PlayStation 4 'Share' feature can be disabled by devs

Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida says a developer might not want certain parts of a game to be sharable, like the final boss, so devs can disable the PlayStation 4's "Sharing" features.

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Sony is emphasizing social interaction with the PlayStation 4, even including a "Share" button to easily show off your experiences to friends and stalkers. But it recognizes that sometimes developers won't want to let you show off things like spoilers, so it's giving developers access to disable it selectively.

"There will be parts of a game that the maker does not want people to be able to see," Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida told 4gamer (translated by Edge). "For example, on Vita, developers can in certain scenes disable the feature that lets users take a screenshot, and (the Share function) will have a similar mechanism. The creator may not want to make video of the final boss sharable, for instance."

He didn't mention just how extensive this ability would be, if developers would only be able to disable small portions, or if they could cut off large swaths of a game. Yoshida said that his own desire to make sharing easy came from Dark Souls, when he was too busy to play but wanted to watch videos. The suggestion of a dedicated share button came from a member of the production staff, and the team instantly recognized the value.

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  • reply
    May 6, 2013 9:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, PlayStation 4 'Share' feature can be disabled by devs.

    Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida says a developer might not want certain parts of a game to be sharable, like the final boss, so devs can disable the PlayStation 4's "Sharing" features.

    • reply
      May 6, 2013 9:38 AM

      They should also give people the ability to pre-filter stuff they see on the share as well. Lets just say you don't want the ending spoiled or you don't a particular game spoiled you should be able to set a filter for that. ie. Hide share content for Metal Gear Solid #.

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        May 6, 2013 9:46 AM

        It would be interesting if they tagged certain sections/areas, so that you could have "Do not share anything past where I am" option toggled and it would scan your own save progress and block any shares that are further in the game or something.

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      May 6, 2013 9:46 AM

      Time to a developer completely disabling sharing during the whole game...

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        May 6, 2013 9:50 AM

        Seriously, this trivializes the entire feature.

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        May 6, 2013 3:22 PM

        Kinda like how most PC games don't have a native "Take screenshot" function anymore (including those based on Unreal Engine 3, which has a function to take a screenshot)?

        I know, the Steam Overlay can take a screenshot of any Steam game, but if you have the Steam Overlay enabled, you get bombarded with cheevo progress updates and Steam friend updates. Disable Steam Overlay, and you disable those... as well as disabling screenshot capture ability.

        Steam Overlay. Screenshots. And Cheeovs. BUT NOT EITHER/OR MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE!! It's like an inverse Doom 3 Flashlight / Gun paradox.

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      May 6, 2013 10:08 AM

      I love that Dark Souls was the inspiration for this feature.

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      May 6, 2013 10:31 AM

      this sounds pretty lame. people know what they're getting into when they look up videos online. you usually look them up when you're stuck, no? and at the risk of being spoiled. if you can't share a final boss run, wtf is the point of the share feature? i know it's up to the developers but that's pretty lame.

      • reply
        May 6, 2013 10:41 AM

        The point is, it *shouldn't* be up to them. If you're going to do a feature like this, it needs to be open and free, not arbitrarily constrained by every developer high on their own shit who thinks the amazing story they've crafted shouldn't dare be spoiled.

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      May 6, 2013 10:59 AM

      Hopefully this'll mean people will make their own video recreations using Lego, kinda like how a lot of news agencies covered the Olympics when they were denied image rights.

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      May 6, 2013 1:06 PM

      Nothing is stopping people from recording videos the same way they always did, so this will have little purpose and effect.

    • reply
      May 6, 2013 1:46 PM

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