Beware: PS5 can record trash talkers
“Rage quitters” and gaming thrash talkers be warned. It will be easier for game administrators to boot you out or to suspend your account like if you throw a tantrum on Blizzard’s first-person-shooter Overwatch, or even Call of Duty.
This as Sony’s upcoming console Playstation 5, with the 8.0.0 OS that is available as an update on PS4, raised a howl because of an ominous warning that a chat may be recorded by the device.
The OS update was intended to provide some semblance of parental control over the games their children play.
Voice being recorded, of course, translates to having evidence of gaming rants and venting that are actionable with account suspension.
The 8.0.0 update and its warning on PS4, as it turned out, is just a precursor or a portent of things to come with the Playstation 5 launching next month.
Yes, just like Orwell’s big brother in ‘1984’ watching over you as you play.
In a blog to explain the built-in recording on PS5 seen by hardcore gamers as unnecessary and constricting, Sony assured that voice chats will not be monitored or listened to actively.
Likewise, while the warning already made its way to PS4, the actual recording capability is reserved for PS5, empowering players who are aggravated by rude colleagues or rivals by allowing them to file complaints with the voice clips as evidence.
The voice clip can be as long as 40 seconds in length taken from the most recent five minutes of gameplay.
The recording feature cannot be turned off so someone in your chat group can record a convo and submit it for moderation or sanction by the admin.
Yes, just like Orwell’s big brother in “1984” watching over you as you play. So either be good boys or girls or, at the very least, zipper that mouth.
Now maybe you’ll ask what’s the necessity of warning PS4 users that they can be recorded. The answer is simple. Because any PS5 user can clip an audio snippet from a PS4 player, even if the latter cannot do so.
Unfair, isn’t it? True. But who said life is fair? If you want to have the capability to record an opponent, then ditch that PS4 and buy a PS5.