Sony has a track record of announcing impressive features that never get used to their full potential. Remote Play is one such idea that, despite showing some promise, fell to the wayside on the PlayStation Portable and the PlayStation 3. However, the company’s eager to avoid the same issues with the PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation 4, as Digital Foundry reports that the manufacturer is aiming to mandate off-screen play for virtually every title released on its next generation platform.
The article – citing a proven developer – claims that any PS4 titles not taking advantage of the new PlayStation Eye will be required to include Remote Play support. This, according to the report, will be much improved compared to the compatibility integrated into the PSP and the PS3, as Sony has designed the console with the feature in mind.
“Remote Play works by downscaling the 1080p frame buffer to the Vita's native 960x544 resolution, using the PS4's in-built hardware h.264 video encoder to compress the image,” the article reads. “This is then beamed out over Wi-Fi to the Vita, which decodes the video and sends back controller inputs to the PS4.”
While this occupied precious resources on the PS3, there’ll be no performance penalty on the PS4. As such, assuming that this is a relatively simple thing for studios to implement, we reckon that it makes a lot of sense for Sony to mandate the feature. Hopefully it increases the appeal of the handheld, too.
Update: Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has now confirmed the report on Twitter.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 26
What great news! As a parent this feature will be perfect for me
Going to be uber expensive but a good feature for those already invested in PlayStation.
This may move some Vita's from those shelves.
This is really good news for Nintendo. If devs will have to develop remote play for PS4/Vita, might as well for the Wii U as well. Plus they will learn how to do it. Making it a requirement though seems like a bit much. I don't think Nintendo does that, though most game seem to support it.
And hey, those 187 people who own a Vita are going to love this feature when they pick up a PS4!
This is likely to speed up my purchase of a PS4.
Will bet that EA use FIFA's "support" of ps move as an excuse not to support this though.
The Vita really is a great bit of kit, so I'm really glad to hear about anything that could possibly increase the user base.
Show me your actually gonna support it, than I'll be impressed. Like it's said in the article, Sony has a history of having these kinda things but not bringing it to its full potential. Sony already said before that we could remote play with PS3, and I think only two games support that, both remaster PS2 classics
@XCWarrior haven't you heard? We just sold our over-1.2-million-th unit! That means like one in 5 million people picked one up! Can you sense my tone? Sell your guitar; buy a Vita.
@XCWarrior Har har, aren't you so funny? Comments like these that unnessecarily talk bad about the Vita really piss me off (even moreso because I know you're from Nintendo Life). Trying to be civil, trying to be civil;
trying, trying, trying, trying...
(someone put me out of my misery .-.)
you guys misread something.
"claims that any PS4 titles not taking advantage of the new PlayStation Eye will be required to include Remote Play support."'
Meaning they will throw in a Playstation Eye Gimmick and call it a day, sorry but its going to happen, I still don't expect a ton of remote games....all sony first party games i know for a fact will use it, but EA...........psh HAHAHAHAHA good one.
@neumaus - Maybe you should switch to decaf if you are going to get so bent out of shape every time somebody makes a joke on a blog?
BTW, here's 2 reasons why his joke of a comment is relevant.
If I'm a game company making a game I may not want to spend money and time implementing a feature that will not be used by many people. Sony itself has not done a very good job promoting and supporting the Vita, so why should Sony tell other companies to do their job for them?
Also, if I'm a company and I'm planning on selling 2 copies of a game, 1 for PS4 and 1 for Vita so people can X-play, well there goes that Vita sale. Some companies may stop making Vita games entirely if they feel that Vita exclusives need to compete for time with all the PS4 remote players if every good PS4 game can be played on the Vita.
So I think the original comment was a joke (it would have been less of a joke if the poster had put the actual vita sales numbers) but it does raise a few legitimate concerns for game developers.
Unrelated - thanks Sammy for including this line - "...not taking advantage of the new PlayStation Eye...". Nips that discussion in the bud.
