So, hey, Sony announced the PlayStation 4 this afternoon and, as was rumored, it’ll have some neat mobile and tablet functionality. Via “applications" on your phone or a tablet, you’ll be able to browse players’ videos, converse with them, and also challenge them to a match. The presenter at tonight’s event added that we’ll be to “keep in touch with the revolving world of game," too, whatever that means.
And here’s something else: Sony seems to be pushing Remote Play via PS Vita pretty hard with this console. From what we’re gathering, this functionality will be built into the hardware this time around courtesy Gakkai’s architecture, which should make it snappier and much nicer looking. Phones or tablets weren’t mentioned for this, but who knows? It would make sense — and line up with the “control your console with your phone" part of the rumor we heard this morning.
Overall, the presentation has revolved around a couple of buzzwords, including “cloud" and “social" and “simple." Digital is the one catching our eyes. With this new console, you’ll be able to play the games you download almost instantly. This is kinda like the App Store in a way. If you see a game, you grab it, and then you’re playing in seconds. This sort of immediacy is an important part of why we’re so in into mobile, so we think it’s neat to see a console trying to speed up the game delivery process, too.
Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see and hear more about the PS4 and its feature set as the hype train really starts rolling. If we hear anything else about its connection to phones or tablets, we’ll let you know.
UPDATE: Sony has kinda fleshed out what we learned from the press event in a recent press release. In addition to the noted stuff above, the PlayStation App (as it’s being called) will also enable your phone to function as a second screen. You know, similar to Microsoft’s SmartGlass app. Here’s the relevant part:
A new application from SCE called PlayStation App will enable iPhone, iPad, and Android based smartphones and tablets to become second screens. Once installed on these devices, users can, for example, see maps on their second screens when playing an adventure game, purchase PS4 games while away from home and download it directly to the console at home, or remotely watch other gamers playing on their devices.
