Correction at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 14: This article originally stated that remote players could save the data from their Share Play sessions and continue from that point if they buy the game. That isn’t the case.
Developers don’t need to do anything for their games to work with Share Play, Sony’s upcoming social game-sharing feature for PlayStation 4. In theory, that means you can share your entire PS4 library with your friends, but it’s not quite that simple.
Share Play, officially announced on Tuesday and due to arrive on PS4 in firmware update 2.0 this fall, will let gamers hand over control of their PS4 games to friends via an Internet connection using Gaikai’s streaming technology.
You can also use Share Play to let a friend help you out in a tricky section of game, and Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony Worldwide Studios, told Famistu Weekly that there’s no restriction on which traditionally controlled titles will work with Share Play, as reported by Kotaku.
“There is no need for developers to do anything for their games to be compatible with Share Play,” he said.
The only titles that won’t work with Share Play are those that use the PlayStation camera to control them, like The Playroom and … erm … no, we can’t think of any more.
“How it works is, for example, say a friend has a game that I don’t,” said Yoshida. “I ask them to let me play it, and, if they send me an invitation, I can access their PS4 and play while watching the video that is streamed.”
Don’t think you can just sponge off of your friend’s PS4 library indefinitely, though. Jim Ryan, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, told French website Gameblog that there’s a 60-minute limit on Share Play. “There is a limit, which is incredibly generous in my opinion,” said Ryan. “It is 60 minutes.”
When pressed on whether it’s possible to stack multiple sharing sessions, Ryan wouldn’t elaborate: “In principle, it is 60 minutes. That’s all I can say for now.”