Sony's 'Share Play' -- Software Seller or Bad Business Decision?

Sony's Gamescom press conference was held last weekend and while there were no bombshell game announcements, there were more than a few interesting tidbits.

10 million PS4s sold thus far.

That number represents the units sold through to consumers, not shipped to retailers. That's a solid figure considering the console has only been on sale for 9 months. It also helps to bear in mind that in the previous generation of consoles, the PS3 and Xbox 360, sold roughly 5.5 million units each in their first year. Microsoft should also be pleased as the Xbox One has already outsold its predecessor with 3 months left before the one year mark.

The news that caught my eye was an announcement by Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. In system update 2.0, Sony is bringing long-awaited features to the PS4 like the ability to connect with real-world friends based on online usernames as well as to upload footage directly to YouTube. Up till now, players wishing to upload content had to store the videos externally and post them later or upload them to Facebook, limiting the options of gamers whose main outlet for sharing and interacting with their community is YouTube.

Perhaps the most interesting announcement of update 2.0 is 'Share Play.' This feature, a 'virtual couch' according to the EU Playstation blog, will allow you to invite another player to join in on your gaming session, even if the other player doesn't own a copy of the game. Also a part of this feature is the ability to let another player take over your controller, seemingly essential for those difficult sections of a game.

There are still plenty of unknowns about the feature however. Sony has said that the feature is enabled by default on all PS4 games and it is up to the developers to turn the feature off. One question I have is how many developers will elect to turn this feature off. About ten minutes before the 2.0 announcement, Alex Hutchinson, Creative Director of Ubisoft's Far Cry 4, showed off a demo of the game. Following the demo he announced that each copy of the game would include a limited number virtual 'keys' that would allow players the ability to invite their friends to join their game for 2 hours.

It seems that the Sony's system update 2.0 and Far Cry 4's virtual key concept are at odds. This likely stems from a lack of communication between Sony and Ubisoft. I imagine that Sony would wanted to keep the details of their system update private as give it shock value when they announced it last week. I suppose the real question from this incident is whether or not Ubisoft will choose to keep the virtual key concept or abandon it by the time of the game's release.

Another key question in my mind is how Share Play will work in general. If I join a player in-game, I'm curious as to whether I'm sharing player 1's identity as a guest or if I'm playing on my account and simply joining a friend in-game? Furthermore, if it happens that case 2 is true, does the game save my progress, or will it be erased every time I quit my session? Saved progress sort of important to me for games where character progression is important like Destiny or Call of Duty. I would really love to be able to join a friend online, see if I like the game, have the game save my progress, and then have the ability to pick up where I left off if I end up getting the game.

Unfortunately, it would mean that game companies would have to set aside extra server space for people who may never end up actually buying the game which would negatively impact game sales. I could also envision a problem with the trophy (achievement) system. Specifically, if I have a join a friend's game with my unique account, will I be able to earn trophies? The amount of trophies could explode if that were the case, simply by being present in a friend's game. While it would be nice to think that data storage from joined Share Play sessions could happen, chances are it likely won't.

Here's what I imagine the system will be designed like.

Share Play will allow players the opportunity to join a friend's gaming session. When they join, they will be listed as a guest, duplicating the player 1's identity and essentially restricting the amount of content that the guest could access. All data of the guest is deleted once the session ends. Achievements can only be earned by player 1 (otherwise you could hypothetically earn achievements twice as fast).

In a massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game where a character's class presumably impacts the way the game plays, I could see my proposed system being a software seller. Share Play would give the players access to the content that their friend has unlocked, but in order to create a unique experience, that person would have to get the games for themselves. And that is where I think Share Play is ultimately aiming for. It will give people a taste of a game that they will hopefully end up buying.

All in all, I think that Sony's heart is in the right place. Maybe Sony hopes that money will be made through Share Play, and that's motivating their decision to include the feature, but I'd like to think that they have the best of intentions: bringing people together through games.