Following the release of the “Remote Play” app on Android a few years ago, Sony today announced the release of the app for iOS devices. The VR gaming experience is all set to get an extra playing platform as this app enables the user to sync his/her iPhone or iPad to PS4, thereby directly controlling both the console interface as well as most games through on-screen iOS touch controls.
The setup procedure requires PS4 to be updated to version 6.50 (which just began rolling out in the early hours of the morning), then downloading the PS4 Remote Play app from the iOS App Store, signing into your Sony account in the app, and allow it to search for your PS4. A Wi-Fi connection is a necessity for synching as the app won’t work via mobile networks. After being connected, the PS4 home screen will flash up on the iPhone. This touchscreen overlay replicates most of the buttons on a Dualshock controller. Text can be inserted using Apple’s native keyboard, and voice chats can be done over an iPhone or iPad’s microphone.
The app “may not be compatible with some games,” Sony warned, though it did not specify examples, and it is also unclear whether MFi-certified gamepads are compatible as these are not mentioned in release notes – third-party streaming apps do offer that functionality.
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The Sony PS4 Remote Play App features will integrate families into the world of gaming as parents and children can take turns and switch TV-watching and gaming as and when they want to.
Recently, Sony put a stop to its long-running PS Vita handheld, which, after its launch in December 2011, has since struggled against the popularity of phone gaming and a diminishing library of new titles, especially losing out in competition to phone gaming is (especially popular in Sony’s Japanese homeland) wherein the iPhone is the bestselling smartphone there, making for 56 percent market share, struck the final blow for it to be discontinued.
In the recent past, Sony has shown interest in iOS, formerly having launched an app called “PlayLink”, which allowed synchronous multiplayer gaming between the PS4 and iOS device, making the games dependent on the PS4, however.
Sony’s Remote Play app outscores over similar-bent of apps like R-Play as it is a free app and is thereby expected to draw in a huge number of user downloads, ushering the ‘make believe’ world of gaming gain a wider foothold in the leisure time of more and more people around the globe. The game is on!
