The PlayStation 4’s ability to capture and stream video at the press of a button is a pretty neat feature that’s getting a lot of people excited. We could, for example, use bits of video in reviews without having to fight with a video capture device. Pro-gamers could use it to show off their skills, and regular games could just use it to show flukes or secrets. It’s being sold as a way to capture just about anything you do on your console and instantly share it – but that’s not quite the case.
According to Sony’s worldwide president Shuhei Yoshida, it’ll be up to developer how much free reign they’d like users to have with the feature; much the way the vita’s current screenshot ability works.
“There will be parts of a game that the maker does not want people to be able to see. For example, on Vita, developers can in certain scenes disable the feature that lets users take a screenshot, and (the Share function) will have a similar mechanism. The creator may not want to make video of the final boss sharable, for instance,” Yoshida told 4Gamer.net
This makes sense. We’re already seeing spoilers for the ending of The Last of Us, and if sharing were possible on the PS3, there’s no doubt we’d be seeing them in video form. That said, it is one of the PlayStation 4’s selling features, and it would be nice if users were given a little more free reign over how and when to use it.
What do you think? is restricting the feature smart, or is Sony shooting themselves in the foot a little by gimping one of the PS4’s standout features?
Last Updated: May 6, 2013
Admiral Chief Achievement
May 6, 2013 at 12:04
DON’T DO IT!!!
YOU WILL CRASH THE INTERWEBS WITH NOOB VIDS!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Ultimo_Cleric_N7
May 6, 2013 at 12:08
-_- the amount of kiddie noobs with videos……it hurts just thinking about it….
Unavengedavo
May 6, 2013 at 12:46
http://nooooooooooooooo.com/
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
May 6, 2013 at 12:04
I think it’s smart. But like any feature that has a few security features built in this will most likely be used for evil purposes.
Want to show video of a bit of gameplay in a review? Ha! Guess again. The game will be blocked from having that until after launch day where they will patch it to allow videos to be captured and shared. I mean you wouldn’t want anyone to have shared just how bad Aliens:CM’s graphics were before anyone could buy it now would you?
Sageville
May 6, 2013 at 12:08
A mate was telling me that share button was used for different things, possibly used to trade items to other players in an MMO environment etc.
Sounds like the developers get to decide what that button does.
Either way, I like it.
Slade Boender
May 6, 2013 at 12:43
I’m confused. There’s spoilers on Day One with most titles all over the net, what could you want to block? In fact, lots of walkthroughs these days contain snippets of game play etc, so that cant be it. I rate they should not lock the feature, I think it should be at the users will. Then again. I suck at games and wont be able to post shit anyways 😛
matthurstrsa
May 6, 2013 at 13:23
Imagine you look for a video walkthrough or tip on a certain part of the game, so you click on the video titled “How to get past that really difficult boss person” and its actually a spoiler from the end of the game. There are evil people that will do this.
FoxOneZA - The Chosen One
May 6, 2013 at 14:17
This is why PC’s have resurged as a gaming platform. There’s freedom. You’re either free or you’re dom. Dommmmm!
lord serpentus
May 6, 2013 at 21:36
your right pc does have freedom, and so do we, if you lock the feature you just hurt the system as a whole because we can all get past that with simple cellphones, and video capture devices, so you pay programmer for nothing, dumb move.