You’ll now be able to download and install many digital PS4 games before they come out — like you can on the PC — thanks to a new pre-loading plan that Sony just announced.
You won’t be able to play those games until their release dates, of course. But if you know you’re going to buy a game, and you want to preorder it, you can now load it up on your console, too, so you can start playing the second it comes out.
Sony’s got a full list of the games that will support pre-loading at first, which includes the likes of Destiny, Bloodborne, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. Games you pre-order will be automatically downloaded and pre-loaded by default, assuming you leave your PlayStation 4 online and in standby mode.
Pre-ordering games may still be a bad idea, but this is a nice service — and it certainly helps the PS4 feel more “next-gen”.
Comments
25 responses to “The PS4 Now Supports Pre-Loading”
welcome to 2005 sony.
It’s one of the better advantages of digital gaming, so it’s great to see Sony getting on board & offering the option to pre-load. Now if only the PSN pricing for new games wasn’t more expensive than Bricks & Mortar RRP 🙁
Nice. Hopefully before the end of this generation they’ll have something figured out where you don’t need to specifically pre-order a game to pre-load it. I’d love it if I could decide to buy a game in the morning, even one that wasn’t a new release, on the PS4 or XBOX One, begin the install remotely via a smartphone, then have it ready and waiting so I can just pick up the disc on the way home. That’s asking a bit much but I’d love to see them put their minds to figuring out a way to make it work.
yeah ur right, that’s asking for too much. that’s essentially 2 products for one. in an ideal world though… maybe in 50 years
But not really. I mean in that scenario the digital install would just be what’s already included in the box. It’s not a physical copy and a digital copy, it’s just handling all the installation stuff ahead of time. Sony and Microsoft would both benefit from it since one of the biggest letdowns of this generation is the amount of additional waiting between purchase and play. Updates, day one DLC, etc are all padding that out and it’s beginning to add up.
Admittedly the PS4 already does a great job of disc installations, but it’s still the best of a bad situation so I’m sure Sony wouldn’t mind slicing a little extra fat off the process. If it were limited to XGB per month for consoles without a subscription I think they could strike something where everybody wins.
I’m pretty sure you can actually do that…. today. If you leave your PS4 in stand-by and buy a game using the Playstation app on a mobile or the SEN website on a PC, the PS4 will download it if you click “Download to PS4” after you buy it, or in your download list.
Yeah. The XBOX 360/One can do that too but they’re both limited in that you have to buy digitally from their store. As far as I know you can’t use the PlayStation app to scan a code inside a boxed retail game to begin the installation process remotely and use the disc to play. On the PS4 it’s more of a pain than a problem like the XBOX One, but I’d still love to see it happen on both consoles.
A great move, but the fact that major titles are still too expensive on PSN, added to the inconvenience of new gen games being so large (one game would be roughly a quarter of my monthly download cap) means I’ll be sticking with discs for the time being.
Downside is buying a game on the PSN Store is still not as cost effective as buying it from a brick and mortar store. Not worth the extra 20 bucks from pre-loading 🙁
Or you can do as I normally do. Set a PSN US account, purchase the game from the PSN store or amazon, download the game and switch back to your normal AU account.
You will need an international credit card, or buy US PSN cards from Amazon.
Yeah a friend of mine does this as his missus is American so he just uses her credit card.
Seems like a bit of effort for something that shouldn’t even be an issue tho.
What I do is purchase US PSN cards. Just use paypal to pay for those, you need an US delivery address tho, just google a hotel and put that address.
The code will be sent to your email and you redeem it on your PS Store.
I have managed to purchase games like Lego for US$29, Tombraider US$29 and AC4 US$39. When you add the savings on those it makes a lot of diff 😉 I plan to get Destiny as well so thats another 40bucks saved.
I will have to set up an account tonight and have a look see.
Does this also mean you should be able to get Playstation Now when the beta starts up?
Thanks for the tips 🙂
Probably not because to use Playstation Now you would need to pay PSplus subscription for the US PSN as well
But do you? I thought you only needed PS+ for a single account on your PS4 and all other accounts got the benefit. I.e. you only need PS+ on your AU account and your US account on the same PS4 can still play online. So I wonder if having an AU PS+ account would be enough to enable you to get PSNow through your US account on the same console?
you can still have PS+ on a US PSN account in Aus, I do, you can buy the cards from amazon just like the normal credit, or use the normal credit to buy them on the PS Store. I dont even use my AU PSN account anymore
Possibly not, just having a US PSN account doesnt let you use netflix without having a VPN still so that may apply to Now, plus our international connections would be horrendous for the service.
So they can add support for this but not basic media playback capabilities.
Seriously, screw you, Sony.
This was always a planned feature, they only said they would think about changing their stance on DLNA after launch, if it comes it wont be until the next major OS version
Yeah, because a VIDEOGAMES console needs media support.
They don’t but it sure is handy
It ‘s handy, but I mean, in todays day and age, who doesn’t have a tablet or a computer or something else?
It’s a bonus, but everyone acts like it needs to have it to play games.
Retro consoles were designed to just play games. Now, if it doesn’t have media capabilities, it’s basically not a console!
Everyone has a tablet etc – yeah, but your tablet isn’t sitting in your living room hooked up to your hifi and HDTV, is it? The point is that you have a powerful computer sitting there under your TV, it’s pretty reasonable to ask that it perform basic media playback. Many people use the PS3 more for this than for gaming.
And the real issue is that Sony could enable it in 5 seconds, but has decided not to for completely opaque reasons.
To be honest you sound like someone who thinks that because they don’t care about something, no-one possibly could.
They set a standard last generation, and it’s not a particularly high bar considering they didn’t go feature for feature with basic desktop media players. They heavily promote these devices as media players while lacking extremely basic capabilities. Playing video through my XBOX 360 or PS3 is really convenient (especially compared to running my tablet through my TV). Consoles are in a perfect position to act as media gateways/hubs. Better than any other device in my house.
It’s a step backwards and it appears to be done purely to hamstring the alternative to using the on-demand services these consoles promote.
My computer and tablet arent the best for watching movies. I’d prefer the console do it on the big TV.
I’ve got the laptop and Vita as a good backup.