Sony’s Yoshida confirms all PlayStation 4 games work with Vita via Remote Play (with minor exceptions)
Posted in: Today's ChiliSony’s PlayStation Vita is getting a major content boost when the PlayStation 4 launches later this year, as all PlayStation 4 games will run on the Vita via Remote Play. The only exceptions offered by Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida were, “unless the game requires specific hardware like the camera [PS4 Eye].” It also stands to reason that PlayStation Move-specific titles won’t run via Remote Play, nor anything else that requires peripheral hardware (the Buzz! series, for example).
The PlayStation 4’s Remote Play functionality with the Vita is said to be far more robust than its previous PlayStation 3 / PlayStation Portable iteration. Developers can even put Vita-specific controls in their PS4 games, enabling Wii U-esque second screen functionality, Yoshida told us earlier this year. We’ll have our Vitas on-hand at E3 in a few weeks when we expect Sony will offer first hands-on with its next gaming console.
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Peripherals, HD, Sony
Via: Joystiq
Source: Twitter
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the Xbox One‘s woes, but that doesn’t mean that the PlayStation 4 doesn’t have any of its own. It’s said that almost all PS4 games will be required to support Remote Play on the PS Vita handheld console. Essentially, games that don’t require the PS4 Eye camera will need to require Remote Play for the Vita.
The report comes from a “trusted PlayStation 4 developer source,” and if true, it could be Sony‘s attempt to try and get more people to use its handheld gaming device. The Vita hasn’t been a huge hit for Sony, as other mobile platforms, like iOS and Android, are growing in popularity in the games category.
If you’re not familiar with Remote Play, it’s a lot like Nintendo’s Wii U gamepad technology, where you can play a game on the Wii U gamepad that’s being played from the console. Sony’s Remote Play works by beaming the game’s video feed over WiFi to the Vita from the PS4, where the console downscales the stream to fit on the Vita’s display. It’s a lot like OnLive, where you can stream games to your device, but a remote server (or in this case, a PS4) is doing all the graphical grunt work.
Of course, the PSP and the PlayStation 3 had Remote Play as well, but it was far from being perfect, let alone great. It was slow and pretty laggy, making it nearly impossible to enjoy such a feature. However, Sony says that they’ve changed things around drastically in the PS4, and Remote Play should be a lot better this time around.
One of the problems, though, could be the limited number of controls on the Vita compared to the new DualShock 4 controller, but Sony has noted previously that game developers can create custom control schemes for the Vita that take advantage of the handheld’s touchscreen. It should be interesting how this plays out in a lot of games coming to the PS4 later this year.
Update: Shuhei Yoshida, President of Worldwide Studios, has confirmed this via a tweet, saying: “Yes, it’s true unless the game requires specific hardware like the camera. It will be great to play PS4 games on PS Vita.”
SOURCE: Eurogamer
PS4 said to demand mandatory PS Vita Remote Play [UPDATE] is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
When Microsoft introduced the original Xbox, the company had a lot to prove. The console newcomer promised that it was laser-focused on building a great system for games. There wasn’t much to distract it. In a time of DVDs and dial-up, “convergence” in the space was focused on the ability for consoles to play back movies rented at Blockbuster.
But everyone knew that the new kid on the box had an agenda beyond taking its share of industry profits away from Nintendo and Sony. Particularly versus the latter, Microsoft knew it would be engaged in a war for the living room and the future of digital entertainment distribution including, but beyond, games. Nothing came close to matching the processing power that consoles had brought to the living room, but no one had really cracked the broader application beyond disc-based games. It surely wasn’t web browsing, as Nintendo and Sony had tried. Still, as streaming services from Netflix, Hulu, Pandora and others began to proliferate across lots of different add-on boxes, it made sense to add them onto Xbox Live (even if the programming wasn’t) as well as the PlayStation Network.
The next generation of console gaming is upon us. Nintendo has already launched its Wii U, Microsoft’s Xbox One will be launching sometime later this year, and Sony has revealed several details about its PlayStation 4.
But unlike its chief competitors, Sony has decided against showing off the design of its next console. The company announced the device earlier this year, talked about its specs, but wouldn’t show what it actually looked like. And when the console was recently featured in a teaser for the upcoming E3 gaming trade show, Sony once again decided against showing off the device.
It’s not immediately clear why Sony hasn’t shown off the PlayStation 4. The company has, of course, been asked numerous times why it doesn’t want to show the console yet and each time, it has sidestepped the question. The move is unprecedented, if nothing else, and could be either good or bad.
See, now that we have seen the Wii U and Xbox One, the onus is on Sony to shock us. The PlayStation 4’s design can’t be something that bores us or doesn’t have as good a look as its competitors. And by hiding it under a shroud of mystery, Sony is only calling more attention to the console than it otherwise would.
That puts extra pressure on Sony at the E3 gaming show. If the console is truly something that blows our socks off, all the secrecy would have been worth it. But if Sony’s PlayStation 3 ends up being just another black box that doesn’t have anything special built-in and lacks some unique design quality, we’ll all be rather bored. And being bored in the world of gaming is a very, very bad thing.
“To make the discussion all about hardware couldn’t be worse”
Sony needs to take the attention away from its product design and start focusing more on its game library. The move the company should be making right now is to show off the PlayStation 4’s design and be done with it. To make the discussion surrounding Sony’s next console all about hardware couldn’t be worse for the company.
If history has taught us anything, it’s that software sells hardware. The Dreamcast died off because its software library was sub-par compared to that of its competitors. Sony’s PlayStation became such a hit because it had so many games available. The console’s design didn’t really matter all that much.
In this case, I’m going to give Sony the benefit of the doubt. I think the PlayStation maker truly understands the dynamics of the gaming industry and doesn’t want to take too much focus off the games. I believe, therefore, that Sony has something quite special up its sleeve. And rather than just let Microsoft and Nintendo take E3 by storm, it wants to show off something that we’ve never even thought about from a hardware perspective.
Of course, all of that could be wishful thinking. But if history serves us correctly, it tells us that Sony can pull off some miracles. And it needs another one right now.
Why Won’t Sony Let Us See What the PS4 Looks Like? is written by Don Reisinger & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.