Yesterday, as probably most of you are aware of, Sony held their Playstation event where the company announced their next console, the Playstation 4. The press conference, which seemed to last forever, also featured a lot of information on mobile aspects that the console will bring with its release. While most of it was focused on the PS Vita, there was some interesting news regarding Android smartphones and tablets as well.
If you watched the event as if unfolded then you probably noticed how focused Sony seemed to be when it comes to the social aspects that they want to bring to gamers with the Playstation 4. A lot of social features from video uploading and sharing, spectating games and even the ability to take over someone’s controller should that person need help. They can grant you access to their controller even when you’re at your own house.
In terms of mobile though, the PS Vite will allow for remote control of the Playstation 4, essentially becoming a controller like the Wii U. You can also play your PS Vita games through the Playstation 4 onto your TV. Basically Sony wanted to make sure people knew that going out and buying a PS Vita now has some relevance.
So what about Android? Well Sony did mention both Android and iOS smartphones and tablets in passing but it wasn’t heavily focused on. What was said though is that Sony will be releasing an official “Playstation App” for both platform which will integrate a lot of the social features that the Playstation 4 will come with. Things like watching live gameplay of your friends, look at game maps, allow for content purchases (like the current Steam app does), and other social features. Content you purchase through the app will be downloaded right your console as well.
Driveclub will utilize mobile devices to issue challenges
Developers can also integrate features into their game to utilize this application but in slightly different ways. One example we heard about during the event was from the developers of the upcoming racing game Driveclub. Using your smartphone or tablet, you’ll be able to get into the game, select a track, the car you want to race with, the time of day in-game for the race and then issue a challenge to other gamers around the world to race against you when you jump back onto your Playstation 4.
The Playstation App will essentially bring a lot of the second screen features to your Android phone or tablet so you can still interact with friends in various ways even while on the go. The second screen aspect will also allow gamers to use their phone or tablet while playing, for example, an adventure game where they need to look at maps or inventory. They will be able to do this on their smartphone or tablet while playing the game on their Playstation 4.
Regarding Playstation Mobile, Gaikai was on stage and mentioned about future ideas and features for the Playstation 4 that included streaming PS1, PS2, PS3 and Playstation Mobile games onto the Playstation 4. In fact Gaikai did mention that in the future they would like to go the other way as well, putting PS1, PS2 and PS3 games streamed to mobile devices. This would be done through Sony’s newly announced Playstation Cloud service.
We are sure that there will event be more features developers come up with in regards to utilizing mobile devices for their games. Mobile is where its at right now and it won’t go away anytime soon so the more developers embrace this fact, the better off they will be. Sony seems to have picked up on this quite a bit.
So what did you think about the Playstation event? Thoughts, comments or rage? Let us know in the comments below.
