Remember that Sony said streams would involve a degree of interactivity back when they revealed the PS4 back in February? I had forgotten about it amidst the myriad details leading up to the console’s release.
Well, it amounted to viewers being able to revive the player or affect their game in some way, and it seemed like a really neat feature. It’s easy to imagine that Sony just didn’t include this functionality but in fact, it’s there, and some games are starting to use it, according to Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida
@GazVon TecmoKoei's Dynasty Warrior already uses the feature.
— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) January 25, 2014
Take Dynasty Warriors 8 for example, the one he mentions – at least in Japan, viewers can send power ups and such to the person streaming the game while watching. That’s a really novel use of the system, and the upcoming Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition will also support it, allowing viewers to choose the player’s fate, reviving Lara or letting her die.
According to Gematsu, the upcoming Yakuza Ishin will also use this feature, though in a different way than direct interaction – it will count the comments and you’ll recover health or build up heat much faster depending on how many are left.
It’s great to see developers utilise some of the cool features, even without shouting about them much – let’s hope we see more of these interactive modifiers in upcoming PS4 titles.
bunimomike
Christ! Completely forgot about this. More of this, please. Allow for basic fundamental actions (that we saw touted last year) across all games then allow for creative bonus interactivity (like the above and more) as and when the game devs feel them beneficial to the title.
Deezoned
Wow! This will be huge! And I was just getting used to companion apps being able to supply power ups and be interactive with a running game. Streaming just became way more compelling!
SilverCider
Just imagine if those who are streaming could dictate what the enemy AI did to a certain extent. E.g. basic control such as the path they take, or why not one leap further and allow complete control. Drop-in multiplayer with a twist.
DividSmythe
Nice does anybody fancy getting me the fastest plat foot this game :-D
DividSmythe
*for
JesseDeya
I picked up the PS4 version of this yesterday, and aside from the 1080/60 graphics looking awesome, I was surprised to see it support voice commands in game. I’ve long said voice recog isn’t a ‘Kinect’ feature – good to see a dev include it on both systems.
This streaming thing is cool, though I’m unlikely to use in this game tbh.
tonycawley
I had noticed this was already active for dynasty warriors, if you go to the live section then you see a few people playing it under the interactive bit. Problem is the options are in Japanese so I’ve no idea what interactions are possible.
Only problem with this is people are dicks. If I’m playing and present random people with the option to save me or let me die, 99% of people will let me die.
TSBonyman
I spotted a few people broadcasting Tomb Raider yesterday on the interactive channel but didn’t try it out. Do you need to own whichever game is being streamed in order to interfere/interact? Also, what happens when more than one person chooses an option? Ie, ten people choose ‘Revive’ and fifty-seven people choose ‘Die’ – is it the majority wins?
(Judging from the trolling behaviour i’ve seen on Live from Playstation, the majority will probably vote for ‘Die’)
bunimomike
“interfere” Ha! That feels so deliciously sleazy. *fumbles*
MOVE
What the feature where you can overtake a friends controller remotely – does that already exist/work?