One of the PlayStation 4’s coolest announced features is Remote Play, the service that will allow you to use WiFi to mirror and play PS4 games on your Vita. Today, Sony revealed some specifics about how that Remote Play will work — and they caution that it might not work so well when your Vita is on a different WiFi network than your PS4.
For starters, Sony says that most games will work with Remote Play: “SCEA expects that most PS4 titles will support Remote Play unless the title requires a special peripheral like PlayStation Camera.” You can only use Remote Play via WiFi — not 3G — and your PS4 will have to be turned on for the feature to work.
Sony also recommends not travelling too far if you want to get Remote Play working properly:
When will Remote Play work best?
Remote Play will work best when the PS Vita system is located within the same WiFi network where PS4 is connected. We also recommend that PS4 be connected to the local area network via an Ethernet cable, that a router suitable for gaming be used and that the PS Vita system be within close proximity of the WiFi access point so that the connection is free of interference.Can Remote Play work outside the user’s home network?
We strongly recommend that Remote Play be used within the same WiFi network where PS4 is connected. Remote Play may or may not work over a wide area network. For Remote Play to function over a wide area network, a robust and stable WiFi connection and broadband Internet connection is required, and the local area network where PS4 is connected must be configured to permit the PS Vita system to access PS4.
“But wait a minute!” you might be thinking. “I thought Sony was advertising the ability to play PS4 games on the go!”
You’re right. In this advertisement, released by Sony Japan earlier this year, people are using their Vitas to play PS4 games outside of the house:
We’ll test this stuff out as soon as we get our hands on a PS4. The system launches on November 15 — as does the day-one patch that enables Remote Play — so we may have to wait until then to find out more about just how well this feature works when you’re not on the same WiFi network as your PS4.
Comments
6 responses to “PS4 Remote Play Might Not Work So Well When You Leave Your House”
It seems perfectly reasonable to me:
“Hey guys: here’s a nifty feature, which works best when you’re on the same local network, which means no need to use your net connection (which may be dodgy copper if you’re in Australia lawl!)
You can use the feature when you’re at your friend’s house, but it may not be as good given their internet connection, your home internet connection, and their particular router. Keep that in mind.”
Expectation setting is important. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
Please tell me no-one actually expected this to work well when not on the same network?
Vita remote play while out and about will only work if you have a connection with good upload speeds, your 100Mb download will mean nothing if you’ve only got 2Mb upload (based on current Telstra cable plans)
Sounds like there setting people up so they aren’t disappointed they can’t stream a high bandwidth app through a low bandwidth service.
Surely this was the expectation.
Unless Sony are negotiating the connection between the PS4 and the Vita (maybe they do – I don’t know) would Joe Bloggs even know how to connect back to their home remotely?
You guys need to remember though, they’re not selling consoles exclusively to the tech savvy. There are people who will assume it works like it does in that ad. It’s sort of like that Microsoft UI video where most of us watching know that’s not quite how it’s going to play out in reality, but they still shouldn’t do it because they’re advertising this as a selling point for a product.
Granted I think this means they’ve realised they’ve been unintentionally misleading in their advertisement of the feature.
You mean that awful Windows 8 advert where they make it look like Minority Report? Gets on my nerves when companies do that, such as when Kinect was first teased. (Not that the PS Eye lived up to it’s claims either)
Nah, the XBOX One UI video where he’s constantly flipping into in-progress things. Going from game in progress to movie in progress to halfway through a round of multiplayer. It’s not technically a lie, you could do that if you set it up properly before you started the video, just like you could do everything in that PS4 video, but it doesn’t accurately reflect what the experience is like.
Disappointing, but not really surprising to anyone who would have fooled around with the PS3 – Vita or PSP ‘Remote Play’ features.
That was one of the things I was most excited about, until I got my Vita and found out it only worked really well if I was on my couch, infront of the TV (where the router and PS3 sits). Any other room in the house and there’d be unplayable lag or so much compression you could barely make out the game. Kind of defeated the purpose :(.
(And I generally have good Wifi reach across my house)