Feature Incomplete: The Missing Functionality Of The New Generation

In recent years we’ve often had the opportunity to bemoan games receiving “day one” patches, usually to fix last minute bugs and activate certain online features. They’re now a vital part of the development process, and being able to deliver patches via the internet has also massively affected the way the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have been created.

Now, lest we forget, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have also evolved and changed their base software to a quite astonishing degree, since their launch the better part of a decade ago. The PS3 gained trophies, a new look store, dynamic themes, XMB access during gameplay, text chat and on and on, while the 360’s interface also changed and shifted in quite substantial ways, from blades to the New Xbox Experience, ending up with the Windows 8 stylings that we see today.

The PS4 and XBO were both announced to great fanfare earlier this year, touting a whole host of interesting features and improvements over their predecessors. Since then there has been a gradual functionality slide, as the software development teams have crunched hard to reach the release deadlines in November, and have had to make tough calls and cut features from the release software.

So, what features are we missing right now?

PlayStation 4

The PS4 shipped with a quite basic 1.0 firmware, which missed out on a lot of core functionality but, in tandem with firmware updates on game discs, still allows you to play games without an initial internet connection. However, it’s with a day one patch of around 300MB that we got something not far off what was originally promised.

Maybe the most notable omission, at first glance, is the inability to share gameplay videos to YouTube at this moment in time. Streaming to Twitch and UStream are implemented just fine, though only the former will currently let you store your streamed video for later viewing, and then only if you change this setting on a PC. When it comes to saving video and sharing snippets after the fact, for the bandwidth impaired like myself, these can only be sent to Facebook right now.

There are further refinements and improvements that the sharing system wants, such as allowing users to copy files to local external drive, edit in greater detail and add a voiceover after capture, going beyond adding simple in and out points. This is an area which clearly warrants a lot more development, with only the most basic functionality on offer right now.

Other awkward areas come from the quite odd omission of MP3 playback, DLNA and 3D Blu-ray support. Each of these is absent at launch, but seem to be on the cards for inclusion in future updates.

Similar things can be said of Suspend/Resume gaming, which will allow you to resume a game exactly where you left off rather than load up from scratch, and the future removal of HDCP during gameplay, which would go quite some way to reducing the limitations of the current sharing system.

For headset users, firmware 1.5 saw support for USB headsets added for the console’s launch, and this combines with the optical 5.1 output and a standard 3.5mm jack on each DualShock 4 to cover a lot of bases. However, those using headsets which rely on Bluetooth or analogue audio outputs might have difficulties, and should see the headset manufacturer’s website.

Quite a few people may find themselves with a now obsolete headset. To use the 3.5mm jack, you will need an audio in/out port on the headset and providing a cable to add support for this is down to the headset manufacturer, and again, you should check their website for more details. Bluetooth support is coming, though to what extent this will let you use old headsets is unclear, so you will need to keep fingers crossed on that one, but Sony’s own gaming headsets will be getting full support.

In the meantime, you might want to use the PlayStation 4 camera accessory as a kind of room mic for chatting during online games. I hope so, because there’s no option to turn it off at the moment – unless you connect a headset or mute chat in-game – something else that will hopefully be patched in very soon.

Finally, Gaikai streaming is set for a gradual roll out over the next few years, with the US to get this first and rumoured to see a beta test some time next year, where they will initially gain access to only a small subset of PlayStation 3 titles. Gaikai will eventually spread to the rest of the world, rumoured to be coming in 2015, as well as come to support the PS3 and PS Vita, but in this case it’s not as simple as adding an app to the software and requires an extensive network infrastructure to support all of the live streamed gaming, and that makes this a huge project for Sony to be undertaking.

There are still many, many areas for the core PS4 software to expand, beyond just what has been promised and delayed. The PS4 Camera, for example, offers up some quite decent but limited voice command functionality, and this would be one such area for Sony to take their solid initial implementation and push on from. There are also numerous tweaks and changes to make to the new PlayStation Dynamic Menu, to make it easier to use and manage in the long run. Folders would be a good start, before we get stuck with an endless list of games!

