When Share Play works, it is an amazing experience. It really is true when we heard the talk about how Sony’s new feature on PS4 would be a game changer. However if you don’t have a strong internet connection though or if you are playing with somebody from a different country, you’ll probably experience PS4 Share Play lag with frame-rate problems.
We’ve tested out Share Play for ourselves and have had various results depending on where our guest was based. Obviously this feature was always going to be connection dependant as with any online session, but you should be aware of the potential lag problems anyway.
Avoiding COD Advanced Warfare completely since Activision has blocked it, we used FIFA 15 for our test. When hosting from Hong Kong and passing a virtual controller to a guest from UK, we discovered that the match of FIFA 15 was barely playable.
Constant PS4 Share Play frame-rate drops were evident, while general gameplay was not smooth and was skipping throughout the match.
Playing locally though was a different story, both UK to UK and Hong Kong to Hong Kong matches faired a lot better, with both guests saying that the performance was a lot better, gameplay smoother and definitely playable.
Another thing we did notice though was the fact that the guest’s screen was chopped off slightly at the corners, unable to display the full screen and as a result we couldn’t see some of the logos and text properly.
That was a minor issue though and we were generally very happy with our first test run. Simply put, you don’t really want to be trying out Share Play unless you are playing with a friend who lives in the same country.
If you don’t, you are setting yourself up for issues especially with a high intensive game like FIFA. A story co-op campaign or a game like Streets of Rage or Marvel Ultimate Alliance should be a lot better when using Share Play from a distance.
Otherwise we can’t recommend it for games that require instant reflexes. How has your Share Play experience been so far? Let us know if you have also noticed some moments of lag and dips in frame-rate during your 60 minute session.
Overall though, are you impressed by the feature?
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