The PlayStation 4 will allow users to access their digital library of games from any PS4 console, Neil Brown, a senior engineer at Sony, confirmed today at Develop. Simply logging into your PSN account on a friend's system will allow you to pull up and download games in your library, on their console.
"You can visit your friends house you can log into your account and play any game from your digital library, which is good," Brown said. This type of functionality is possible on current-gen consoles, but the PS4's ability to play a game as it's being downloaded actually makes it a viable feature.
"But how useful is that if it takes half a day to download the game you want to play?" Brown said. "With Play As You Download you get much quicker access to at least the first section of the game so you can start playing quicker. So this makes a digital library a practical option in the real world."
Physical retail games will still need to be carried around with you, but isn't that what we fought so hard for? Microsoft attempted an all-digital library, with Xbox One owners able to remotely access their physical games library (via a digital download), but that feature was dropped in wake of fan backlash who preferred to have the ability to trade-in and play pre-owned games freely. It now appears a group of gamers want Microsoft to restore the Xbox One's DRM. Just can't win, can ya?
[OPM UK]
