Remote Play is one of the many features that gamers with a PlayStation Vita have been enjoying since the PlayStation 4 released back in 2013. Being able to play your PS4 games from anywhere in the world is a big appeal for many players, and with Sony’s recent support for the PS Vita dropping it has left a sour taste in many mouths of owners of the handheld.
With Microsoft having Xbox One games streamable to the PC it was only a matter of time until someone at Sony decided to do something similar—only it wasn’t someone within the company that actually accomplished it first.
We’re talking about a user known only as “Twister," who has developed an unofficial app named “Remote Play PC." While this app has been in development for many months now with videos showing it off on Youtube, only in the last few days has the developer decided to start selling the application to PC users.
Now that PC owners are able to play their PS4 titles on their home computer would think that Sony would take immediate notice and slam a DMCA order onto the developer to take the application out of distribution. Instead, Sony has just announced its own Remote Play application for both Windows and Mac. Coincidence? We think not.
Remote Play has been a huge success on both the PS3 and the PS4, but also for many other devices including streaming your PC to tablets and even game streaming from the internet. Seeing the userbase of “Remote Play PC” most likely spurred Sony into developing its own application, especially after observing that Microsoft are making wonders with theirs.
As it has been only three days since Twister released his application, this might now have effectively ruined his entire project, especially if Sony release the application for free – which it most likely will due to Microsoft releasing its own version free of charge. It’s sad to see that Twister managed to get something so well done only to have it fall out of development overnight, though perhaps he can introduce some extra features that won’t be available for Sony’s app—only time will tell.
This brings another interesting possibility across and that is Sony’s original plan for bringing the PS4 controller drivers to Windows. Initially promised before release, Sony has been reluctant about bringing drivers to PC for their controller. Personally I dislike the Xbox controllers and much prefer the layout on the PlayStation controllers so having an official driver would be best.
With the only way to use the PS4 controller on Windows properly is via custom developer-made applications that does a quick hack to pretend that your controller is an Xbox 360 pad – but does allow the use of the touchpad. It’s not perfect but it works pretty well, with DS4Windows being the most well known application in use.
So, essentially Sony could make a similar but official driver application too that could potentially make the other driver applications useless, and with them announcing the Remote Play App then it’s nonsensical to not have an official PS4 controller driver for Windows or Mac. Here’s hoping it happens.
What are your thoughts. Would you like to have an official driver for the PlayStation 4 controller, and most importantly would you use Remote Play on the PC?