Tag: Sony Playstation

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This Sony PS4 can now benefit from true cross-platform online gameplay thanks to Fortnite

PS4 Cross-Play Is Finally Happening; Fortnite Beta Starts Today | GameSpot

Fortnite Won | Gizmodo

Fans Forcing Sony Into ‘Fortnite’ PS4 Crossplay Is A Watershed Moment For Gaming | Forbes

From the horse’s mouth

Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation)

Extended Fortnite Cross-Play Beta Launches on PS4 Starting Today (Press Release)

My Comments

Game On no matter the console! At last true multiplatform cross-play has arrived!

All off the regular-computer, console and mobile platforms that Epic Games wrote the various ports of the Fortnite battle-royale multiplayer game have supported cross-platform multiplayer gaming except for one glaring omission being Sony with their PS4 console.

It has been part of a long-time practice with games-console manufacturers who are dependent on full vertical integration which affected things like multi-player multi-machine gaming where the games-console vendor would prefer to keep that between their own products. This was against the accepted norms of what is accepted with regular personal computers where it is desirable to play the same online game no matter the computing platform that your opponents use.

The XBox One’s main archrival – the PS4 can participate in cross-platform online gameplay thanks to Fortnite

It would also affect the ability for a games studio to port a game across all platforms and assure a similar online play experience no matter the platform. Here it wouldn’t matter whether the online play was about competing with other players including earning your place on one or more leaderboards, participating in a “virtual-world” that the game is about or trading in-game goods in a game-hosted marketplace.

Gradually, Sony and Microsoft. along with most games studios allowed a limited form of “cross-play” (online play of the same game from gaming devices of different gaming platforms) by allowing for, for example, a Windows regular computer to become a player in an online game with a games console. But with Fortnite, Microsoft and Nintendo brought their latest consoles to the “cross-play” party.

Now Sony have opened up the path towards third-party game studios implementing multi-platform online and network gameplay for their games titles. This is through an open beta program where a version of Fortnite with this true multiplatform cross-play code integrated but this code is really test code that may not be stable. It will be seen by Sony to be a proving ground for true multiplayer multiplatform online gaming involving all computing devices including gams consoles with them “opening up” the PlayStation platform for more cross-platform online gameplay.

This was as a result of “people power” with Fortnite fans complaining to Sony about ignoring the large PS4 installed base when it came to cross-platform gameplay especially as other regular, mobile and console platforms allowed for this kind of gameplay with very little friction.

Personally I see this as a seachange for network and online multiple-machine gaming especially in the games-console space. Here it could be about allowing third-party game developers including indie studios to create these kind of gameplay experiences but allow users to join these experiences no matter the console that they have.

With the rise of Fortnite, it can open up the idea of porting a game that has online or network play across every gaming platform while assuring users that they can game online no matter what they use. It can even lead towards increased interest in massively-multiplayer-online games especially where they could be played on a laptop, a smartphone or a console connected to the big TV.

Article

Sony PS4 Media Player media list

The PlayStation 4 is getting a media player | Engadget

From the horse’s mouth

Sony PlayStation

Blog Post

My Comments

A feature that has been considered missing from the Sony PlayStation 4 is the ability for it to be a media player whether working with media on an optical disk, USB storage or the DLNA Home Media Network. This was a feature that was baked in to the PlayStation 3 and was highly valued. It is also a feature that is part of the XBox One’s software and having media-playback abilities in a games console underscores the trend for these devices to be an “all-round” entertainment device that works with the large-screen TV.

This trend is underscored with the consoles having integrated Blu-Ray players along with such things as TV-tuner devices being available for the XBox One along with “front-end” software being available for the popular video-on-demand services like Netflix for these consoles. This appeal is underscored amongst young people who live in a small apartment or bungalow and have as their TV a small bargain-basement model without the full smart-TV functionality and they see these consoles adding all of the desired functionality.

Look for this in the PS4’s menu to download the Media Player

Sony received subsequent user feedback about what the PS4 could offer and one of the features that was called out by their customers as being of need was a media player. Now they have issued it as an app that can be downloaded from the PlayStation Store with an icon in the Content area of the PS4’s System Menu to invite you to download the software. This will work with content on USB storage or your DLNA-equipped NAS or computer.

It can handle most of the popular media codecs and file types as well as being able to run music files as background music. It should be available for download over the next few days so you can get the PS4 becoming more fully-fledged as a media centre.

Article

PS4 to get companion social app for tablets, PS Vita |Engadget

My Comments

Just today (21 February 2013), Sony was premiering the PlayStation 4 games console at their press event in New York City. They were promoting advanced “polygon-free” graphics which yielded realistic game views as well as support for “cloud-driven” console gaming.

This included various social-gaming options including the ability for an experienced astute player to help a novice player by effectively adding “dual controls” to the novice player’s controller. It is a feature that could have come in handy during a time when a friend of mine brought around the original PlayStation and rented a cricket game to play on the console. A person who lived with us had very keen interest in cricket and showed interest in this game but needed assistance with the video-game implementation of the sport.

But this console supports the new trend of the “second screen”. This option, which is implemented using apps on mobile-device platforms, is being explored by broadcasters and others with regular programmes but is being taken further by Sony for the PlayStation platform.

Most likely this concept would be positioned for social gaming, persistent scoreboards / inventory lists, alternate views such as overview maps, and similar activities to gain more out of the game. Of course, there will be the doubters that will say that the second screen is irrelevant especially for first-person shooters and similar games.

It will also be interesting to observe how much “in-sync” with the gameplay the second screen hosted on a separate device connected to the home network would be especially if extra action is to be viewed on this screen. Personally, I would make sure that you have the proper bandwidth available to your tablet when you want this function to work properly with the PS4.

A good idea would be to make sure that the Wi-Fi is strong to the games room and this could be achieved through the use of an access point with the wired network backbone. For that matter, most of the HomePlug AV wireless access points also have the Ethernet connections which can make this task easier with the PS4 connected to an Ethernet socket on the HomePlug access point while the HomePlug AV segment serves as the backbone.

Of course, this new console has a lot to be expected for its role in the lounge room, or the games room.

Articles

Sony unveils super slim PlayStation 3 | Crave – CNET

Sony PlayStation 3 2012 up close and personal eyes on | Engadget

From the horse’s mouth

US Press Release

European Press Release

My Comments

The press have been afield with the news about Sony’s latest PlayStation 3 games console. But this one is a major redesign to cope with the smaller space that newer consolidated electronics can occupy. This has yielded a smaller console that is significantly lighter and doesn’t use as much power as the existing units.

One main difference is that it has a top-loading Blu-Ray drive for your games and movies. This uses a sliding lid in a similar vein to some CD players like the B&O Beocenter 9000 series music systems rather than the hinged lid that, in my opinion, is asking for problems. 

There are two main design variants – one with a 500Gb hard disk and a cheaper variant with 12Gb flash memory with the ability to add in an optional 250Gb hard disk. The American market would have the console come with the 250Gb hard disk in the box. The cheaper version may work with occasional gamers and those of us who use the PS3 more as a network media client rather than as the full-on games console.

Of course there will be access to the PlayStation Network and the local video-on-demand services that has allowed the PS3 to earn its keep as a network multimedia terminal rather than just a games console for teenagers and young men. It will also have the same performance expectations as the current-generation PS3.

But could these variants be a way to bring the PlayStation Experience to more households or allow one to increase the feasibility for more of the multi-player multi-machine gaming from this console?