PlayStation 4 Share Feature Won’t Let You Share Everything

PlayStation 4’s Share feature won’t let you share everything.

When Sony pulled their big reveal in February of the PlayStation 4 by showing off its DualShock 4 controller, one of the features they boasted was the Share button. It would allow you to share screenshots, replay videos, and the like to the PlayStation Network and various social media sites. However, there will be limitations as to what you can share, according to SCE Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida.

Shuhei Yoshida said, “There will be parts of a game that the maker does not want people to be able to see. For example, on Vita, developers can in certain scenes disable the feature that lets users take a screenshot, and (the Share function) will have a similar mechanism. The creator may not want to make video of the final boss sharable, for instance.”

This makes sense, as it could potentially ruin the experience of newcomers by revealing spoilers before the game is even played. Would Final Fantasy VII fans have spent so much time trying to get a certain character leveled up if they knew the character was going to die halfway through the game? Most likely not, and it might ruin the experience at that.

However, for the sake of walkthroughs and YouTube‘s now famous “Let’s Play” videos, it wouldn’t make for a pleasant experience trying to show other players how to beat a certain boss, only to find the feature disabled at that point. Posting “Spoilers” apparently isn’t enough for Sony and their developers when using the PlayStation 4 Share feature.

Of course this isn’t going to stop determined gamers from doing it anyway, as there are other ways to share gameplay videos. It will just cost them more to do it.

Is Sony being too controlling about the video game console with the DualShock 4 controller‘s Share button, or should we not be allowed to share those potentially game spoiling moments? Do you think the limit they’re putting on the PlayStation 4’s capabilities is going too far?