Xbox One

The XBO, in contrast to the PS4, requires the day one patch in order to work at all, as a legacy of the original plans to have an effectively always online console. Thankfully, it’s just 500MB, which shouldn’t trouble you for more than half an hour on most internet connections, even mine!

The absence of Twitch streaming at launch is a fairly recent blow to the machine, pushed back to early 2014, and means that the Xbox One has no built in streaming functionality to match the popular feature on the PS4. It does, however, allow for external capture devices, as it has no HDCP during pure gameplay, and you can still record locally and upload to SkyDrive before manually proliferating the video elsewhere. The built in Upload Studio is also a more comprehensive tool, allowing you to edit the footage, use multiple clips, do picture in picture and add voice overs after you’ve initially captured the footage.

That’s all great for putting together and sharing basic videos of your games but there’s currently no method of taking or sharing still images. Screenshots seem like something that would be very easily implemented into the current system but has been completely forgotten about as yet.

While the PS4 allows you to swap out the internal HDD, the XBO does not let you do so, keeping you at the built in 500GB limit for the time being. You will instead be able to install game data to an external drive, opening up the possibility of having truly vast storage capacity attached, but this too is one of the features unavailable at launch. Now, this won’t be too pressing an issue for the next few months, while the overall catalogue of games on offer is still quite small, but the sooner it’s added, the better.

A much bigger deal for the rollout of the machine has been extending core English and North American functionality across the globe. This extends primarily to the Kinect voice control functionality, which has been restricted to English, French and German languages initially, though the actual OS has wider language support. In future development it would also be good for the Kinect to accept a less stringent form of syntax and recognise games without users having to speak their full titles.

Similarly, many of the TV-based features, such as localised programme guides, are only available in North America right now before spreading out around the globe in 2014. Microsoft also have to find a way to tackle an issue in PAL regions where TV broadcasts are often at 50Hz. This causes the video to judder when piped through the Xbox One running at 60Hz, and could prove to be a tricky issue to solve, if it’s possible at all.

Finally, as with the PS4, headsets can cause a few headaches. Right now, the optical audio output only supports stereo, which while it still provides audio to most headsets that use optical audio, is quite an oversight. Dolby 5.1 support will be added with a patch, but for fuller headset support, there is also a physical obstacle which is yet to be overcome.

Xbox 360 chat was handled via a cable to your controller, using fairly standard 2.5mm jacks, but the Xbox One has a redesigned socket which breaks compatibility. Annoyingly, it won’t be until the new year that adapters and cables will be available to headset manufacturers to provide full Xbox One support for new and existing headsets. Until then, people will have to rely on the bundled headset or the Kinect camera’s microphones in order to chat.

Beyond this, the OS should continue to see myriad improvements, and it is my contention that Microsoft will be able to add support for PlayGo-style game installations. As we saw recently, the PS4 lets you get playing before the game has been fully installed, while data is copied in the background and patches downloaded. The Xbox One system also holds onto CPU and GPU resources for various tasks, and background installations could be added to the things it can tackle. The quick U-turn on DRM, and the short time between announcement and launch meant that this may well have been left on the cutting room floor, especially since Microsoft created a remarkably similar installation technique for Windows Vista and Halo 2’s PC release.

It’s quite obvious that neither console was able to deliver everything that the manufacturers promised for day one, and in some cases this will get in the way for early adopters. Streaming and sharing have certain hiccups on both sides of the fence, but in my opinion, this is window dressing compared to some of the issues which blight headset users and manufacturers. Quite a key area of the gaming experience has been overhauled with relatively few obvious benefits to users at this stage.

Still these are, in reality, teething issues for hardware and software which absolutely had to be released on a certain date in order to capitalise on the main shopping season of the year. It will be fascinating to see how far both machines have come in even just six months time, let alone two to three years from now.