This week, the PlayStation 3 will receive an awesome new feature, one that many users have been awaiting for quite some time. See, back during E3 2013, one of the much-touted features of Sony’s console was the ability to virtually hand your controller to someone else on your friend’s list. Let’s say, for example, you’re having trouble with a particularly difficult level, and you’ve a friend who knows exactly how to conquer it – you could allow them remotely take control of your game and play through it while you watch.
Pretty awesome, right?
Touted as a sort of "virtual couch," Share Play is due on October 28, as part of the PS4’s 2.0 system software update. It will also allow players set up local multiplayer sessions through the Internet; these sessions are available to others even if they don’t own the game, meaning you can invite a bunch of your friends to play one of the many awesome indie titles you’ve downloaded. Unfortunately, Share Play has one big limitation – sessions are restricted to one hour.
Yeah, it kinda sucks, but it’s not terribly difficult to understand why Sony would do something like that – if Share Play had no time limit, someone could feasibly use their system to permanently ‘rent out’ games to their friends. Why bother buying and playing through Shadow of Mordor if you can just play it uninterrupted on your friend’s system, right?
‘Course, I suppose there’s nothing stopping you from starting a new Share Play session immediately after the first ends, making the whole thing kind of a moot point.
Anyway, you can read more about Share Play – and the other features due to release with the 2.0 update – on the Official PlayStation Blog. You can also check out the video below for a few more details.
