need a bit of help beating that one boss that keeps pwning you or any other sections you’re struggling with.
The best part is they don’t need to own the game being shared and there is no download of game files needed since all they get is a video of what’s happening on your console. They just need a PSN account which, if they don’t already have one, is free to sign up for.
The only enemy you’ll have to contend with is whatever lag is introduced by streaming data across the South African internet. Sony hasn’t mentioned any sort of minimum line speed or latency required to use Share Play smoothly, but since the rest of the world is so far ahead of South Africa (them: 19mbps average, us: 5.7mbps average) it’s not exactly unlikely we’ll have no problems.
Share Play sessions will be limited to an hour at a time, however, presumably to prevent people from abusing the hell out of the system as they are wont to do.
Business Insider says this feature has the potential to “bury the Xbox One”, as the PlayStation 4 is already outselling Microsoft’s console by a significant margin, having beaten it in sales for the last seven straight months.
Share Play looks like a fantastic feature; I just hope South Africa’s connectivity doesn’t prove its Achilles heel.
[Source – Business Insider]
