Sony Puts Out Ultimate Playstation 4 FAQ, Reveals Media/Sharing Limitations

October 31, 2013

With less than a month till the Playstation 4 launches, Sony put out an “Ultimate FAQ” that attempts to answer just about every question one might have about the upcoming console. However, said FAQ also revealed quite a few interesting details that hadn’t been clear until now.

To begin with, the Playstation 4′s media functionality has been confirmed to be limited at the moment, with no support for MP3′s or Audio CDs. Blu-Ray movie discs can be played, but only after downloading the first Firmware for the system, and by activating this functionality online. DLNA functionality and the ability to access media servers has also been confirmed to not be supported. However, the Playstation 4 does support background soundtracks via a subscription to Sony’s Music Unlimited streaming service, and is so far the only way to do so.

There’s also some clarification over just what you can do with the PS4′s Sharing functionality. While Sharing doesn’t require a Playstation Plus subscription to use, you won’t be able to share your gameplay footage onto YouTube. In addition, it was revealed that you won’t be able, to fully stream an entire game, depending on where (and if) the developer decides to put blocks. This would presumably be around game endings, or other plot-critical gameplay moments.

Other tidbits include that you won’t be able to change your PSN ID name, you won’t be able to hook up an external hard drive to expand on the 500GB onboard storage (though Sony did announce the specifications on HDD’s if you wish to swap them out), and the Suspend/Resume modes and the ability to share your controller via the internet won’t be available at launch.

While this may seem somewhat negative, Sony are listening to feedback and may implement fixes/additions to some of these limitations via future Firmware. In particular, Sony WorldWide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida has picked up on the DLNA/MP3 limitations, as revealed on Twitter. Not to mention the sharing to YouTube supported is worded in such a way that it implies Sony are looking to add this at a later point. It will be interesting to see how many of these limitations and system quirks will be fixed over the life of the system.