@XCWarrior If they don't require it, there's always a chance that lazy publishers will overlook it. This way they have have to include it, and I think that's the right move. Sony's been known for half-implementing these sort of features on PS3 (YouTube recording, Remote Play, Screenshot capture, even Trophies at first), but developers hardly touched them. I'm glad it's learned — this way all of this stuff's actually going to be worthwhile, rather than a novelty.
@ViciousDS If this works the way I think it will — i.e. it's just built into the development kit, requiring additional testing at most — I think that it will be much easier for pubs to just support this than include PS Eye gimmicks. If that's not the case, then Sony's doing it wrong.
@get2sammyb
It depends on Kinect right? I know the Kinect One unit is doing so much more than the PS eye will be capable of doing but for the most basic stuff most games should transfer right?
would love to play ps4 games on my vita
It's a fantastic idea, assuming that most of the PS4 features work well on it.
Now we're talking! Making it mandatory was absolutely necessary and the only thing that will work. Great news. Now as Sammy said the only thing left for Sony to do is make sure remote play is easier to implement than a playstation eye gimmick so nobody uses it as a loophole or something. Fantastic news though love the word mandatory.
Its so funny, sooo many people complained the remote play was wasted cause only a few games took advantage of it and Sony should have pudhed it more. Now that they have done just that people here and on other sites are saying they shouldn't have mandated it and the poor poor devs are gonna have to do extra work. SIGH
And as for all the "Wiiu can do that too" people: Remote play works over wifi from ANY location.
@get2sammyb if its just built into the development kit then its literally as easy as remapping controls and turning on the switch. I mean even the minor remote play PS3 had for PSone games worked wonders when I was not able to get legend of dragoon on my vita till that update came along.
Surely WiFi is not fast enough to handle what is needed to have a completely lag free experience?? Isnt this the reason Nintendo had such an issue initially with the Wii U and why they ended up developing their own protocol?
If this truly will work then it is definitely an AWESOME feature!
Although as @rjejr points out, it does bring up issues of Vita game sales.
@elarkos the quality of remote play over wifi will depend on the speed of the wifi. But I fully expect the direct connection from the ps4 to be a seamless experience bc of the ps4s power.
@rjejr you are certainly correct that devs won't bother releasing the exact same game for ps4 and vita anymore, but who really wants them to do that anyway? But you could also argue that some people would choose the cheaper vita version of a game anyway, especially if they want to be able to play the game in a car or a plane or in the woods or whatever.
@rjejr I said it makes me angry, joke comment or not, but I didn't say anything wrong. So I don't think I'm getting 'bent out of shape'.
And to me, it didn't look like a joke. That's irrespective, but that's how I saw it.
People can of course have their opinions, but I feel like I've been on Vita defense lately xD
(and I didn't have coffee today, I had organic soymilk )
This could be great news for the Vita if the PS4 is successful. Be interesting to see if maybe they bundle the systems together at some point.
@XCWarrior Some Nintendo game don't have offscreen play, they aren't going to make a requirement so games like ZombiU can exist. The vita is better equipped to play PS4 games than the Wii U gamepad is to play all Wii U games.
@neumaus I might spend more time on Nintendo Life, but I own a PS3. Heck, I own a Move. And I've seen how badly that's been supported. Making the Vita remote play necessary is good long term, but devs are not going to be happy about it. Especially when facts are facts, Vita might be more powerful than the 3DS, but it sure as heck isn't selling.
@charlesnarles Glad to see someone at least can laugh about Vita's poor sales.
PS4 is set up to win the next generation - if they don't block used sales. And considering they refuse to answer questions about DRM, I wouldn't expect their eventual answer to be a good one. And even though I don't buy used games unless they are older gen games, I know a lot of people do. And that is not a good thing for the industry period.
PS360 will dominate into 2014. Bank on it.
Basically like the Wii U pretty much...
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