Either publisher Activision’s being genuine, or some poor public relations person has spent the whole day stewing, trying to find a way to spin Call of Duty: Advance Warfare’s controversial block on the PlayStation 4’s nifty Share Play feature. Whatever the case, the company has commented on its decision – and provided the statement below.
“Delivering a great gaming experience for fans is our top priority,” a spokesperson told Game Informer. “Share Play is a new feature that was introduced as part of the recent PS4 firmware v2.00 update. Our engineers didn’t have access to it before it launched, so we haven’t had a chance to evaluate it to see how it will impact the experience across all modes of play.”
The company continued: “Of course, we wouldn’t include a feature in our game without having the chance to test it. Once we’ve fully analysed its performance, we’ll determine how to support it going forward.” So, it sounds like the functionality’s not fully off the cards, and could be patched back in – assuming that the company's telling the truth.
To be fair, this does sound like a reasonable response, so if it was down to the PR team to come up with an excuse, then, well, boss Bobby Kotick owes them all a drink. To be honest, though, we’d prefer it if Sony just forced firms to support this, as we imagine that it’s going to get severely underutilised if it starts allowing the bigger organisations to opt out.
[source gameinformer.com]
Comments 24
My initial response was going to be a simple "$" but upon further review I'm going to change it to - "Microsoft's $".
OTOH - "DriveClub" is probably a better answer.
Can't do shadow of mordor in the uk either. Or hotline miami.
This actually sounds like a fair reason.
Good job by the PR team, they're going to have to try much harder next year though when the same situation pops up with the Black Ops 3.
Lol I highly doubt Sony could "force" developers/publishers to support share play
They have the right to block it, don't like it, don't play it or make your own game that does use share play, no big deal, really
Every game I own at the moment has blocked the use of share play, which is quite disappointing.
Isn't this look like pure lie?
Someone's is telling porkies.
Sony needs to react to this. A killer feature is being blocked. This is definitely something that could make people jump ship if it doesn't get support.
especially since It was promoted before launch as a feature!
@wittypixel
Force developers to use the feature and risk them potentially making deals with MS because of it? Sony can't afford to do that.
Seems like PR crap, but to be honest I can't blame them for not allowing Share Play. Hopefully they change their mind.
I can understand if they do not want to let you play the online multplayer stuff, but the local co-op? Why block that. If my friend comes round to play they do not need a copy of the game!
Great job with the PR team, whether it's true or not, who knows? It sounds great regardless though.
Sounds to me like they think if they let people play a slightly laggy 720p version of a laggy, bad hit detection game. People may not want to buy it. I haven't played it yet, just basing this on a bunch of comments.
@wagleton yeah I know. Tried both with a mate. He was really looking forward to it as well. Poor get.
I really wish i had known this was going to happen, i had read about it working on ghosts prior to picking up aw so i figured it would be fine. Its a feature i would have used 1-2 times max for trying out offline co op, and common sense would tell you not to even bother trying the online portion. Out of princible, and my belief this has nothing to do with presenting a subpar experience and more to do with $$ i would have not bought it, which in turn would have been enough to stop 3 other separate sales. Shame because ive enjoyed this one the most since the first blops, and it is a decent game for once.
@mitcHELLspawn I don't see why not. A simple example is Trophies. Sony "forced" (required) all games released after 2009 to support trophies. In this case its much easier though because Sony has the "opt out for certain scenes" functionality which they could eliminate or restrict in the OS, without ever having to deal with the developer/publishers directly. Or, since Sony is back to being the big dog this generation, a simple "you will do this" should suffice, since if they don't follow Sony's policy, they can't release on the platform at all.
An even easier route would be to require a big, noticeable logo on the box art that states that Share Play is not supported on this title. That would likely lower sales by more than just allowing the feature would. Or conversely, have a nice "Supports Share Play!" logo for those that do, making those that don't seem less by the exclusion of that logo.
Its quite easy for Sony to "force" them to support Share Play, they just have to decide which route to take.
Simple reason, Activision are c***s.
@thedevilsjester The issue is Share Play could be really bad to a 2-3 hour indie game. And then things get tricky with exceptions, and "why can he do it, but not me?"
@thedevilsjester This is the perfect solution to the problem.
@jaz007 If that did start to become a problem I'm sure Sony would be more than happy to subsidise these developers, considering how much support they are giving them this generation. I wouldn't be surprised if they already are subsidising them anyway.
What was the point of shareplay? When did game companies become such greedy cretins, they make so much money, they used to be cool but now they suck.
Sounds like bull. To me it's like they actively have to block it, not have to "figure it out how to use it or how it will impact the experience". Defense Grid 2 - little towerdefense, for example does just work fine with it, I doubt they had more hands-on-time with the feature than activision.
please watch the language -Tasuki-
Translation: We wouldn't want people to see how bad Advance Warfare is/play's so we block the feature.
Please watch the language -Tasuki-
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...