I don’t think this PS4 feature gets enough credit. My buddy and I use it all the time. For those who aren’t familiar with it here’s how it works:
Share Play is like a virtual couch! It’s activated the Party menu. One user hosts the session and another user can join. The users’ consoles connect directly to each other over the internet. Once the connection is established the Share Play session lasts 1 hour before it closes. The process can be repeated indefinitely. The host can share control with the guest either as player 2 or let them take over as player 1. Unlike streaming, the video feed for the guest is instaneous.
The best example in my experience was playing Until Dawn. We split up the party of 8 characters between us, each taking control of 4. When it was my buddy’s turn I simply gave him control. Some of those quicktime prompts are really quick but the latency was good enough that it was never an issue.
It’s not without its issues. The one-hour limit is a bit of a pain but thankfully it’s not hard to restart a session. Share Play is not good enough to play any fast-paced games as the input lag really ruins it. Until Dawn worked well because the quickest inputs only required a button press or two, everything else was walking around at a slow pace. Sometimes the feature refuses to work and it takes my friend several attempts to join me and vice versa.
Anyone else use this feature a lot? I wish other platforms had it too so everyone could share their experiences as if they were on the same couch.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that some parts require PS+. The host needs PS+ to hand over player 1 controller or host a second player. The guest needs PS+ to play as player 2.
I honestly forgot that feature existed. I never knew it allowed player 2 control!
Why is there a 1 hour time limit? Is it arbitrary or do you have to pay extra for an unlimited version of this?
Huh. I was just thinking the other day it’s such a shame that Pyre’s versus mode is local-only – that is to say, I don’t desire that it go all matchmaking queue and all that, just that the complete local-only-ness eliminates the possibility of playing with online friends who do not live anywhere nearby. I’m not a competitive person myself, but I have really been wanting to see other people do it :P
Anyway, so something like that could be achieved on the PS4 version using this feature?
I’ve always assumed the 1 hour limit was put in place to prevent people from leaving their PS4s on and walk away and let their friends play games for free.
I forgot to mention that to hand over the controller the host needs PS+ and for both people to play together they both need PS+. I’ll update the OP.
You can! My buddy got Pyre and I was curious if I’d like it so he let me try it. We didn’t play the VS mode but we’ve played local-only modes in other games and it was never an issue. Just keep in mind that the guest could be at a slight disadvantage because they need to compensate for the latency on their end. In my experience Pyre was slow enough that it was still fun to play compared to a game like Wolfenstein which felt awful to me.
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My wife is playing through Final Fantasy X again. She despises the chocobo races, to the point that she has jokingly talked about hiring someone on Craigslist to play it for her. The other day I suggested she get somebody to do it over Share Play and now I think it’s about 50/50 that she’s actually going to pay someone to play the chocobo races.
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I keep forgetting this feature exists but it is rather neat! It might be worth trying to play a few slower-paced games with friends this way, hmm.
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I tried using it with my brother, but it didn’t work. It would say everything was good and our connections were fast enough in the test, but when actually trying to connect it would always fail. It was a huge bummer, because I have a lot of local stuff I would have liked to play with him.
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I wonder why they have the 1 hour limit but lets you reconnect without issues. This sounds like an awesome way to play games like Life is Strange & Until Dawn.
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Sorry to hear that. In my experience Share Play worked all the time before I moved. After the move it usually takes a few attempts (sometimes 10 or more) but it works eventually. I think something was different on my old network that made it easier to connect. I gave Sony a call and they provided me a bunch of ports to open on my router but that didn’t seem to change anything.
