There’s been very little fanfare over Sony’s latest PlayStation 4 update, but it brings with it one very exciting new feature.
Software version 6.50 introduces Remote Play, meaning you can play your Sony games on your handheld device (as long as it’s iOS. Sorry, Android users!)
Sharing information on the update, Sony writes: “You can now enjoy Remote Play on iOS devices. You can use (PS4 Remote Play) to connect to your PS4 system from devices such as smartphones and tablets. Download (PS4 Remote Play) from the App Store.”
Starting today, you can stream your favorite PS4 games to your iOS devices with the PS4 6.50 update! Download the PS4 Remote Play app from the App Store to get started. https://t.co/65I0fNupP5 pic.twitter.com/VHeOYAV1Uz
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) March 7, 2019
Unfortunately, not everyone is pleased about the update as Android users feel as though they’ve been completely left out.
It’s a pile of BS that you have limited Android to Sony devices only for a few years and now the open the gates to IOS WTF?
My Samsung Note 9 can steamroll over this and crappy iPhones have it.
This is not acceptable @oaps #PS4 #Gamersunite #Android pic.twitter.com/O8Hwa45L5k
— Solo-nite’s Gaming (@solo_nite) March 7, 2019
Bit of a kick in the Teeth for andriod users :/
— The Gaming Monkeys (@GamerMonkey_) March 7, 2019
No non-sony android tho. Cheers sons crying. Nice one.
— Jen x (@x97Jen) March 7, 2019
It’s also bad news for fans of the DualShock 4, which apparently won’t correctly sync to iOS devices. Over on Resetera, a user named Mindwipe writes about the update: “a) There is no way the Dual Shock 4 will ever be updated to pair with an iOS device, unless Apple radically reworks iOS.
“It isn’t possible to update devices to MFi retrospectively, they have to ship with a hardware based cert on the device, and Apple block all non-MFi devices on iOS. Those of us who note iOS is a huge con to extract licensing fees compared to a proper OS aren’t kidding about that bit y’know. Even then, it wouldn’t work especially well without changes to iOS’s Bluetooth stack.
“b) Sony could enable non-Dual Shock MFi controllers in the app, but ultimately they wouldn’t have a touchpad and simply wouldn’t work sometimes. I don’t expect them to do that for this reason.
“c) Similarly, one of the reasons the Remote Play app is locked to Xperia devices is because Dual Shock 4 controllers paired to non-Xperia devices don’t really work, and it’s not fixable without root. Of note is that the Android Q codebase includes commits (from Sony) to fix support for pairing Dual Shock 4’s to all Android Q devices, so I suspect that means that Remote Play app will probably be released for non-Xperia devices later this year, but it’ll probably be limited to Android Q and above.
“d) The one exception to c) is that Sony’s own Android TV’s can pair a Dual Shock properly today, so if Sony’s reading they could release that Remote Play app now so I could remote play into the other room, *hint hint Sony*.”
Looks like there’s still some room for improvement here, Sony!
Featured Image Credit: Sony.