PLAY SMART
We chat to Sony boss Michael Denny about this exciting platform
Discover how PlayLink will enable you to enjoy using your smartphone with your PS4 – no need for extra costly controllers here!
THIS IS AN INNOVATIVE WAY TO GAME ON YOUR PS4 VIA YOUR SMARTPHONE.
06Sony’s launch of PlayLink, a new, innovative way to game on PS4 via your smartphone, was one of the more exciting announcements at this year’s E3. Games that support the service only require you to download a companion app onto your mobile and have a group of mates to hand, making it a perfect fit for both regular gamers and those who’ve never touched a DualShock 4 in their life.
So how did the idea for PlayLink come about? Michael Denny, senior vice president for SIE Worldwide Studios, Europe, explains: “We were thinking wouldn’t it be great if our fans had experiences where they could, in certain occasions where they’re sharing with non-gamer friends and family, [have] a joint experience. It got us thinking about a similar point in the PS2 [life cycle] where we introduced games like Buzz, SingStar, EyeToy and saw how well received they were by the PlayStation community.”
Those casual classics carry a strong pedigree, and the five games confirmed for PlayLink will hope to match them. First up is Wish Studios’ That’s You! It’s a quiz game that gets you to answer questions about the people you’re playing with, such as “Who is most likely to laugh at a lame teacher’s joke?” [ Thinkthat’syou, Milf…–Ed]. A simple, fast party game that also gets you to debase yourself by pulling poses and taking selfies in front of your friends, it’s a perfect introduction to the potential of PlayLink. Handy, as it’s already out.
SMARTY PANTS
Wish Studios is also developing Knowledge Is Power. This trivia game gets you and up to five friends to answer questions as quickly as possible about a whole host of topics. With a gorgeous claymation art style and some hilarious power plays that can scupper your opponent’s chances of getting their guesses in before yours, this has party pleaser written all over it.
Similarly, Frantics is a mini-game collection that’s quick to pick up and perfect for families who would prefer to test their thumbs’ dexterity. Controlling your cutesy
animal on screen is as simple as tilting your phone, and short rounds of adorably surreal minigames (such as trying to be the last person standing on slippery ice or be the final one to pull their parachute without splatting into the ground) mean even the smallest of attention spans won’t be troubled.
Sony’s premier karaoke competition will also be making a comeback with SingStar Celebration later in the year. Using your phone as a microphone, you’ll be able to belt your heart out to 30 songs that come with the game, and there’ll be plenty more on the SingStore to supplement your collection.
Finally, there’s Supermassive Games’ Hidden Agenda. The developer behind Until Dawn is back with a murder mystery where your team will decide together what decisions characters will make. The twist is some players will have different tasks to complete without the rest of the group knowing. Head over to p45 to see why you should pencil it into your diary.
SUCCESS STORY
There’s a lot of variety in the experiences PlayLink will offer, and Denny tells us: “I think you can see where we’re going with it, that yes, there’s a commonality in group play and mixtures of gamers and non-gamers playing it, but the breadth of experience we can bring feels unlimited to us at the moment.”
It’s a comforting sign that despite PlayStation’s success, Sony isn’t resting when it comes to bringing new experiences to the fore. We ask Denny why he thinks the console has done so well and he muses: “I think it’s just being simplistic and concentrating on the gamer and what the gamer wants throughout. Offering a console that can clearly give us the platform for creativity and [lets] developers make the game’s they want.” With plenty more to come from PS4 in the form of PlayLink, the PlayStation family is bound to be getting bigger.